Have you ever found yourself struggling to deal with a large amount of unwanted material on your property? If so, you’re not alone. Many people throughout the United States and elsewhere in the world find themselves challenged when it comes time to dispose of clutter, leftover building materials, and other forms of waste that cannot simply be thrown into the regular trash.

Sometimes, there’s too much material to deal with effectively; other times you might find yourself tasked with disposing of items that your local garbage collectors will not handle. In such cases, many people turn to dumpster rental as a solution. There is often a temptation to choose the largest container you can find when you decide to rent a dumpster but wait! Big dumpster rentals could actually be making your cleanup efforts harder than they need to be. Why? Just keep reading, and you’ll find out.

Big Dumpster Rentals Can Come with Big Problems

Big dumpster rentals often seem like the natural choice--after all, you’re going to pay for a rental, so why shouldn’t you acquire as much space as possible for your money? As it turns out, though, renting the largest container you can comes with challenges that a large number of renters do not consider until they are staring them in the face. Below, our pros will break down the most pressing of these so that you can decide for yourself whether you really want to deal with a giant container.

Reason Number One: A Small Container Will Usually Do the Job

You might feel as though you want to acquire as much dumpster room as you can for the cost of renting a container, but ask yourself first: do you really need all that space? Unless you’re working on a major commercial or industrial project (and sometimes even then), the answer is most likely going to be no. The truth is that small dumpsters are usually sufficient to deal with the amount of waste you’ll face.

Not convinced? Consider that many home improvement projects and spring cleaning efforts produce no more waste than that which can be moved in the back of an average pickup truck making one or two trips. A pickup truck generally can hold roughly four cubic yards of material. That’s not a lot in dumpster terms. In fact, a relatively small debris box still holds about 12 cubic yards of space--roughly three pickup truck’s worth.

Many companies rent out dumpsters with 20 to 40 cubic yards of space available in them, but that’s going to leave you with a mostly-empty container at the end of your work. Remember also that empty space in your dumpster doesn’t provide any benefit to you--so it’s not as though you’re getting more for your money if you rent a big container and end up not using most of it.

Reason Number Two: Big Dumpster Rentals Need Lots of Room

The second reason you might not want to rent a giant container is that you’ll have to find somewhere to put it. The bigger the container you choose is, the harder that’s going to be. Grassy spaces and gardens are out of the question of course, since large dumpsters are heavy and practically guaranteed to crush the plant life in these places. That means most of your property will be ineligible for dumpster storage.

Are you considering putting the dumpster on the street outside your home? Think again. Renters commonly assume that they can simply leave their container on the curb while they’re filling it, but this is incorrect. In fact, special permits are required by almost every municipality in the United States if you’re planning to leave a container in what’s known as a public right of way area. “Right of way” refers to any place where people are permitted or expected to travel in public, whether by vehicle or on foot. As such, the term includes streets, sidewalks, and even public green spaces such as pathways and parks. Bottom line: if you don’t want to pay for a permit (or pay the steep fee for occupying a right of way without one) then you want to make sure the container you rent sits firmly on your property. That only really leaves one place.

The best place to put your rental dumpster by far is in your driveway. Your driveway is on your property, so you won’t require a permit to place the container there. However, it’s also solid enough not to take damage from having a heavy container sit on it for days at a time. The problem is that large dumpsters may not fit on some driveways. Renting a smaller one instead can fix that problem.

Reason Number Three: Big Dumpster Rentals Can be Hard to Fill

This one almost goes without saying, but we’ll make mention of it anyway because it’s important. Small dumpsters are often not too high and not too wide. They can be reached easily without tools such as ladders. Large dumpsters may require these tools to fill them, which can pose problems for people with limited mobility.

Reason Number Four: Big Dumpster Rentals Can Block Access to Your Garage (and Other Areas)

Remember a moment ago when we talked about placing your dumpster in your driveway? Well, if you’re going to do that you probably want to make sure you can continue using the driveway for other things. That’s why a small container is normally more convenient than a large one.

Larger containers may not fit in your driveway at all, but even when they do, they tend to block access to the garage. If you can’t sneak your vehicle past the dumpster and into safety, the dumpster you rented is causing an unnecessary problem. Choose a small container and make sure you can still park.

Reason Number Five: Big Containers Often End Up Being Unnecessarily Expensive

It wouldn’t be right to finish off this list without discussing the cost of renting a dumpster--or how that changes depending on the size of the container you choose. Several different factors can affect the price of your rental, but size almost always plays a role.

Your company might choose to simply charge you a certain amount based on the size of your container. Often, they’ll say they’re giving you a discount by charging less per square foot for a larger container--but that’s hardly valuable if you don’t end up using most of those square feet. They might also charge by weight, but that can be disadvantageous for renters of large dumpsters as well. Bigger containers are heavier, and if your rental company includes the container’s weight in the rental price, it could end up costing you a lot more than renting a small one.

The best strategy we’ve found is to go with a company that charges based on the amount of room you actually use. That way, you can give yourself a discount by packing effectively, and there’s often no need to rent a large and ungainly container in the first place.

Big dumpster rentals often seem like ideal choices, but when you consider the logistics they usually end up being anything but. Make sure to consider the points above carefully when you’re looking for a dumpster rental company in your area, as well as other factors such as eco-friendly disposal and rental length. The more planning you do at the front end, the better your rental will go. Good luck with your junk!

In addition to our self-service dumpster rental offerings, we also offer a service where we handle the junk removal for you. If you are interested in either of these services and want to learn more, you can always give us a call at 1-888-888-JUNK. You can also book a rental via our homepage.