Laura had the excellent idea of getting one of those giant container waste bins delivered to put all the demolition refuse in. I had been researching one-off loading & hauling solutions where you call some guys who have a big truck and they load and haul it for you. Laura’s idea on the container delivery was much better, because we had it for a whole week and could add to it throughout that time.

It wasn’t cheap, but way cheaper than hiring people to get rid of that quantity of crap. I researched the cost to haul just the old carpet, and it was more than half of what having a huge bin for the whole week ended up being. Even if we had a truck (like that 1998 Ford F-150 the missus has been eyeing), we would have had about 10 labor-intensive & costly trips to the dump if we were to have done it that way.

Another benefit was that since we scheduled it for a week, it gave us a reasonable deadline to complete the demo, and also the sense of urgency to take advantage of the flat rate we were paying and get rid of anything that was borderline.

Here’s a partial list of the contents:

– wall to wall carpet & pad
– a billion staples from the old carpet & linoleum
– old linoleum (3 layers) & the plywood it was attached to
– kitchen countertops & cabinets
– bathroom linoleum
– bathroom vanity, sink, & hardware
– bathroom shower pan, plastic liner, & hardware
– a weird outdoor carpeted lattice ramp (for dogs and/or humans)
– old busted screendoor
– various garbage from the backyard
– metal blinds from the bedrooms that we managed to break within 2 minutes of trying to use them

The last benefit was that after the took the full bin away, it was like all that old crap was magically gone. Well, not really, since we pulled it out ourselves with some serious blood, sweat & tears (not an exagerration). But when we came back to the house and the container had been picked up, it felt like we had moved into a new, more fun phase of the project: rebuilding the ranch and make it somewhere we can’t wait to live!