What an apartment cleanout costs in Charlotte

The short answer

Apartment cleanouts are priced two ways and you pay the cheaper one. If there are a handful of identifiable items, we itemize. If it is a unit being emptied, we use the truck-fill ladder:

Rough Charlotte guide: a studio or one-bedroom left with the furniture is usually a quarter to a half truck. A two-bedroom cleared to bare walls is usually half to three-quarters. A three-bedroom townhome in Steele Creek or University City can be a full truck at $732. The minimum for any visit is $75.

Charlotte apartments are not one thing

Where the unit is changes the logistics far more than it changes the price.

The South End and Uptown towers. Five-over-ones along the Rail Trail, high-rises in Third and Fourth Ward. These have docks, freight elevators, reserved move windows, and property managers who want a certificate of insurance on file before a crew touches the building. Many of the parking decks are too low for a box truck, so the crew stages at the dock instead.

The garden complexes. University City, Steele Creek, along Albemarle Road and out toward Mint Hill. Three-story walk-ups, exterior stairs, no elevator at all, and a long carry across a parking lot. Nothing to reserve — the work is the stairs.

Converted and infill units in Plaza Midwood, NoDa and Wilmore — upstairs units in old houses and small mill-village buildings, with narrow stairs and street parking only.

The truck-fill price is the same in all three.

Why so many Charlotte units empty at once

This metro absorbs new residents continuously, and the standard first stop for someone relocating here is a twelve-month lease in South End, University City or Steele Creek. When those leases roll over — and a lot of them roll over in the same few weeks — the apartment furniture does not move with the person. It gets left.

The consequence for you: the last week of the month is the hardest week to get a dock reservation in any Charlotte building with one. Book the removal for a weekday earlier in the final week, not the day of your walk-through.

A one-bedroom, itemized

To sanity-check the truck bands, here is a South End one-bedroom priced item by item:

• Sofa — $126
• Coffee table — $67
• TV, 42 to 65 inch — $68
• Mattress + box spring set — $143
• Bed frame — $68
• Dresser (standard) — $126
• Dining table (2-4 seat) — $103
• Dining chair — $45
• Dining chair — $45

$126 + $67 + $68 + $143 + $68 + $126 + $103 + $45 + $45 = $791.

That same load is roughly a half truck, which is $431. So the truck-fill price wins and that is what you would be quoted. This is the normal outcome once a unit passes about six items.

What the building will ask for

In any Charlotte building with a management office, expect some or all of:

• A certificate of insurance naming the property and often the management company as additional insured. We issue these — give us the building name and the exact wording the office wants.
• A reserved elevator or dock window, typically a two to four hour block, weekdays only in some buildings.
• Elevator pads hung by the building before use.
• A rule that nothing is staged in the lobby, corridors or the trash room. Loads go straight out.

None of this adds to your quote. It does affect scheduling, so tell us the building when you book rather than the morning of.

Landlord and turnover cleanouts

If you are the owner or the property manager rather than the tenant, the useful part is that the price is fixed before dispatch. You can approve $431 in an email thread without anyone driving to the property to look first, which matters when you are turning several units and every day the unit sits empty costs rent.

Same for eviction and abandonment cleanouts in the older Albemarle Road and east Charlotte complexes: quote first, schedule second, photos on completion.

Small jobs and the minimum

Not every apartment cleanout is a truck. Plenty are a couch and two chairs after a roommate leaves. Those itemize fine: a sofa at $126 and two armchairs at $77 each is $126 + $77 + $77 = $280.

If all you have is a few light things — a bag of clothes at $35, a countertop microwave at $30, an area rug (small) at $33 — you are under the $75 minimum and the visit is billed at $75. Worth filling the truck a bit more if you are paying it anyway.

How we quote it

Describe the unit, list what you can, send photos if it is easier. You get a number on screen before you book, and that number does not move when the crew arrives. Carry-out from any floor — including three flights of exterior stairs in a University City walk-up — is included, along with disposal and recycling.

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