Clearing the garage and basement: the big cleanout, at last

August 23, 2026 · 6 min read · Megabac Team

Count in pickup truck loads: a 10 cubic yard dumpster swallows 3 to 4 of them, a 20 cubic yard 6 to 8. A typical garage is 10 yard territory; packed to the ceiling, count on the 20, even the 40. Garage plus basement is the big cleanout — the 20 cubic yard, about the size of a Dodge Caravan. Delivered Friday, loaded Saturday, freed within 48 hours of delivery: the $50 Libération Express credit comes back to your card, March to October.

Count in pickup loads, not cubic feet

The garage-and-basement cleanout is the most postponed project a house has — not because it is hard, but because no one knows where it would all go. The answer fits in a benchmark everyone knows: the pickup truck. Walk through the garage, then the basement, and count the loads it would take to carry everything out. That number picks the size for you.

The 10 cubic yard swallows 3 to 4 pickup loads. It is the garage-cleanout size: 14 ft long by 8 wide, 2.5 ft high. Think of it as a 20 yard filled halfway — same footprint, just lower.

The 20 cubic yard takes 6 to 8. It is the size of the big garage-and-house cleanout — and it comes with a benchmark you already have in mind: about the size of a Dodge Caravan. Same rectangle on the ground as the 10 yard, 14 ft by 8; only the height changes, 5 ft instead of 2.5. Picking the small box therefore does not free up room in a short driveway — it only caps what you can put in it.

Your cleanout in pickup loads — and the size that follows

The job	In pickup loads	The size
A typical garage	3 to 4	10 cubic yards — same footprint as a 20, just lower
Garage + basement	6 to 8	20 cubic yards — the big cleanout, the size of a Dodge Caravan
The whole house	12 to 16	40 cubic yards — the “emptying a house” size

Capacities from the size cards: 3 to 4 pickup loads for the 10 cubic yard (14 ft × 8 ft × 2.5 ft), 6 to 8 for the 20 yard (14 × 8 × 5), 12 to 16 for the 40 yard (20 × 8 × 7).

What goes in the box — and what stays out

The big-cleanout dumpster is the mixed dry-material one: almost everything a garage and a basement accumulate travels in it together. Almost.

All of this goes, mixed with no problem

Furniture and clothing. The old basement couch, the boxes of clothes, the estate contents — everything goes into the same box.
Wood, metal, plastic. The wobbly workbench, the renovation leftovers, drywall and insulation included.
Shingles and building materials. The offcuts sleeping since the last renovation leave with the rest.

What stays out of the dumpster

Tires. No dumpster accepts them, whatever the size.
Chemicals. Paint, solvents, oils, acids, aerosols and propane tanks: refused in every dumpster — set them aside for a specialized drop-off point.
Unsure about an item? Ask before tossing it in — a load that contains a refused material is refused on arrival.

The promotion, in detail

The full Libération Express conditions — the clock, the pickup request, the credit on your card — fit on one page. And the size guide answers what the table above did not cover.

Promotion details The size guide

When it is the whole house

A garage and a basement is a weekend. A whole house — an estate to settle, a move, decades to sort through — is another project: the 40 cubic yard swallows 12 to 16 pickup loads on a 20 ft by 8 floor, and the order of operations matters as much as the size. We wrote a full guide for it: clearing an estate home — the right order, the dumpster.

Between the two, the sorting stays the same: dry materials travel together, tires and chemicals stay out. And Libération Express applies to all three sizes — the 48-hour clock is simply more demanding when the whole house is coming down.

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What happens next: we email you the quote: recommended size, exact price and possible date. Count your pickup loads before the call — one walk through the garage and basement is enough: it is the one thing we cannot guess.

The big-cleanout questions

Garage and basement together: 10 or 20 cubic yards?

A typical garage — 3 to 4 pickup loads — is 10 cubic yard territory; packed to the ceiling, count on the 20, even the 40. The moment the basement joins in, it becomes the big cleanout: the 20 cubic yard and its 6 to 8 loads. Both lay down the same footprint, 14 ft by 8 — the small one is only lower: picking it does not free up room in a short driveway.

Furniture, clothing and renovation leftovers in the same box?

Yes — that is exactly what the mixed dry-material dumpster is for: wood, drywall, metal, shingles, insulation, plastic, furniture, clothing and estate contents travel together, no sorting. The only exceptions are tires and chemicals, refused in every dumpster.

What about the paint cans and tires found at the back of the garage?

They stay out: no dumpster accepts them — not paint, solvents, oils, aerosols, propane tanks, and not tires. Set them aside for a specialized drop-off point, and ask before tossing a doubtful item: a load that contains a refused material is refused on arrival.

I finish on Sunday — does the truck have to come on Sunday too?

No — your request is what counts, not the truck's passage. Dumpster loaded and pickup requested, by call or text, within 48 hours of delivery: the $50 credit condition is met. The truck then comes within about 1 to 5 days, and those waiting days are not billed to you — the day counter stops as soon as you give the authorization.

Getting your garage back this weekend?

A two-minute call confirms the size, the price and the date. Ordered before noon, delivered today — PROTEC-O-SOL planks included to protect your driveway.

514 708-2424 Free quote