A graphic of 2 pink skips or dumpsters one is empty and one is full to overflowing
Episode 148 – Using a skip or dumpster when decluttering

In this episode, we speak about the practicalities of using a skip or dumpster when decluttering and how necessary they are to complete a project. It is important to take into account how much you are planning on decluttering and the financial cost involved with skips/dumpsters.
Episode 389 – Overcoming mobility challenges when decluttering with member Rory
Episode 388 – Start as you mean to go on – plan 2026 for decluttering success
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Transcript of this podcast episode
Intro  0:07  
Welcome to today's episode of The declutter hope podcast, your channel for super easy, no nonsense advice on how to declutter and organise your home. Please welcome your host professional organisers, Ingrid Johnson, and Lesley Spellman.

Ingrid  0:31  
Hello, and welcome listeners to Episode 148 of the declutter hub Podcast. I'm Ingrid. 

Lesley  0:37  
And I'm Lesley.

Ingrid  0:38  
If you have clutter and want to sorted out, this is the show for you. Now, in today's episode, Lesley and I are talking about using a skip or dumpster? When decluttering Yes, this is a good thing that we're gonna explain what a skip is because properly we call it the skipper in the UK, but elsewhere, they call it the dumpster. Don't they literally?

Lesley  1:03  
Yeah, I think so. I think that's the terminology. But what we mean by that is one of those huge big metal containers that come in various shapes and sizes that you put all your rubbish in, and then someone comes and takes it away magically? Should we be using a skip or a dumpster in our decluttering endeavours. This is the question. Now, how many times have you thought to No, I just want to get a skip, throw the whole lot in and never think about it again. Now, wouldn't that be an easy way to decluttering word? Or would it? I know, I

Ingrid  1:35  
know. We do get these comments on our Facebook group we see them you know, on social media. I just wonder I'm so fed up with my house. I'm gonna get a skip, throw it all away and start from from scratch. start afresh, my whole house empty. And we're I've always been like, Oh, it sounds really good idea. But it's a bit radical is actually not a good idea. But it sounds like a good idea, doesn't it?

Lesley  1:59  
It does. So let's put this into perspective. So you and I have been decluttering homes up and down the UK for the last 12 years. How many times have you used a skid? I've used the skip for building projects that I've done. Well, that's different. So I do live my way around the skip. But I'm talking about a decluttering project not building work. How many times have you had a skip? Once? So you've had one on ones? And I have probably had one? Well, let's think about my team, I would say 10 times.

Ingrid  2:32  
So with an average of 22 years of decluttering experience, we've had a whole 11 skips? Yeah. Yeah, that sounds like nothing.

Lesley  2:45  
I know. And the interesting thing is, it's something that people think about straightaway, isn't it? When they think about decluttering, they'll get a skip because it was easiest way to sort it all out and easiest way to get everything out of my house. And yes, of course, it's an easy way, logistically to get the stuff out of your house. Of course, if you've got loads of bin bags, what easier way is there than putting them in a skip on your driveway rather than schlepping all the stuff to the recycling centre or organising household waste to come? Of course, it's an easy way of doing things. But we're here to talk about whether it's the right way aren't we?

Ingrid  3:19  
Do we think that people when they hear the word decluttering and immediately think that involves a skip? Do you think it's because of the television programmes where oftentimes you do see a skip being pulled in front of a house when they're tackling like these very full houses in the first thing he sees is really short from this massive truck driving up and putting a skip. Do you think that's what people think the first thing we do is order skips when we go into a new client's home?

Lesley  3:47  
Possibly possibly. And you know, it's very interesting point that you make there Ingrid because most of the TV programmes the kind of ones that you're talking about where skippered dumpster pulls up on the front driveway in a very dramatic way are hoarded houses where the volumes are high, and potentially where there is a lot of actual garbage in the home. So things that you would typically throw away that has got no second life to it, let's call it

Ingrid  4:15  
Yeah, I think so too. And I think maybe that's the difference. I mean, I do occasionally work in a house with with high volumes, but most of the houses have clutter, but are not completely out of control. And maybe that's the reason why. I mean I have worked in in, in a in a flat in a very tall building, but I couldn't put a skip there in the parking lots. It was us schlepping indeed all the bags down by the lift from the 12th floor down to the airstream It was crazy.

Lesley  4:46  
Do you know what is nice though, I noticed is completely off topic. But whenever I've worked in a large flat and they've got one of those shoots one of those rubbish shoots. They're like the best things ever aren't there that you just got pop outside your house, put the garbage his bag into a chute and it goes all the way down to the bottom. How cool is that? And you don't have to do it. But you had to actually go in the lift and do it yourself? Yes,

Ingrid  5:07  
yes. Because apparently her flat was notorious for the chute being blocked up by too large items. So she wasn't very keen on using the chute. So we actually logged everything down from tall floors. In the elevator, yes. Oh, yes. Been there, done that got the t shirt

Lesley  5:25  
is hard. So anyway, back to the case in point, which is about skips and dumpsters. And so I do think I can understand psychologically why people think you know, I just want to get a skip and put everything in and be done with this whole sorry, mess, because it's overwhelming. The bottom line is we want to take the overwhelm away in the simplest way possible. And logistically, of course, it feels simple that all that stuff that's inside your house can just go into a skip outside your house. But it's not as simple as that. Because if we do something like that, then we would not have control over the situation, we would not know what we were doing with the decisions that we were making. And we would feel nervous and anxious as a result of that. And so that's what we want to talk about. And jumping back to what you mentioned a minute ago about the TV programmes, Ingrid, that's exactly that. I would wager that a lot of the people on the TV programmes do not have control over what's going on, because there's seven or eight people in their house, taking stuff out without their say so without their approval. And that's why they get nervous. And that's when the hoarding starts again, because you feel that sense of loss.

Ingrid  6:28  
Yes, I think it is tricky. And I think also, I was thinking, it must feel like a lot of pressure to suddenly see this ginormous skip on your drive and go, I need to fill this. I mean, you know, let's be realistic here, Lesley, if it is a garage with lots of broken stuff, and things that have been dumped in there, and it's just, it's huge, and it's chock a block with old stuff, can you hire, skip, and do it that way? Perfect. Get the skip, get the whole garage empty. Get it all done in one go. Brilliant. But what we're talking about is people who say I've got a lot of stuff in my house, I just want to get a skip and just throw it all away. And we say, Whoa, slow down a bit. You need to make good decisions, you need to have control over this project. You need to know what you're doing. Because a lot of things that you have in your house can actually be reused, recycled, be donated, and when you kind of throw them in a skip. You don't know if that's going to happen. I mean, I know skip companies have become a lot better by trying to recycle as much as possible, because we're all trying to work on the environment. But why would you throw something in a skip that could perfectly go to a charity shop?

Lesley  7:50  
Yeah, I mean, the skip companies are definitely getting better with recycling, that's for sure. But they're not donating the stuff that comes out of the sky. They're not passing it on to second person. It might be getting recycled, but it's definitely not getting donated. And that's one of the big problems with it. Now, I've got another question for you. Ingrid. Speak question. Questions homestay. So we've already asked you how often you've had a skipping in when you've been working with clients. So my next question is on a really, really successful decluttering day. Yeah. When you're working four to five hours with the clients, what do you think realistically is the maximum number of bags, beanbags then, that you could get through in terms of what you would throw away?

Ingrid  8:32  
carload, so with my seats down, and I have got an estate so this is the reason why I have in the state and not a small car. So I can actually put the seats down and I can just put I actually once put 13 Gigantic rubbish bag. So that's that goes we're not the normal rubbish bags, gigantic bags other size in my car, I could just about look out of the window and see my mirrors. It was incredible. absolutely packed to the brim. So that must have been 2025 rubbish bags, I think, are recycling bags and all of that kind of bags for the charity shop.

Lesley  9:12  
Yeah. And you know, you said so that's limited by the amount of stuff that you can get in a car have I have I done with a client more than one carload of stuff in a day? Yes, but it's a rarity that I can probably count on one hand, but we're really talking logistically about the amount of stuff that you can go through in a day and make the right decisions on and it's not more than a carload is it Ingrid? Yeah, you know, I mean, it's not more than a carload and so you can't get rid of a whole house full of stuff in one decluttering session. And so you just can't and so, therefore your garage, you're absolutely right, you know, and the occasions where I have used Escape has typically been the garage where there's loads of cardboard boxes, there's loads of tools, there's loads of pots of paint. There's like mechanical things from engines and all that kind In a store, which logistically will be too difficult to take to the recycling centre. And that's where a skip comes in. But I suppose what we want you to think about is actually even if you wanted to, you probably couldn't get rid of more than a carload of stuff in a day. So therefore, if it's put on that carload, some of it can go to the recycling centre, some of it can go it's been donated to the charity shop, you know. So that's something worth thinking about. You can do it with a car, you don't need a skip.

Ingrid  10:29  
Exactly, exactly. And the other thing is, if you do hire a skip, where are you going to put it? I mean, of course, some people have a really big drive. But I mean, I'm thinking to my situation, I can just about squeeze two cars in my Drive, if I'm lucky, and then I can't really easily get the recycling bins in and out. So if I wouldn't get a skip, I'm like, Okay, I need to then find a place for the car. You need to think of a logistics as well.

Lesley  11:01  
Yeah, you're absolutely right. And with this, there's loads of considerations, which mean that getting a skip is not easy. So if you're tight on space at the front of your house, or at the back of your house, yes, it might be able to go on your driveway, which is absolutely fine. And that's the most straightforward way. If it has to go in a public right of way, you have to pay for a permit. Well, you do in the UK here. So as well as the colossal amount that escaped costs, and let's talk about costs in a minute, you've also got to pay for a permit to go on a public highway on top of that, and that permit will only be for a finite amount of time, probably a week or 10 days or two weeks, then you gotta pay for another permit, and another permit another permit. So you were talking before about time pressure, and saying, as when this skip arrives, you feel pressure, as well as thinking, I've got to declutter enough stuff to fill that skip. There's also a pressure in terms of time to can't necessarily do it in your own time, because you have this additional timescale, which is I've only got that skip for a week or 10 days, I need to make sure that I fill it in that time. And I may need to make sure that I do my decluttering, day after day after day. So there is additional pressure that comes along, which is all very against what we like to suggest and teach you at the declutter hub, isn't it Ingrid, we don't want you to feel under any additional pressures. If decluttering is not hard enough as it is, we don't want you to feel pressure to get rid of most of them. You want to, we don't want you to feel pressure to get stuff more quickly than you want to work. You know, we talk all the time about do things at your own pace. Look at your own energy levels, who's got seven days straight, that they can work on a decluttering project day after day after day? We don't do that with clients. We never do that. It's exhausting. And particularly if you're working in those high volume areas as well, you know, garages lofts, the place where you typically will get a skip. So I think it's the so many. The more that I'm thinking about it, the more I'm thinking Absolutely not.

Ingrid  12:57  
I mean, there is a time and a place for a skip for sure. But there's a lot more to it than just let's just get a skip and throw everything out it there's a lot more to it isn't there. So I know you know a lot more about skips than I do, Lesley because you of course also do regular building projects with your clients. So tell me about this whole script situation then.

Lesley  13:20  
I know you were very upset last week when you Ingrid, when I when I when I told you the ins and outs of the script situation. So Ingrid's about to embark probably sometime in the next year or so on a building project at her house. And she's like, but the builders sought out all the waste. Why are they not? They just take it all away. I'm like, well, they might or but you will ultimately pay for it because it's your waist. And so I think people have this idea that builders are responsible for all the tiles that come off your roof or, or the plasterboard that comes out of your house or, or the bricks out of the walls that they're taking down, when actually that's actually your waste, it's not their waste. And so yes, it's as a result of the work that they're doing, but it's classified as your waste. And if those builders take that away, then that is commercial or trade waste, which they then have to pay for. So there are opportunities for us as householders to take bricks and tiles and rubble and all that kind of jazz to the recycling centre as part of our kind of, I don't know what we're allowed to do in terms of managing waste. But for a builder, that's commercial waste in the same way that it is for us England as the clitoris. So the thing that we find very difficult is that we also cannot take stuff to a recycling centre for our clients, because it's not our waste. And so therefore, we would have to pay for it when we can. But we would have to pay a colossal amount of money to be able to take somebody else's waste away, because as soon as it comes out of that house and it's not there, it's not our waste. It's commercial waste, which we need to pay for. Yeah, waste and managing waste is a huge deal at the moment, isn't it? People have sort of switched on in the last 10 or 15 years in terms of Okay, so we can't just do whatever we did before in terms of sending all of our way services into landfill, we need to be more environmentally friendly with our waste, and we need to be more thoughtful about it. So all of a sudden getting rid of waste is very, very costly. So you're asking about skips and the way that they work. Obviously, there are different sizes of skips, and this is going to differ around the world. But ultimately, there are there are small little mini skips, and there are MIDI skips. And then there are builders skips, and then there are huge, colossal skips. Even bigger than that skips, domestically, that's what they are. So first things first, you have to work out what size of skip, you're going to need for the project that you've got, and administer. And everyone always underestimates what they're going to need for sure, don't they? Could because the problem is that you need what we call spatial awareness to determine how much waste you're going to have, don't you?

Ingrid  15:48  
Yeah, I think it's a little bit like, how long is a piece of string? Or, Ingrid, how long does it take to declutter this room? And I'm like, it depends on so many factors. And that's the same with when you're going to how large a skip Do you think I need that sounds like depends on how much waste you have, or how much you're going to bring to the charity shop. So that's the thing, because the cost is different, isn't it? Yeah, the

Lesley  16:10  
cost is very, very different. And the different skips and let me tell you, skips are expensive. So in this country, a sort of average builder skips about two and somewhere between 250 300 pounds, there are timescales on this and most skip companies, we see these skips outside of houses for like five months or whatever. But any of the skip companies that I work with are like you've got it for a week. And if you want it for longer than a week, or 10 days, and you've got to pay more money for it, because they want this circulation of skips as well. So you can't just get it and leave it sitting outside your house for six months, you have to keep on filling it and getting it taken away, and so on. So a skip is an expensive item as well. So as well as the fact that we don't really love it, we think that you can take that stuff to the recycling centre yourself, as long as you've got a car. Actually, you've got to pay another tour and 50 or 300 pounds to hire the skipper in the first place. Because of course they the reason why you pay that is because they have to pay to get rid of the waste. And so it's not a skip. It's the waste that cost them money, isn't it?

Ingrid  17:06  
Yes, I think so, too. And I think what's important is if you do decide to get a skip, you need to have a plan. When are you going to Okay, I'm going to I found a company. I've called them up, I've agreed on a day they're going to build bring the skip to you. I'm going to have it for you know, you need to figure out then how much does it cost? How do I need a permit? How long can I keep it at my house? When are they going to collect it? That all sounds nice and not too difficult. But then the plan is, how am I going to get the stuff in the skip? How am I going to fill this up? Is it going to be me myself and I knew I need to actually get manpower to get all the stuff from the garage or wherever it is into this gear because it's always these bulky heavy items that don't easily fit in a car that ended up in escaped like a double mattress and a washing machine that's broken or whatever it is, or these massive pieces of wood that are absolutely gigantic how you're going to get it in there. So logistically, you need to really think about because they'll exactly the last thing you want is to have a skip on your drive for six months, blocking your garage and blocking your house.

Lesley  18:20  
And then let's talk about filling a skip. So if ever you've done a building project with a builder who has paid for his own skip or whatever was responsible for the way that that skip is filled, you will know what I mean when we talk about there is a certain way that you fill a skip to maximise the space in that and it involves putting pieces of wood around the outside to kind of make the sides even bigger. Honestly, it's kind of like it's a work of art filling escape. So I've done things in the past where I've just chucked stuff in the skip and then you'll see the kind of the builders face like a face like thunder at me because I put the wrong thing at the bottom are no no no, no, you can't do that. You know if you took like a prom in the bottom there's loads of space isn't around the parameter is not used every single inch of space has to be used in escape. So you have to absolutely fill escape in an appropriate way. And so and of course there are things that you think that you can put on a skirt that you can't things like mattresses, you have to pay extra for so because they don't want that I know like English fairies, but you can't see it first because we're on a podcast, but she's like they don't want mattresses and so you have to pay extra. So the very thing that you'll get a skip for they're like, No, you can't, but you're gonna have to pay more for that.

Ingrid  19:33  
Oh my word. I had no idea. I need to spruce up my knowledge about this whole skin business Lesley. Ingrid right now on her list investigates skip companies.

Lesley  19:48  
Anyway, so we've talked a lot about skips, we've talked about permits. We've talked about logistics. Ultimately, let's get back to the core question that we started at the beginning. Is it a good idea when you're decluttering your house to get us Skip? And our answer really is, yes, sometimes it is depending on the scope of the project. But if you're just doing a normal house with a lot of clutter, you are probably going to only be able to declutter in one day less than the amount that you can fit in a standard car. So try and do it that way so that you can donate things appropriately so that they get a second life and see you doing the right thing for the environment and for yourself. That is going to make you feel much less guilty, isn't it?

Ingrid  20:31  
Yeah, and I think maybe what ties it up nicely is to say a skip is for clearing rubbish, not clutter. Yes,

Speaker 4  20:42  
well done. So nice. Nicely summed up. could not have said it better myself. Yeah, exactly. If it's rubbish, mainly rubbish in your house, then a skip is the way to go. Yeah.

Ingrid  20:55  
So now I want to know because I think dumpster kind of comes from states that's what's kind of the terminology we hear from the from the TV programmes will say, How is it escaped or dumpster cold in Australia or New Zealand? Or maybe in Germany or something? I won't, I would love to know this. I think in the Netherlands, we call it like a container or something. I'm not gonna be the show. Now. I've been it's been a while since my Dutch gets muddled and muddled more with all these English words. So maybe we call the skip down the Netherlands as well. I'm gonna have to ask this to my friends. Like how do you call this iron thing? It's you put in your drive. Golden dacha?

Lesley  21:33  
Exactly. Well, you probably weren't even living there. You will probably have not thought about a skip because you left the Netherlands when you were kind of late 20s, didn't you? Yeah, so you probably had not got to this kind of skip error of your life by that stage. And had not had time to think about it. But yeah, I don't know what it's called. We think it's called the dumpster it is called a dumpster isn't it? We definitely know that don't we? And then big those ones. Those ones that come on those TV programmes, aren't they? Yeah, gigantic. Eric, very scary for people I think to see all that stuff going in a skiff and getting taken away on a lorry. So I don't think psychologically, it's very helpful if I'm really honest, but I understand that the TV programmes in the main part are there for sensationalism. And skip definitely goes a long way to achieving that, doesn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Before we go, we wanted to talk about our lovely webinar, our free webinar, the three key ingredients to decluttering success, didn't we Ingrid? So loads of people have been making the most of our free webinar and absolutely loving it. So have you done it yet? So it's there permanently. You can do it when you like at your own leisure. It's a 45 minute webinar, and we, unsurprisingly, talk about the three key ingredients you need for decluttering success. So do pop over, go to declutter hub.com forward slash three hyphen ingredients, and you'll see all the details there for you to sign up. Don't miss out. It's a wonderful webinar isn't Ingrid?

Ingrid  22:56  
Yes, it is. So listeners. That's it for this episode. And we hope you've all enjoyed listening, and we've given you some food for thought. Now, if you'd like to read the show notes of this podcast, go to declutter. help.com, forward slash 148. And you can find lots of information there, you can leave us a comment. You will find the sharing buttons on this page as well. You can leave us a review, and you can find that on that page. If you'd like to have more handy tips and advice from Lesley now you can find us on Facebook, we have a Facebook page and a Facebook group. And you can also find us on Instagram and on YouTube as at declutter hub. If you'd like to know more about our membership, have a look at members that declutter hub.com for more information. If you don't want to miss our next episode, please subscribe to the declutter podcast and it will pop into your notifications each Friday. So thanks so much for listening, and we'll see you next time.

Outro  24:03  
Thanks for listening to this week's episode of the declutter hub podcast. Check out declutter hub.com For more inspiration, and don't forget to tune in next week.
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