Service · Westside & South Bay
Attic Cleanout Los Angeles
We empty attics across the Westside and South Bay: up the pull-down ladder, boxes handed down one at a time, everything loaded and gone in a single visit, usually the same day you text. One price from a photo taken at the hatch, a two-person crew, and the usable items dropped at Goodwill or The Salvation Army.
- Same-day pickupText before noon, gone today
- Fully insuredGeneral liability and commercial auto
- Donate before dumpGoodwill Southern California & The Salvation Army
- Sorted on siteIf it still has life, it goes to charity
What we take
- Boxed belongings and old luggage
- Holiday decor and furniture stored overhead
- Rolled carpet, old insulation batts that are bagged
- Water-damaged boxes and papers
What we don't
- Rodent-contaminated insulation removal (that's a remediation job)
- Asbestos-suspect material
What attic cleanouts look like on the Westside
Los Angeles isn't an attic town. Most Westside apartments have none, and the ones that exist are in older single-family homes: the 1920s Spanish bungalows of Rancho Park and Cheviot Hills, the long-held houses north of Montana in Santa Monica, Brentwood Glen, the postwar ranch houses of Westchester that were pushed up to two stories, and Old Torrance. Those are the homes where a family has stayed thirty or forty years, and the attic is where every box went when a closet filled up.
So the call usually comes at a turning point. A parent's house in Rancho Park is being listed and the agent wants the attic empty for the inspection. An insulation or HVAC contractor won't start in a Westchester ranch until the overhead storage is cleared. Or someone in Sunset Park finally opens the hatch after a leak and finds the Christmas decor, the baby crib and four suitcases of papers soaked through. If the whole house is going too, that's an estate cleanout; if the garage is the bigger problem, start with our garage cleanout page, which is the larger sibling of this one and covers overhead racks and storage units as well.
How an attic cleanout works
Text a photo taken from the top of the ladder to (310) 905-5138, with the house address and whether the hatch is a closet scuttle or a pull-down stair. Miles replies with a single price based on how much truck space the pile will fill once it's on the floor. If the photo is too dark to judge, send two or three; a phone flash works fine.
Two people come. One goes up with a headlamp, a dust mask and drop cloths for the hallway below; the other receives at the ladder and runs items out to the truck. We stay on the joists and the decked areas, not the drywall between them. Loose items get bagged in the attic so nothing sheds insulation through the house. We do not pull up or vacuum insulation, and if what's up there is loose gray-brown vermiculite, we stop and ask you to have it tested before anyone goes further. Rodent-contaminated insulation is a remediation job, not ours. A typical attic takes one to two hours; a packed one with a scuttle hatch takes closer to three. In July and August we try to book attics for the first window of the morning, because by noon the roof deck is brutal.
Load sizes for attic cleanouts
| Load | What it usually is |
|---|---|
| Small load | Eight to ten boxes, or two suitcases and a rolled rug |
| Quarter truck | Holiday decor, a crib and a few bins: the standard family attic |
| Half truck | Forty years in one house: boxes, a headboard, luggage, old carpet |
| Three-quarter truck and up | Attic plus garage, which we quote together as a garage cleanout |
Attic loads are mostly air and cardboard, so space, not weight, sets the price. Water-damaged boxes are the exception; wet paper is heavy, and we'll say so in the quote.
Where it goes
More survives an attic than people expect. Luggage with working zippers, lamps, framed art, folding chairs, intact holiday decor and furniture stored overhead are set aside for Goodwill Southern California or The Salvation Army. Old TVs and stereo gear found under the eaves go to an e-waste recycler, never the landfill. Metal bed frames and the inevitable box of hangers go to scrap.
Papers and cardboard that got wet, mildewed fabric, rolled carpet and bagged insulation batts go to a licensed transfer station: Southern California Disposal on Frank Street for Santa Monica and Brentwood jobs, the Culver City station on Jefferson Boulevard for Rancho Park and Mar Vista, and the Gardena stations for Torrance and the Peninsula. If there are documents you'd rather not have anyone read, set them aside and we'll point you to a shredding pickup.
Access situations we plan for
- Closet scuttle hatches: common in 1920s and 1940s homes. We bring our own ladder, clear the closet first and lay drop cloths on the carpet below.
- Pull-down stairs: tell us if the spring is tired or a tread is cracked. We'll bring a ladder rather than trust it with a loaded crew.
- Two-story homes: an attic on the second floor means every box goes down two flights. The stairs are in the quote.
- Hillside driveways: Brentwood canyons and the Hollywood Riviera above Torrance can be too steep for the truck. We stage at the street and dolly.
- HOA and gated streets: Beverlywood and the Palos Verdes cities have curb rules and gates. Leave the code and we keep the truck off the lawn and out of the street.
When the city program covers it, and when it doesn't
If the house is in the City of Los Angeles (Rancho Park, Cheviot Hills, Brentwood, Westchester, Mar Vista, Venice), LA Sanitation's free 311 bulky pickup will take a headboard or a crib from the curb on your trash day. It will not send anyone up a ladder: city crews don't enter private property, and loose boxes and bags aren't bulky items. Santa Monica and Torrance cap their free pickups at a handful of items and both stay curbside, so an attic still has to come down to the street before either helps. Beverly Hills collects on request within a few business days. For an attic, the city program is useful for the one or two big pieces after we've brought them down, and we're the ones who bring them down.
Attic Cleanout questions
Do you actually go into the attic, or do I have to bring everything down?
We go up. One crew member works in the attic with a headlamp and dust mask while the other receives at the ladder. You don't have to touch a box. If you'd rather sort first and flag what stays, that's welcome, but it isn't required.
Can you remove old insulation from my attic?
We take insulation batts that are already pulled and bagged. We don't pull, vacuum or blow out insulation, and we don't handle rodent-contaminated insulation or anything that might be asbestos; both of those are remediation jobs, and we'll say so when we see the photo.
How long does an attic cleanout take in Los Angeles?
One to two hours for a typical family attic with a pull-down stair. A scuttle hatch in a closet, a second-floor attic, or forty years of boxes pushes it toward three. Most jobs are done the same day you text if you reach us before noon.
What happens to the things in my attic?
Luggage, lamps, framed art and intact decor go to Goodwill Southern California or The Salvation Army. Electronics go to an e-waste recycler, metal to scrap, and water-damaged paper, carpet and bagged insulation to a licensed transfer station.
Will LA's free bulky-item pickup empty my attic?
No. LASAN's 311 service collects large items from the curb and crews don't enter homes, so boxes stored overhead aren't covered. It's a good way to get rid of one big piece after it's been brought down, and we handle the bringing down.
Do you do crawl spaces and overhead garage storage too?
Sometimes. A crawl space we can work in standing or kneeling is priced the same way, from a photo of what's under there; a very low or wet crawl space may need a different plan, and we'll say so from the photo. Overhead garage racks and storage units are covered on our garage cleanout page, which is the bigger version of this service; if attic and garage both need emptying, we quote them as one job.
Ready when you are
Text a photo of the attic cleanout. Get a price today.
Snap what's going, text it over, and we reply with a clear price, usually within the hour. No visits, no hourly rates, and if the load differs from the photos we re-quote before we lift anything.