People ask us which dumpster they need almost every day, and the short answer is that it depends on what you're throwing away. A closet cleanout and a full kitchen remodel are not the same animal. The good news is there are only three sizes to pick from, and once you know roughly what you're tossing, the right one tends to pick itself. Here's how to think about it.
When is the 7-yard enough?
The 7 yard is our little guy, and it pulls more weight than its size suggests. It's the one for a single room, a closet, a small bathroom tear-out, or a pile of yard junk that finally needs to go. It sits low to the ground, so you're not heaving things up over a high wall, which your back will thank you for. At $324.99 it's the cheapest way in the door.
Where the 7 yard shines is heavy stuff in small amounts. Think concrete, dirt, roofing, tile. Those materials weigh a ton in a hurry, so a small dumpster that fills up before it gets too heavy is usually the smart call.
What does the 15-yard handle?
If I had to guess your size before you told me anything, I'd guess the 15 yard. It's the middle child and the workhorse. A garage cleanout, a bathroom remodel, an average junk pile, a hot tub plus some extra clutter. The 15 handles all of it without you feeling like you're playing Tetris. At $349.99 it's only a little more than the 7, and the extra room is worth it more often than not.
This is the size we drop for most home projects. If you're staring at a roll-off dumpster page and your eyes are glazing over, start here and adjust from there.
When do you need the 20-yard?
The 20 yard is for the big jobs. A full-house cleanout, a flooring project across several rooms, a deck that's coming down, or a deck plus a shed plus everything you've been hoarding behind the shed. It's $424.99 and it's a lot of box. You'll be surprised how fast a serious cleanout fills it, though, so it's rarely overkill when the project is genuinely large.
If you're doing a full junk removal and cleanouts project and you're not sure, this is the size where sizing up makes sense.
Why are size and weight different questions?
Because around here they usually point in opposite directions. Every rental includes a weight allowance: 2,000 pounds on the 7-yard, 3,000 on the 15-yard, 4,000 on the 20-yard. Overage is $100 a ton at the exact weight, no rounding.
Light and bulky material fills the space long before it troubles the scale. Furniture, boxes, cabinets, drywall, palm fronds, screen panels. For those, size up, because running out of room means a second haul.
Dense material does the reverse, and Southwest Florida produces a lot of it. Tile and mortar, block, stucco, broken slab, pavers, wet drywall after a storm. Load a 20-yard with tile and you can pass 4,000 pounds while the dumpster still looks like it has half its space left. For those loads the 7-yard is often the cheaper choice even though it's smaller, which surprises people every time.
So the useful question isn't how big your pile is. It's whether your pile is heavy or bulky. Tell us which and the size answers itself.
Worth saying plainly: if you're between two sizes and the load is bulky, take the bigger one. The price gap between the 7-yard and the 15-yard is $25, and a second haul costs far more than that. If the load is heavy, take the smaller one and keep the weight under the allowance instead.
What's included in the price?
Every size comes with 3 days and a weight allowance of 2,000 to 4,000 pounds depending on size, priced up front. That weight goes faster than people expect, especially with anything dense. Over the included weight it runs $100 per ton, and extra days are $25 a day. So when you're picking, think about weight, not just space. A 20 yard box loaded with tile can hit the weight limit while it still looks half empty.
When you're genuinely torn between two sizes, size up. An extra few yards costs less than renting a second dumpster because the first one filled up Saturday morning. We drop these all over our service area, from Port Charlotte through Lee County.
Still not sure? That's fine. Tell us what the project is, send a photo if you've got one, and we'll tell you which box fits. Call or text (239) 412-3283 and we'll sort it out fast.