JunkBossPro Blog — Property Managers & Commercial

Apartment Trash-Outs After Move-Outs: From the Manager's Request to the Finished Unit

A tenant moves out and leaves behind a sagging couch, a mattress, half a kitchen of dishes and a dozen trash bags. The manager needs the unit cleared so the painters and cleaners can get in, and the next tenant has a move-in date. That is a trash-out, and it is the bread and butter of property manager work for a junk removal company.

Here is how one runs from start to finish.

The Request Comes In

Setting up the manager as one client with every unit underneath is covered in Property Manager Junk Removal Accounts: One Client, Every Unit, One Relationship. Once that is done, each move-out is just a new job on an address that already exists.

Requests come in however the manager likes to send them: a text to the office, an email, a call, a request from the customer app, or a request form on your own website that lands in Form Responses. Whatever the channel, the office turns it into a job on the right unit with the basics filled in:

• The unit. “Oakridge Unit 214.”
• The load. If the manager sent photos or a description, estimate it: 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 or a Full Load.
• What is going. “Couch, queen mattress, dresser, bagged trash, kitchen cabinets left full.”
• The deadline. “Painters Thursday morning.”

On the Waiting List

Every job that is not booked yet sits on the Waiting List, on a live map and a list. The trash-out shows up as a pin at the complex, next to every single-item pickup, garage cleanout and estimate visit waiting for a day. That is the moment to look at the map and ask what else is near it. A mattress pickup two streets over and a trash-out at Oakridge belong on the same truck on the same morning.

If the manager gave a tight deadline, schedule it first and build the rest of that truck's day around it.

On the Route

On the dispatch board, assign the job to a truck and a day. Auto-route Closest First or Furthest First from the yard, or drag the trash-out to the top if the leasing office only hands out keys before noon. The crew's phone shows the same order as the board.

Many companies with two trucks keep one on single items and small loads and one on cleanouts and trash-outs. A half-load unit with a full kitchen fits better on the cleanout truck, where the crew expects to spend an hour inside.

Getting In and Clearing the Unit

The crew opens the job card and sees the unit, the load, the items, and the access notes on the address, like “Keys at leasing office, ask for maintenance, return keys before 5.” Past notes from earlier jobs at the same complex show too, so the crew already knows the elevator is small and the loading zone is behind building C. Access notes get their own guide in Lockboxes, Leasing Offices and Gate Codes: Access Notes for Property Manager Junk Jobs.

Before touching anything, the crew taps Start and takes before photos of every room, including closets, the balcony and the storage cage if there is one. Then they clear the unit. Anything the dump or transfer station will not take is the dump's call, so check the local transfer station's rules rather than guessing, and tell the office if something has to be left for the manager to deal with.

After Photos and Complete

When the unit is empty, the crew takes after photos from the same spots as the before photos. A photo of an empty closet with the door open answers the question the manager would otherwise call about. Then the crew heads to the dump with the Go button on the card, and if the ticket runs heavy, the office enters the tons and the overage is added to the invoice.

Tapping Complete tells the office the unit is done. If the crew noticed something the manager should know about, like a broken blind or a stained carpet, it goes in the job notes.

Billing the Trash-Out

If the manager's account is set to Monthly, the job waits for the monthly statement, where it shows as its own line labeled “Unit 214.” If the landlord pays per job, Complete creates the invoice and can charge the card on file right away. Either way, the price comes from your service list, such as a half truck load at $329, plus any dump fee overage.

Doing It Again Next Week

The second trash-out at Oakridge goes faster than the first. The address, the access notes and the past notes are all there. The crew knows where to park. The manager knows the photos will be on file. That is what makes trash-outs steady work instead of one-off jobs.

For everything else JunkBossPro does for property managers, visit the commercial junk removal software page.