Most full garages have the same layers. At the front, the things in use: bikes, the mower, the recycling bins. Behind them, the overflow from the house: furniture that did not fit after a move, a second refrigerator, boxes of holiday decorations. At the back and along the shelves, the things nobody has touched in years. Cleaning out a garage full of junk works best when you work through those layers in that order.
Pick a day and a goal
Set one goal you can see: park the car inside, or clear one wall for a workbench. A goal makes the decisions easier, because every item either helps it or does not. Give yourself a full day, or two half days, and do not start on a day the garage has to be closed before dark.
Sort into three, not ten
Use three groups: keep, ask, and go. Keep is what you use or truly want. Ask is anything that might belong to someone else in the family; take a photo, send it, and set a date for an answer. Go is everything else. Resist the urge to make piles for selling, donating and fixing unless you will really do it this month; those piles are how garages refill.
Start at the door and work back
Begin with what is closest to the garage door, so you open floor space right away and have room to sort the rest. Move kept items out to the driveway or one cleared corner while you work. Then take the shelves from top to bottom, and finish with the back wall, where the oldest boxes usually are.
Set aside what cannot be hauled
Garages are where hazardous materials hide. Old paint, stain, pool chemicals, pesticides, motor oil and gas cans that still hold fuel cannot go on a junk truck. Gather them in one spot as you find them, and check your county's or city's household hazardous waste program for where they can go. Anything that has held fuel, like a mower or a pressure washer, is worth pointing out when you ask for a price.
Take care with what is heavy
Steel shelving units, a workbench bolted to the wall, an old chest freezer or a tool chest full of tools are where garage cleanouts hurt people. Empty shelves and drawers before anything is moved, leave anything bolted to the wall for the crew to look at, and do not try to walk a freezer down a step on your own. It is fine to stop sorting where the heavy pieces start and let the crew take it from there.
Let someone else carry the go pile
Once the go pile is decided, the hard part is over. A junk removal crew carries it out, including heavy shelving, an old refrigerator once it is emptied, broken furniture and boxes, and loads it. You do not need to bag it or drag it to the curb. If the garage connects to a basement or an attic that also needs clearing, do it on the same visit; one larger load is simpler than two small ones.
What decides a garage cleanout cost
Three things set the price: how much is going, measured in how much room it takes on the truck; how easy it is to reach, since a garage at ground level is quicker than an attic over it; and anything heavy or awkward, like a freezer or steel shelving. A photo of the whole garage from the door, plus one of the shelves and the back wall, is usually enough for a quote. Our price estimate page shows how loads are sized.
Keep it from filling up again
Before you put the keep pile back, decide where each kind of thing lives: wall hooks for bikes and tools, one shelf for seasonal boxes, a bin for sports gear. Leave the floor clear except for the car. And when something new comes in, something old goes out, before it reaches the back wall.