The short answer
An estate cleanout is priced by how much truck the contents fill, not by counting every object in the house. The ladder is $241 for a quarter truck, $338 for three-eighths, $431 for a half, $513 for five-eighths, $587 for three-quarters, $661 for seven-eighths and $732 for a full load. A house that takes two full loads is $732 + $732 = $1,464.
Small, contained jobs can still go by item - a queen mattress at $103, a sofa at $126, a standard refrigerator at $164 - and the quote tool charges whichever of the two is lower. The minimum for a visit is $75.
What drives the number is volume and nothing else. Not the number of rooms, not the floor, not the fact that the house is in Tarrytown rather than Hutto.
What an Austin estate actually holds
The housing stock tells you the volume before you open the door.
A 1930s or 1940s bungalow in Hyde Park, Travis Heights, Rosedale or Clarksville has no basement. It sits on pier-and-beam over a crawlspace, and everything that would be in a basement anywhere else is in the attic, the detached garage off the alley, or a shed in the back. Attic loads in these houses are genuinely large and are the part people forget to include when they guess at the size of the job.
A ranch house in Allandale, Windsor Park or Northwest Hills adds a two-car garage and a walk-in closet per bedroom. A hill-country property in Westlake, Lakeway or out toward Dripping Springs adds a workshop, a barn or a second structure, and a long private driveway that determines where we can stage the load.
A downtown or Domain condo is the opposite problem: small volume, difficult access, freight elevator booked by the building.
The ladder, and how to estimate your own job
| 1/4 truck | $241 |
| 3/8 truck | $338 |
| 1/2 truck | $431 |
| 5/8 truck | $513 |
| 3/4 truck | $587 |
| 7/8 truck | $661 |
| Full truck | $732 |
Rough guide, from what these jobs actually look like: a single bedroom stripped to the walls tends to land in the quarter-to-half range. One floor of a bungalow with its furniture tends to land between a half and a full load. A whole small house with the attic and the garage included is usually a full load plus part of another.
Nobody expects you to guess this accurately over the phone. Send photos with the quote request and you get a tier back before anyone drives out.
Worked examples
One bedroom and its closets, Hyde Park. A queen mattress and box spring as a set at $143, a solid queen frame at $126, a standard dresser at $126 and a nightstand at $57. That is $143 + $126 + $126 + $57 = $452. Against the ladder, the half truck at $431 is lower, so the job books as a half truck.
A two-bedroom bungalow, contents only. Furniture from both bedrooms, the living room and the kitchen, plus the crawlspace and the attic. This is a full truck at $732, occasionally with a second quarter load: $732 + $241 = $973.
A Westlake house with a workshop. Two full loads at $732 + $732 = $1,464. The workshop and the garage are usually the larger half of that, not the house.
A Domain condo. Living and bedroom furniture only, a half truck at $431, with the freight elevator booked by the building for the window.
Sort before you book, in this order
Estate work goes badly when the sorting and the hauling happen on the same day. Split them.
- Documents and small valuables first. Jewellery, paperwork, photographs, keys, anything with a serial number. These are almost always in a dresser drawer, a closet shelf or a shoebox in the attic. Do this pass before anyone else is in the house.
- Then the family split. Tag what heirs are taking and get it out. Nothing slows a cleanout like a piece that is still being decided over while a crew waits.
- Then sale or donation. Solid wood furniture, tools and appliances in working order move well in Austin. Bookcases, dressers and dining sets from the older central neighborhoods have a real secondhand market here.
- Then us. Whatever is left is the volume we price, and by that point the tier is smaller than it would have been.
Access realities we plan around
Alley-loaded and no driveway. Common in the older central grid and by design in Mueller. We stage off the alley where it exists; where it does not, the load goes out the front and along the walk. No access charge either way.
Long private drives. Standard in Westlake, Steiner Ranch, Lakeway and the Dripping Springs side. A gate code and a turnaround are worth telling us about when you book. Distance inside the service area does not change the price.
Narrow doorways. A 1930s bungalow doorway is narrower than anything sold today. Disassembly is part of the job and part of the price.
Heat. An Austin attic in August is not somewhere a crew can work all afternoon at full speed. For summer estate jobs we start early. It is worth booking a morning slot.
Getting a number before anyone visits
You do not need an estimator walking your relative's house to find out what this costs. Send photos of each room, the garage and the attic hatch with the quote request, list the large appliances, and you get a tier back - $431, $587, $732, or a truck-and-a-half - before any commitment.
If you are handling the property from out of state, which is common with Austin estates, we can work from photos and a key or lockbox and send the completed-job record afterwards. Disposal, recycling and carry-out from any floor are inside the tier price. There is no stair charge and no distance charge.
Frequently asked questions
How much does an estate cleanout cost in Austin?
It prices off the truck ladder: $241 for a quarter truck, $431 for a half, $587 for three-quarters and $732 for a full load. A two-bedroom bungalow with its attic and garage is often a full truck at $732, sometimes a full plus a quarter, which is $732 + $241 = $973. Larger properties are multiples of $732.
Can you price it without visiting the house first?
Yes. Send photos of each room, the garage and the attic with the quote request and you get a truck tier back before anyone is dispatched. That figure is the booked price. There is no estimator visit and no revision once a crew is standing in the driveway.
Do you handle attics and crawlspaces in the older bungalows?
Yes, and in Hyde Park, Travis Heights and Rosedale that is usually where most of the volume is, because those houses have no basement. Attic and crawlspace contents are part of the load and part of the tier price. In summer we start these jobs early, because an Austin attic in August is brutal by midday.
What if some furniture is worth selling or donating?
Do that pass before the cleanout, not during it. Solid wood furniture, working appliances and tools move well in the Austin secondhand market, particularly pieces from the older central neighborhoods. Everything removed from the pile before we arrive reduces the volume, which is the only thing driving the price.
Is there a charge for a long driveway or a gated property?
No. Published prices are the same in Westlake, Lakeway, Steiner Ranch and out toward Dripping Springs as they are in central Austin. Send the gate code with the booking and tell us if there is a turnaround, and the tier price is what you pay.
Can you do this if I live out of state?
Yes, and a fair number of Austin estate jobs are handled that way. We quote from photos, work from a key or lockbox with your authorisation, and send the record of what was removed afterwards. The price is agreed in advance, so there is nothing to negotiate remotely on the day.