Garage Cleanout

You pulled into the garage tonight and realized you have not parked a car in it since 2017. There is a snow blower that has not started in three winters, four bikes nobody rides, a shelf of paint cans, two old tires in the corner, and a lawn mower that leaks oil onto the floor. Somewhere behind all of it is a workbench you forgot you owned.

Garage cleanouts are one of our most common jobs across the Fox Valley. Real people answer the phone at (630) 492-1490, you get a price before we show up, and locally owned means we actually live here.

What Counts as a Garage Cleanout

A garage cleanout can be a full clear-out or just a corner. Common items we haul out of Aurora, Batavia, Geneva, Oswego, Montgomery, and North Aurora garages:

• Bikes, tricycles, kids’ scooters, and outgrown ride-on toys
• Sports equipment, hockey bags, golf bags, baseball gear, skis, sleds
• Lawn mowers, snow blowers, string trimmers, leaf blowers, tillers
• Old grills, propane tanks (empty), patio heaters, fire pits
• Tires, both mounted and loose, from the sedan you sold years ago
• Tools, workbenches, shelving units, pegboards, cabinets
• Motor oil, coolant, gasoline in cans, old car batteries
• Paint, stain, thinner, solvents, weed killer, ice melt, driveway sealer
• Boxes that migrated out of the house and never came back in
• Broken outdoor furniture, umbrellas, cushions

What we do not take at the curb: live ammunition, propane tanks that are still full (those need to go to a propane exchange), and medical sharps. If you are not sure about something, ask on the phone. Better to sort it out before we roll up.

What Actually Drives the Price

Garage cleanouts price out differently than a couch at the curb. Main factors:

• Volume. A half-empty two-car garage is a different job than one packed to the rafters.
• Weight. Old cast-iron shelving, boxes of tools, a dead mower with oil still in it, tires, and full paint cans add up fast at the scale.
• Sorting. Tires, chemicals, batteries, and scrap metal all go to different places. That takes time.
• Access. Can we back the trailer up to the garage door, or are we walking loads across a yard.
• Attic and rafters. Stuff stored overhead adds ladder time.

Our floor price is $89 for a single curbside pickup. Garage cleanouts are typically more than that because of volume and the sorting for tires and chemicals, but you get a real number on the phone. Upfront pricing, licensed, insured. No “starts at” and then a surprise when we hand you the invoice.

How Aurora’s Bulk Pickup Actually Works, And When It Doesn’t

Groot is the residential contractor for Aurora. For a single old grill or a set of shelving at the curb, calling Groot at (630) 892-9294 works fine. For a whole garage, it breaks down. Here is why:

• You have to drag everything to the curb yourself. That is most of the labor.
• They will not take tires, motor oil, paint, chemicals, propane, or car batteries at the curb.
• Mowers and snow blowers with fuel still in them usually get left.
• Scheduling is on their timeline.

For a full garage, or a garage with any mix of chemicals and tires, hiring a crew makes more sense. See our Fox Valley disposal guides for what each municipality accepts and how the Groot special pickup rules actually work.

How This Compares to Your Other Options

Renting a truck yourself. $40 to $80 for the truck, plus mileage, plus a trip to the transfer station where they charge by the ton. Then a separate trip to the tire recycler, then another for the paint. By the time you add up the day off work, it is usually not cheaper.

Selling on Facebook Marketplace. Great for the good mower or the road bike. Terrible for the 12 items you know nobody wants.

Free-piling the driveway. The good stuff walks in an hour. The garbage sits for two weeks and you get an email from the city.

Hiring us. You point, we load, we sort at the yard so tires and chemicals go the right place, and you get your garage back the same day.

Where the Garage Contents Actually Go

The goal is to keep as much out of the landfill as possible. Where it actually goes:

• Scrap metal recycling. Old shelving, tools, mowers, snow blowers, bikes, and metal patio furniture go to All American Recycling on Mitchell Road or S&S Metal Recyclers on Sullivan Road, both in Aurora.
• Tire recycling. Tires cannot go in the trash and cannot go to a normal transfer station. They go to a licensed tire recycler that shreds them for crumb rubber or fuel.
• Household hazardous waste. Motor oil, coolant, gasoline, paint, stain, thinner, weed killer, and pesticides go to the Kane County HHW program. Fox Valley residents also use the Naperville HHW facility at 156 Fort Hill Drive as a regional option. Car batteries go to any auto parts store for the core credit.
• Propane tanks. Empty tanks can be recycled with scrap metal after the valve is removed. Full or partial tanks go to a propane exchange.
• Donations. Working tools, decent bikes, sports equipment in usable shape, and clean patio furniture go to Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Aurora, and local nonprofits.
• Transfer station. Only broken and unrecoverable material gets disposed of at the scale.

How We’re Different

Real people answer the phone. Not a bot, not a franchise dispatcher who has never been to Aurora. You call, we pick up, we give you a real number based on what you actually have.

Licensed and insured. Locally owned. And the price on the phone is the price on the receipt. We are not going to show up, pull a face, and tell you it is going to be more.

What Happens the Day of Your Garage Cleanout

1. You call (630) 492-1490. We ask what is in the garage, roughly how full it is, whether there are tires and chemicals. You get a price.
2. Text with the arrival window, then again when we are 20 to 30 minutes out.
3. Walkthrough at the garage. You point at what goes. If it is significantly bigger than described, we tell you now.
4. We load. You do not lift anything. Tires and chemicals get set aside separately in the trailer for the right drop-off.
5. Payment when the trailer is loaded. Cash, check, or card. Real receipt.

How to Prep for a Faster, Cheaper Garage Cleanout

• Pull anything you want to keep to one side, or mark it with blue tape.
• Group tires together in one pile so we can count and separate them fast.
• Set chemicals, paint, and motor oil in a box or on one shelf.
• Drain gas from mowers and snow blowers if you can. If not, tell us on the phone.
• Open the garage door and clear a path from the door to the driveway.

Common Garage Cleanout Scenarios

Pre-sale garage clear-out. Realtors and homeowners across Aurora, Batavia, Geneva, and Oswego tell us the same thing: buyers walk through a packed garage and immediately downgrade the house in their head. An empty two-car garage that photographs at 200 square feet of clean floor is a completely different listing than one packed to the rafters with unlabeled boxes. Clearing it out before listing photos is one of the higher-return prep moves.

Moving out or moving in. Half of what is in the garage never made it into the house in the first place, and it definitely is not moving to the next one. We clear it before you list, before you close, or right after you unpack from the move and realize half of it needs to go.

Estate garages. Parent or family member passes, and the garage is 30 years of accumulated tools, sports equipment, and workshop leftovers. Executors and family members call us to clear it in one pass. We set aside anything obviously sentimental (photos, personalized items, tools with initials) for the family.

Downsizing after retirement. The sports gear the kids grew out of, the workshop from the job you retired from, and the “someday I’ll use this” pile that stopped making sense. Common call, common turn.

Post-hobby cleanouts. Ended a project. Sold the boat. Stopped riding bikes. Whatever it was, the specialty gear stays in the garage for years until someone decides to make it go. It goes.

Renter move-outs and landlord turnovers. A tenant leaves and the garage is now full of boxes, a broken grill, a rusted bike, and shelving that was not there when they moved in. Landlords in Aurora, Batavia, and Geneva call us to clear the garage as part of the unit turn so the next tenant sees empty concrete instead of the previous person’s leftovers. Fast turnaround so the unit can re-list.

Post-storm cleanup in the garage. Water in the garage after a heavy Fox Valley storm ruins cardboard boxes, particleboard shelving, and anything on the floor. We haul the water-damaged material and leave the salvageable stuff. Mention on the phone if the garage flooded so we know to bring extra gloves.

Garage Cleanouts Across the Fox Valley

We serve Aurora, North Aurora, Batavia, Geneva, Oswego, and Montgomery. Same-day scheduling is available most weekdays. Call (630) 492-1490 or use the contact form.