The unit you rented "temporarily" during the move is still costing you every month, and the rent notice that just arrived is why you're reading this. Send photos from the open door and we'll empty it in one visit — $276 for a 5×5, $485 a 5×10, $715 a 10×10, $1,435 a 10×20 — swept out and photographed so you can close the account before the next billing date. $75 minimum. No NC sales tax on the service.
Photos of the open unit — flat price back in seconds
Upload Photos & Get Quote →Roll the door up, take two or three shots, tell us the unit size. That's the whole quote process — you get the flat number for that size, or a lower volume price if the unit isn't full.
Gate code, unit number, floor, and whether there's an elevator. Meet us to unlock, or arrange a lock release with the office. We aim the window a couple of days before your billing date.
Straight from the unit to the truck, anything personal flagged and set aside, usable goods to donation — then the floor swept and photographed so the office can close your account that day.
By unit size, flat, quoted before we come. This is the one job where the industry's own sizing does the estimating for us — a packed 10×10 is a known quantity — so you don't have to guess what fraction of a truck your stuff represents.
| Unit size | Flat price (packed) |
|---|---|
| 5×5 | $276 |
| 5×10 | $485 |
| 5×15 | $660 |
| 10×10 | $715 |
| 10×15 | $1,075 |
| 10×20 | $1,435 |
| 10×25 | $1,790 |
| 10×30 | $2,145 |
Not full? We'll price it by volume instead and charge whichever is lower — quarter truck $295 · three-eighths $415 · half $525 · five-eighths $625 · three-quarter $720 · seven-eighths $810 · full truck $895. A 10×10 with a walking path down the middle is often a half truck at $525 rather than the $715 packed-unit price.
$75 minimum. Loading, hauling, disposal and the final sweep are included. No NC sales tax on the service.
Third-party context: Junk Doctors publishes a Triangle rate card of a $135 minimum, quarter truck $298, half $488, three-quarter $608, full truck $738 (junkdrs.com/pricing). McJunk publishes a $175 minimum, quarter $305, half $435, three-quarter $565, full $695, plus a $10–$50 trip charge, a $40 mattress surcharge, $10 per tire and $10 per CRT television. Those are volume quotes, usually confirmed once a crew is standing in front of your unit. Ours is quoted by unit size from your photos, and a big unit that takes more than one truckload is still one number.
| Option | Cost | Speed | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keep paying and put it off | The monthly rent, indefinitely | Never | The rent increase that prompted this will happen again next year |
| Rent a truck and do it yourself | Truck rental + fuel + a weekend (third-party) | 1–2 days | You still have to find somewhere for it to go, and the landfill scale house has its own fees |
| Leave it by the facility dumpster | Cleanup fee + another month's rent | Instant, then expensive | Facilities forbid it — that dumpster is for the office, and the unit stays "occupied" until it's empty |
| Traditional truck-fill hauler | ~$298–$738 per truck (Junk Doctors), ~$305–$695 + surcharges (McJunk) | 1–3 days | Priced by volume and typically confirmed on site, at the unit, with you standing there |
| JunkRabbit | $276 a 5×5 to $2,145 a 10×30, flat | One visit, usually the same week | None — quoted by unit size from photos, keepsakes flagged, swept and photographed for the office |
Junk Doctors and McJunk figures are those companies' own published rate cards, quoted for comparison.
No, and the reason is worth understanding before you make a plan around it. City of Raleigh Solid Waste Services curbside collection is a residential service — the $35 Bulky Load, the $70 special or appliance pickup and the free electronics collection of up to four items a week all attach to a household with city trash service. A storage facility is not a residence. There's no curb to put it on, no address that qualifies, and no city truck that comes down the drive aisle. The cheap municipal option that exists for your house simply does not exist for your unit. (Solid Waste Services is 919-996-3245 if you want that confirmed for a home address.)
Which leaves the shortcut everybody considers at some point: leaving it in the hallway or beside the facility's dumpster. Don't. Every self-storage operator in the Triangle prohibits it in the rental agreement, because that dumpster is contracted for office waste, not for a customer emptying a 10×20. What actually happens is a cleanup fee, and — worse — the unit is still considered occupied until it's genuinely empty, so you get billed for another month on top. People routinely spend more on that mistake than the cleanout would have cost. The facility wants the same thing you do: the unit empty, swept, and closed out on the books.
Storage units are the most donatable job we do, because things go into storage precisely when they're still too good to throw away. Furniture, housewares, tools, linens, books and clothing in decent shape go to Habitat for Humanity ReStore — ten Triangle stores covering Wake, Johnston, Durham and Orange counties — and to Goodwill of Eastern North Carolina, headquartered right here in Raleigh. Ask and we'll get you the paperwork those organizations issue.
The rest is separated because North Carolina requires it: the state bans televisions, computers, appliances and whole tires from landfills, so those go to e-waste and scrap-metal recycling instead, and the Durham Waste Disposal and Recycling Center takes appliances and metal at no charge. Only genuine waste is tipped, at about $37 a ton at South Wake Landfill. Before any of that, anything that looks personal — documents, photographs, jewelry boxes, military or family papers — gets flagged and set aside for you rather than loaded. In an inherited unit that step is the whole job.
This is a transplant metro. Roughly 76 people a day move into Wake County, and almost every one of them arrives mid-move, between a lease and a closing, with more furniture than the new place can hold on day one. So they rent a unit "for a couple of months" — along Capital Boulevard, off Glenwood, out US-70 toward Morrisville and RDU, or at one of the newer facilities in Cary, Apex, Garner and Wake Forest — and then life happens. Two months becomes two years. Nobody decides to keep paying; they just never decide to stop.
The trigger, nine times out of ten, is a rent increase notice. You do the arithmetic for the first time, look at what's actually in there, and realize you've been paying to store a sofa you'd never put in the new house. The second most common trigger is a death in the family and a unit nobody knew the contents of. Either way the blocker is the same: emptying it means a truck, a Saturday, and somewhere for it all to go — which is the exact thing we resolve in one visit.
Storage jobs live or die on access, so we ask about it up front. Drive-up units are the simple case: give us the gate code and the unit number, back the truck to the roll-up door, done. Climate-controlled buildings are the real work — a keypad at the exterior door, a shared freight elevator that other tenants also want, a long interior corridor, and a flatbed cart for every trip. We plan for that instead of discovering it, and it is not a surcharge.
Then there's the office. Facility managers are consistent about two things: nothing may be left in the hallway or the drive aisle, and the unit has to come back broom-clean before they'll close the rental. So sweeping is the last step of every job, and we photograph the empty unit so you can walk into the office, show the phone, hand back the lock, and be done. If you're out of state, send us the gate code and arrange the lock release — plenty of Triangle units belong to someone who now lives somewhere else entirely.
"Paid on that unit for four years. They emptied it in 90 minutes, found my grandfather's watch box before anything left, and I closed the account the same afternoon."
"Mom's unit after she passed. They were patient while I picked keepsakes, then handled the rest with real care. The donation receipts meant a lot."
"Gave them the gate code, met them only to unlock. Photos before and after, unit swept, invoice matched the quote to the dollar."
How much does it cost in Raleigh?
By unit size: 5×5 $276, 5×10 $485, 5×15 $660, 10×10 $715, 10×15 $1,075, 10×20 $1,435, 10×25 $1,790, 10×30 $2,145. $75 minimum, loading, hauling, disposal and the sweep included, no NC sales tax.
What if it's only half full?
We price by volume instead — quarter truck $295 up to a full truck $895 — and charge whichever is lower.
Can you do it without me there?
Yes. Meet us once to unlock, or send the gate code and arrange a lock release with the office. You get before-and-after photos.
Can I just leave it by the dumpster?
No. Facilities prohibit it, and it typically costs you a cleanup fee plus another month's rent — the unit isn't closed until it's empty.
Will the city take it?
No. Raleigh's curbside collection, including the $35 Bulky Load, is residential-only, and a storage facility isn't a residence.
How fast?
One visit, usually within the same week — aimed a couple of days before your billing date so the rent actually stops.
Elevator building or upper floor?
Handled. Gate codes, keypads, shared freight elevators and long corridors are normal, and there's no surcharge for them.
Where does everything go?
Donation first — Habitat ReStore's ten Triangle stores and Goodwill of Eastern NC. Electronics, appliances and tires are landfill-banned in NC and go to recycling. Personal items are flagged and set aside, never loaded.