Hoarding cleanout in Pasadena

A hoarding cleanout in Pasadena or anywhere else in the San Gabriel Valley is a job the Precise crew handles with extra care. What that means is a house that filled up over years, where the floor and the hallways are gone under boxes and bags. Text a photo to (626) 590-3118. This one runs different than the team's other jobs. The call almost never comes from the person living there. It's usually a family member or a social worker, and the person in the house still decides what leaves.

The crew works this one slow on purpose. They clear the floors and the walkways first, so the house is safe to move through before anything else gets touched. If that's as far as the day goes, that's fine, and they come back for the next layer. Nothing goes on the truck that the person living there hasn't agreed to let go, and that includes the boxes nobody has opened in years. A house being emptied after a death is a different call, and that one is estate cleanout.

Pricing starts with photos. The same team that answers that text does the hauling, so the family deals with one crew start to finish. The daughter or the social worker making the call can send them, since the person in the house doesn't have to handle that part. Precise Junk Removal has been at this since 2009. If the house has a staircase or a driveway that drops off hard, say so in the text, because both change the number.

What goes on the truck

• Stacks of newspapers and mail
• Clothes nobody sorted
• Grocery bags and plastic bins
• A couch under the pile
• Kitchen boxes and dishes
• Broken furniture from back rooms
• Bagged trash off the floor
• Cardboard by the load

Text a photo of yours to (626) 590-3118.

From the full list of what goes on the truck: whole houses.

What's usually in the pile, and who calls it in

Most of these calls come from somebody who doesn't live in the house. A son stops by and can't get the front door open all the way. A daughter sees that the stove hasn't been reachable in months. Sometimes it's a social worker or the person managing the building, and sometimes it's a landlord with an inspection coming.

The pile is clothes nobody sorted, mail and newspapers in stacks, grocery bags, bins, and a couch buried under the rest of it. On most jobs the pile is already decided. Here the sorting is the job, and the hauling is what happens after.

Permission first, then the pile

The person living in the house has the last word on every item. What gets pointed at goes out and what doesn't stays, even when the thing left behind makes no sense to the family. That's the only way this work holds up. Push somebody into dumping a box they weren't ready to lose and the next visit never happens.

So the job gets split up. The first pass is usually the floor and the path from the door to the kitchen and the bathroom, because a house you can walk through is safer for everyone in it. Then it goes room by room, and sorting into a keep side and a go side happens before anything gets loaded. Some houses are one day. Plenty of them take more than one visit.

Where a hoarded pile ends up

A hoarding pile is not all trash. Plenty of what's buried in there is still good. Clothes nobody wore out, dishes, furniture that held up, tools. Those get set aside for a donation center first. Paper, cardboard and scrap metal come out of a house like this in volume, and that side goes to recycling. Of everything that goes out on the truck, about 75 percent ends up recycled. The owner's own line for it is "Recycling is his love language." What's actually spoiled or broken goes to the landfill, and that part gets sorted out last.

That part matters on these jobs. Knowing the good clothes went to a donation center makes the pile easier to let go of.

How a full house gets cleared

The crew hauls without a lot of noise, so the house stays quiet. Nothing in the pile gets thrown. A bag goes out tied shut and a box goes out with the lid still on, because what's inside it is somebody's. The truck is a white Isuzu NPR heavy duty with a 24 cubic yard dump bed. Ask the crew when you text whether anything should be by the curb.

Access decides the day. A hallway narrowed to one lane means everything moves out one armload at a time. Stairs slow it down the same way. In an apartment or a rental, the team will work with the property manager on when the door can be propped and how the load gets out, as long as the family sets that up.

What a hoarding cleanout costs

The minimum is $50, and that's the floor under any job here. Past that, the price comes off photos. Send one from the doorway of each room and the crew reads how much room the load takes in the dump bed, then texts back a number for the work.

Stairs add +$50 a staircase. A driveway or yard that drops off steep is another +$50, and how hard the carry turns out to be sets how much past that. Payment can be cash, a check or online. If the house is going to take more than one visit, say so with the photos. Text a photo to (626) 590-3118. Anybody who wants the math first can read how a load gets measured and priced.

Close enough to come back for another pass

Precise Junk Removal works out of Pasadena, so most of this valley is a short drive. Altadena, South Pasadena, Sierra Madre and Monrovia sit inside that circle, and so do Arcadia, Temple City and Alhambra. On a job that needs a second or a third visit, that counts for more than it sounds like it should. Coming back for another pass is no trouble when the house is in the next town over.

Hours run 8 AM to 8 PM every day, and the arrival comes inside a two-hour window. A son driving in from out of town, or a case worker fitting this between other visits, can set a time and be at the door for it. Every town on the route is named on the page that lists where the truck goes.

How the price works

Text a photo of what needs to go to (626) 590-3118. Precise looks at how much room it takes on the truck and texts back one number for the whole job. No hourly rate. Jobs start at $50. The only add-ons: stairs +$50, steep slope +$50. More on how pricing works.

Where Precise does this

All of the San Gabriel Valley. See every town Precise covers for hoarding cleanout.