The next 30 days: garage cleanouts so the car fits inside before winter
A 30-day plan for junk removal companies to sell garage cleanouts before the first freeze, with the offer, the ads, the texts and the photos that book them.
Every fall, a lot of homeowners walk into the garage, look at the bikes, boxes, broken lawn chairs and the treadmill nobody uses, and realize the car is going to sit in the driveway all winter again. Most of them do nothing until the first frost on the windshield. Then they want it gone this weekend.
That is your next 30 days. Here is how to be the company they call.
Why garages, and why now
Garage cleanouts are a good job for a hauler. They are usually ground level, easy to load, and often fill a large share of a truck. The homeowner has a clear deadline: cold weather. And the job sells itself in a photo.
The window is short. Once the snow comes in colder states, or the holidays take over everywhere else, attention moves on. Late October to late November is when the decision gets made.
Week one: set up the offer
Pick one clear, priced offer for garages. People do not know how to buy junk removal, so make it easy.
- Name it: "Pre-winter garage cleanout."
- Price it plainly: a starting price for a quarter, half and full truck. Use your normal load prices. Typical ranges in many markets run from about $150 to $250 for a small load to $500 to $800 for a full truck, but use your own.
- Add something useful, not a discount: a free sweep-out at the end, or haul-away of one old fridge or freezer at no extra charge if you can recycle it for little cost.
- Make the next step simple: "Text us a photo of your garage for a price."
Then put that offer where people look:
- Add "Garage cleanout" as a service on your Google profile with the price range. The Google Business Profile guide shows how.
- Add a short section to your website's services page with the same words and a photo upload option.
- Post the offer as a Google Offer post with an end date at the end of November.
Week two: start the ads and the texts
Text your past customers. Anyone you hauled for in the last two years.
Hi Greg, it is Ana with Clear Path Hauling. We cleared out your basement last spring. We are doing pre-winter garage cleanouts this month so the car fits inside before it snows. Text me a photo of the garage and I will send you a price today.
Past customers already trust you, and many of them did the basement and left the garage for later.
Run a small Facebook and Instagram campaign. Target homeowners within your service area. Use a single before-and-after photo of a real garage you cleared, with the car parked inside in the after shot. That image does all the work. A budget of $10 to $30 a day for three weeks is a reasonable test in most towns. The Facebook and Instagram ads guide covers creative and retargeting.
Tighten your Google Ads. If you run search ads, add "garage cleanout" and "garage junk removal" phrases with your town names and point them at the garage section of your site, not the homepage. The Google Ads guide has the campaign setup.
Week three: photos and reviews
Every garage you clear this month is marketing for the next one.
- Take a before and after from the same spot. Door open, car parked inside in the after.
- Post the pair to Google with the town name. "Two-car garage cleared in Lakewood. Car is back inside."
- Ask for the review on the driveway. "If the car fitting inside made your week, a quick Google review would help a lot. I will text you the link."
Junk removal is a strong review category. Across the 5,171 junk removal listings we track, the median company has 44 Google reviews. Getting into the top quarter takes about 140, and the top tenth sits around 383. A busy month of garages is a fast way to climb. The reviews guide has more scripts.
Week four: weekends and follow-up
The calls come on weekends, when people are standing in the garage. Only 44.5% of junk removal listings show Saturday hours and 29.7% show Sunday hours. If you can take weekend jobs, or even weekend quotes by text, say so on your profile.
Follow up every photo quote within the hour. If someone sends a photo and hears nothing until Monday, they have already booked someone else. Plug your missed calls into the missed call calculator if you want to see what slow replies cost over a season.
Send one last text at the end of the month to anyone who asked for a price and did not book:
Hi Megan, Ana again from Clear Path. I still have two Saturday slots before Thanksgiving for garage cleanouts. Want one?
A hypothetical
Say you text 300 past customers and get 25 photo replies. You book 10. At a few hundred dollars each, that is a solid month of extra work from a list you already own, before a single ad dollar. Your numbers will differ. The calendar will not: the window closes when the weather turns.
If you want someone to run this campaign or any one service for you, the free 14-day trial needs no card. See the free trial page or text or call (385) 378-6189.
Steven has spent the last several years running growth campaigns for local service businesses, junk removal and hauling companies among them, and builds the benchmark datasets on this site from public Google listings. About the editor