Moving out of a Baltimore rowhouse: the cleanout that happens after the movers leave

The short answer

Two ways to price the leftovers.

Volume. Quarter truck $241, three eighths $338, half $431, five eighths $513, three quarters $587, seven eighths $661, full $732.

Items. Sofa $126, queen mattress and box spring set $143, dresser $126, desk $83, bookshelf $72, large area rug $68, TV between 42 and 65 inches $68.

And the lines that describe what a move-out actually is: ten bags of debris $132, fifteen bags $196, twenty bags $259, a small junk pile $82, a medium one $129, a large one $208.

Visit minimum $75. Carry-out and disposal included.

Why Baltimore moves leave more behind than most

Because of the housing. A rowhouse in Canton, Pigtown or Highlandtown has a cellar, sometimes a half-attic, and a back yard or parking pad, and all three are places where things go to be dealt with later. Later arrives on settlement day.

Then there is the furniture that will not leave. Plenty of Baltimore rowhomes contain a sofa, a box spring, or an armoire that came up the stairs in pieces and has never come down. When the movers see the winder turn at the top of the second flight, they frequently decide that piece is staying, and they are not wrong: it is not coming down intact.

That is exactly the item we price at a flat rate and cut apart in the room if we have to. A sofa is $126 whether it walks out or leaves in four pieces.

What the movers will not take

Confirm this with your mover early, because the list is fairly consistent:

• Anything flammable or caustic. Paint, solvents, propane tanks, pool chemicals, lawn chemicals. Those go to a household hazardous waste drop-off, not on a truck. Check your city or county's current hazardous waste schedule.
• Open food and anything perishable. The freezer contents, the half-used pantry.
• Items they judge unsafe to carry. The armoire on the third floor, the box spring that will not turn the corner.
• Anything that would not survive the trip. Particleboard furniture that has been assembled once already, which is most of it.

A bookcase in particleboard is $100 and a solid wood tall bookcase is $123. The particleboard one is usually the honest write-off.

The deposit list

If you are renting, the cleanout is not about volume, it is about the landlord's inspection. In practice that is:

• Everything out of the basement, including whatever the last tenant left that you inherited.
• The back yard or parking pad cleared, which in a lot of Baltimore rentals means an old grill and a pile of scrap. A charcoal grill is $59, a propane grill is $71.
• Nothing in the alley. Leaving furniture in a Baltimore alley is not an exit strategy and it can come back to you.
• Bags out, not stacked in a corner. Ten bags of debris is $132, twenty is $259.

Sequencing the last week

Order matters more than effort. The version that works:

• Ten days out. Walk the cellar, the yard and the top floor. Decide what is not moving. Book the removal window for the day after the movers.
• Five days out. Take the hazardous waste to a drop-off. This is the one with fixed dates and it is the one that traps people.
• Moving day. Movers take what you keep. Everything else stays where it is. Do not start a second pile in the yard.
• The next morning. Removal crew, two-hour window, house empty.
• Then clean. Cleaning an apartment that still has furniture in it is doing the job twice.

Where the truck goes on moving weekend

Baltimore's move-out weekends are a parking problem before they are anything else. In Canton, Federal Hill, Fells Point and Locust Point the permit-parking blocks are full, and on a Saturday in late May there may already be a moving truck taking the only stretch of curb.

Three things help:

• Book a morning window. Blocks are emptier before ten.
• Tell us whether the rear alley is usable, and whether there is a parking pad behind the house.
• If a moving truck has the front of the house all day, say so, and the crew will plan the alley approach instead.

There is no charge for a long carry when the truck cannot get close, which in these neighborhoods is often.

Typical totals

One-bedroom rowhouse conversion in Charles Village. Sofa, queen mattress and box spring set, dresser: $126 + $143 + $126 = $395.

Rental in Waverly, leftovers only. Large junk pile and ten bags of debris: $208 + $132 = $340.

Whole rowhouse after a sale in Highlandtown. Usually three quarters to a full truck: $587 to $732.

The Baltimore move calendar

Late May is the hardest week in the city to book anything, because student leases around the Homewood campus, MICA, UMB and Towson all end together and Charles Village, Remington, Waverly and Mount Vernon empty at once. Late August is the same in reverse.

Settlement-driven moves cluster at the end of the month across the whole metro. If you can pick a mid-month weekday, everything about the day gets easier, including ours.

Frequently asked questions