Spring Cleaning Checklist: What to Toss for $11 in Indy

Spring cleaning junk removal does not have to cost $241 — the national average for a junk removal job (HomeAdvisor, 2026). In Indianapolis, Indy Pickup 1111 hauls anything that is mostly metal by weight for a flat $11 per stop. This room-by-room checklist shows what qualifies for $11, what carries a small published surcharge, and where everything else should go.

Last updated: August 2026

In 2024, 80% of Americans said they planned to spring clean, and 45% said the job takes them three days or more (American Cleaning Institute, 2024). The cleaning part, you can handle. The problem is what’s left when you finish: a dead microwave, a rusted grill, a water heater that’s been “temporarily” in the basement since 2021. UCLA researchers who studied 32 middle-class families put it bluntly. According to Anthony P. Graesch, an anthropology professor at Connecticut College and a co-author of UCLA’s Life at Home study, “our excess becomes a visible sign of unaccomplished work that constantly challenges our deeply ingrained notions of tidy homes and elicits substantial stress” (UCLA Newsroom).

The stress isn’t the stuff. It’s not knowing how to get rid of the stuff.

That part we can fix. Indy Pickup 1111 is the Home of the $11 Pick Up: we haul scrap metal and appliances across the Indianapolis metro for $11 a stop, backed by 2,173 Google reviews at 4.9 stars. This checklist walks your house room by room and tags every item with its real disposal price — ours and everyone else’s. And if you’re reading this in October instead of April: the math works the same in any month.

What Should You Get Rid of During Spring Cleaning?

The fastest spring cleaning decluttering rule is to sort junk into three piles. Pile one: anything that is mostly metal by weight — washers, dryers, stoves, water heaters, mowers, scrap — that’s a flat $11 Indy Pickup 1111 stop. Pile two: specialty items like refrigerators, TVs, mattresses, and furniture, which carry published surcharges on top of the $11. Pile three: everything else — donate what works, and use city services for the rest.

“Spring cleaning is a great way to help achieve a safe and healthy home while getting rid of a winter’s worth of dust and clutter,” says Brian Sansoni, senior vice president of Communications and Outreach at the American Cleaning Institute. We’d add one thing to that: the getting-rid-of part should not cost more than the item was worth.

Here’s the room-by-room breakdown. Prices are our published rates — $11 base per stop, surcharges itemized on the surcharge pricing page, with the no-surcharge $11 item list here — and every item needs to be outside or in the garage.

Room-by-Room Spring Cleaning Checklist for Indianapolis

Kitchen

• Stove or cooktop — $11
• Microwave — $21 ($11 base + $10 for the mag tube)
• Dishwasher — $26 ($11 base + $15; they’re mostly plastic and need dismantling)
• Refrigerator or freezer — $36 top-mount, $41 side-by-side or French door ($11 base + a $25 or $30 freon surcharge, disconnected and set outside)
• Old pots, pans, mixers, blenders, crock pots, toasters — $11, all on the same stop

That dusty dorm fridge in the corner is a freon appliance too, but it’s the cheap tier — $26 ($11 base + $15). If your appliance is still inside the house, we can handle that — inside removal carries its own published surcharge — but outside-or-garage is what keeps the price at $11. Our guide to getting rid of old appliances in Indianapolis ranks every option, including the ones that aren’t us.

Laundry Room

• Washer — $11
• Dryer — $11

No surcharges, no catch. Washers and dryers are heavy, metal-dense, and exactly the kind of item that makes the $11 pickup model work.

Garage

The garage is where spring cleaning goes to die. In a CRAFTSMAN survey of 2,004 U.S. adults, 62% called the garage the most cluttered space in their home, and 36% said theirs is so full they can’t park a vehicle in it (Stanley Black & Decker, 2022). Everything below rides for $11 — all of it together, one stop:

• Lawn mower (gas drained is appreciated, not required)
• Grill
• Bikes and scooters
• Car parts
• Power tools, hand tools, tool boxes
• Metal shelving
• Shop vac
• Auto batteries
• Metal doors and garage doors

We wrote a whole post on this: 15 things in your garage you can get picked up for $11. The rule of thumb is simple — if the majority of the item’s weight is metal, it qualifies. If the garage is the whole project, our step-by-step garage cleanout guide for Indianapolis walks through the full weekend plan and what each option costs.

Basement and Utility Room

• Water heater — $11
• Sump pump — $11
• Furnace, ductwork, and metal venting — $11, no surcharge (same for central AC and heat pumps)
• Dehumidifier or humidifier — $26 ($11 base + $15)
• Water softener — $26 ($11 base + $15; they’re mostly plastic)
• Treadmill — $36 ($11 base + $25; heavy, mostly plastic and motor, and it has to be outside or in the garage first)

Living Areas and Home Office

• TV — $26 to $56 for a flatscreen by size, $46 to $81 for an old tube TV
• Computers, printers, stereos, speakers, DVD players, game consoles — $11
• Metal lamps — $11
• Recliner — $61 ($11 base + $50). Loveseat $76, couch or sofa $86 per piece
• Mattress — $31 twin, $36 full, $41 queen, $46 king; add $10 for a box spring

One thing most people don’t know: since January 1, 2011, Indiana law has prohibited households from putting TVs, monitors, computers, and other covered electronics in the trash, under the state’s E-Waste Law, Indiana Code 13-20.5 (Indiana Department of Environmental Management). Setting a TV at the curb isn’t just wishful thinking — it’s illegal. Our TV disposal guide covers the size-by-size pricing.

Outdoor and Yard

• Metal patio furniture — $11
• Chain link fencing, metal poles, wiring — $11
• Swing set or trampoline — $11, disassembled first
• Basketball goal — text us a photo for a price; drain the base and leave the concrete behind
• Tires — $16 for the first ($11 base + $5 per tire; they’re state-regulated)

Make spring cleaning easy. Book one $11 pickup for everything metal in this checklist — washer, mower, grill, bikes, all of it, one stop. Book your $11 pickup →

The $11 Spring Cleaning Math

Here’s the comparison that surprises people. Full-service junk removal averages $241 per job nationally, with a typical range of $133 to $372, and appliance removal alone runs $50 to $400 per unit (HomeAdvisor, 2026). The city’s heavy trash pickup costs nothing extra, but it’s capped at two items per household per month, won’t take TVs or tires at all, and makes you call the Mayor’s Action Center for a separate freon pickup.

Now price out a real spring cleanout — say a mower, a grill, two bikes, a metal shelf, and a box of old tools:

The $11 is per stop, not per item — that’s the whole trick. Add a refrigerator to that same load and you pay the $25 to $30 freon surcharge on top, itemized upfront. No quote games, no “we’ll price it when we see it.” Every number is published before the truck rolls.

Why Is Spring Cleaning Junk Removal Only $11 Here?

Fair question, and the answer is the honest kind: your junk is our raw material. Indy Pickup 1111 is part of a family-run salvage operation on Stanley Avenue, so everything metal we collect gets processed for scrap through our own yard instead of a landfill. Recycling steel and tin cans saves between 60 and 74 percent of the energy it takes to make them from raw materials (U.S. EPA), which is why scrap metal holds real commodity value — some of it is genuinely worth money. The $11 is an Eco & Fuel Recovery Fee that covers the truck getting to you; the metal covers the rest.

That’s also why we’re picky about the “mostly metal” rule. A junk hauler charges $241 because they’re paid to make things disappear. We charge $11 because we’re sourcing material. Different business, different price. If you’re curious exactly where the line sits, what qualifies for the $11 pickup draws it item by item.

What About Everything That Isn’t Metal?

An honest checklist admits its limits, so here’s ours: we are not the answer for every pile. For the non-metal leftovers of an Indianapolis spring cleaning:

1. Working items: donate them. A charity pickup beats every paid option, ours included.
2. Non-metal bulky items (wood furniture, carpet): set out up to two per month with city heavy trash, no extra charge.
3. Paint, chemicals, and other household hazardous waste: we don’t take these, and neither does the cart. Drop them free at a city ToxDrop site — two regular Saturday locations, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., no charge.
4. Construction debris: drywall and shingles need a dumpster or a quoted cleanout job, not an $11 stop.
5. A whole junk car in the driveway: that’s our sister brand. Cash Car Heroes pays cash for junk cars with free towing.

Our Indianapolis recycling guide covers the whole city system — heavy trash rules, ToxDrop schedules, and when the free option genuinely wins.

How to Book Your $11 Pickup This Spring

The whole process takes about two minutes:

1. Check your items against the $11 pickup list — anything mostly metal by weight is $11; specialty items show their surcharges upfront. The how it works page walks the whole thing end to end.
2. Book and pay the $11 — call or text (317) 350-1111, or use the online form at indypickup1111.com. During business hours we typically respond within the hour.
3. Set everything outside or in the garage — not on the road or curb. You don’t need to be home; pickups are contactless.
4. We haul it away — same-day or next-day in the core area, and everything metal gets recycled or donated, not landfilled.

Same-day service covers the metro from Greenwood to Carmel, Avon to New Palestine — check the full service area if you’re on the edges. Cancel any time before the crew is dispatched and the $11 comes back in full.

Ready to see your garage floor again? Text a photo of your pile to (317) 350-1111 or book online — it’s $11 flat for everything metal, often gone by tomorrow. Schedule your pickup →

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the cheapest way to spring clean in Indianapolis?

Sort junk into three piles: metal and appliances go to Indy Pickup 1111 for a flat $11 per stop, working items go to donation, and up to two non-metal bulky items a month go out with the city’s no-extra-charge heavy trash. That combination clears a typical house for $11 to $50 total, versus the $241 national average for one junk removal job (HomeAdvisor, 2026).

How do I get rid of garage junk for cheap?

If it’s mostly metal — mowers, grills, bikes, tools, shelving, car parts — one $11 Indy Pickup 1111 stop takes all of it at once from your garage or driveway. That’s the cheapest option in the Indianapolis metro by a wide margin: junk removal companies average $241 a job, and city heavy trash caps you at two items per month.

Does anyone really pick up old items for $11?

Yes. Indy Pickup 1111, the Home of the $11 Pick Up, charges a flat $11 per stop for anything that is mostly metal by weight across the Indianapolis metro, prepaid at booking. The model works because collected metal is recycled for its scrap value through the company’s own salvage yard. It’s backed by 2,173 Google reviews at 4.9 stars.

Is the $11 charged per item or per pickup?

Per pickup stop. A washer, a dryer, a mower, and five bikes in one driveway is still $11 total. Only specialty items add published surcharges on top of the base fee — $15 to $30 for refrigerators, $15 to $70 for TVs by size, $20 to $35 for mattresses, $50 for a recliner and $75 per couch piece.

Which spring cleaning items cost more than $11?

Refrigerators run $36 to $41, dorm fridges and dehumidifiers $26, TVs $26 to $81 by size, mattresses $31 to $46, recliners $61, couches $86 per piece, treadmills $36, microwaves $21, dishwashers $26, and tires $16 for the first. Furnaces, central AC, and heat pumps carry no surcharge at all — $11 flat.

Do I need to be home for my spring cleaning pickup?

No. Pickups are contactless: set your items outside or in the garage, and the crew collects them during the scheduled window. Reviewers regularly mention leaving a water heater out in the morning and finding it gone after work. You’ll get text updates and a call when the driver is on the way.

What won’t Indy Pickup 1111 take for $11?

Anything that isn’t mostly metal by weight: loose trash, yard waste, drywall, concrete, paint and chemicals, and general clutter. Some of those fit a quoted cleanout job instead, and non-metal bulky items can go out with Indianapolis heavy trash (two per month). When another option is cheaper for you, we’ll say so — an honest no beats a padded invoice.

Spring cleaning is supposed to end with a lighter house, not a lighter wallet. Work the checklist, stage the metal pile, and let the Home of the $11 Pick Up handle the heavy part. Call or text (317) 350-1111, or book online at indypickup1111.com — your garage floor is under there somewhere.