I am starting my own junk cleaning services here locally and was wondering what kind of tools/products I should look into buying?

I have a enclosed 6x10 trailer and a truck. Any special tools needed?

Good luck with this man. Obviously a good pair of gloves! lol

You can learn more here: entrepreneur.com/businessideas/rubbish-removal

Don't forget other tools such as management software. I have a friend who owns a junk removal business and he has online booking software that helps him manage a packed calendar, his client info, etc. Something to consider - it can only stand to make you more efficient! (I think he uses BookMyCity?)

You will probably experience that one of the first things you will want to do is trade in the little enclosed trailer for a 16' or 20' open trailer and build some sides on it.

It depends on what type of cleans you will do. Back before the housing bubble we used to do foreclosures for banks. All we did was get all the junk out and broom clean it (sweep it). No actual cleaning at all. Man those were the good ol' days..... $500 an hour easy back then. For those we didn't even own a trailer, we just rented a dumpster. Put 2 guys on it for 12 hours, boy was it great back then. But now back to 2014... if you are doing broom cleans all you need is a good back and a broom.

Most of the time with just regular junk removal all you do is load it up.... maybe a shovel and broom.... head to the dump. Maybe a tarp to cover it with.

Not really much to it. If you have a place to sort it out at, you can sort all the metals and scrap them. I own another type of business and we have a guy (Scotty) that comes by and gets the metal from Tim (my best worker) when he calls him and that guy scraps it.

What city do you live in? I have another couple of things you can do to get scrap if you're interested.

I second heathw12 here. You can have all the tools in the world, but if you don't have the work, then it's meaningless.

It wasn't some bank... it was EVERY bank! The way it used to work was that you put in a bid and the lowest bid got the job. I don't think they did much advertising about the bids because we normally got about every bid we put in. If we wanted $12k for a job, we bid $12k and got the job. There were 2 companies that would over-see things and they would sub it out. This was nation wide, not just local. I have no idea how much they got paid from the banks but we would put our bid in to the company and they would pay us. But then the housing bubble hit and every Dick & Jane started cleaning for $3 an hour so it didn't take us long to hit the road!

We could have made more but we didn't take advantage of the situation, we just kinda thought it would always be around. We could have had crews all over and had way more jobs. They asked us many times if we would send crews to northern Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota but we never acted upon the opportunity.

Thanks everyone for this great information, I too created a junk removal company that services the Vancouver Washington area. I've found not only having a good pair of glove and trailer helps, but also having an extra set of hands that you can count on to help carry and lift things is a must. Don't throw your back out trying to do all the work your self. Wishing you much success in your new venture!

I just had a great experience working with Junk Removal Gresham Oregon. Was nice to meet another business that really cares about their customers in our same niche. I told them about this great community and hope to see them on here in the near future.

Hi

Best business ever. I know few lads that have made a fortune from re-selling junk. Get a nice large warehouse and store anything decent. Then create a great ebay campaign and start selling. People would buy anything

Recycling garbage is a promising business.

A sawzall will definitely come in handy when you need to cut some stuff up to fit it in your trailer. One thing you can also do as a secondary and synergistic income flow is to also treat your junk removal company like a dumpster rental company and you can rent dumpsters to people who want to save a couple of bucks by doing the junk removal themselves - all while using your dumpster. So you still get paid!!

You may have to invest money in buying the cleaning products including furniture polish, dishwasher chemicals, glass cleaner, disinfectant, mildew cleaner, degreaser, floor cleaner, bleach, sanitizer, toilet cleaner, washing up liquid, oven cleaner, and laundry detergent. If you select to operate a commercial cleaning business then you may also need specialist equipment such as vacuum cleaners and pressure washers. Other cleaning supplies include trash bags, garbage can liners, spray bottles, buckets, mops, feather dusters, and even toilet brushes. My cousin is planning to start a cleaning business. He needs to set up the legal structure for operating. Incorporating a business in Canada could help us avoid personal liability since the corporation is an entity separate from the founder. What do you think?

good

some moving equipment for super heavy items. Its a good gig to get into. Dolly would work, shoulder straps, and furniture dollys work well. Other than that invest in some marketing and work on being the highest quality of service in your area. Find ways to go the extra mile!

Good luck in your beginings,apreciate it,such a nice startup

Try to look for trends and startups!

Junk removal is a great business to be in. Starting with just a truck and renting what you need after that for larger jobs.

good luck

Good Luck. Its a nice idea