Garage Cleanouts in Winter Haven, FL

Garages in a city built in the 1920s and the 1960s

The streets around Lake Howard, Lake Shipp and downtown Central Avenue mix 1920s bungalows with 1960s concrete-block ranches. The ranches are the garage jobs. Many have a one-car garage or a carport that got enclosed, and after fifty years with one family it holds a workshop, a chest freezer, fishing gear from the chain, and the furniture that came out of the Florida room. The crew clears it in a morning.

Closer to LEGOLAND and the south side, the homes are newer and the garages bigger. Two-car garages with the boxes from the move, a kayak, kids' bikes and a broken treadmill. That's the standard half-trailer garage, and the truck can be there the same afternoon most days.

The hazardous-waste drop-off is right in town

Every garage has the shelf: half-full paint cans, pool chlorine, a gas can, old car batteries. Rob's crew leaves those, but Winter Haven residents have it easier than anyone else on the map. Polk County's household hazardous-waste facility is at the North Central Landfill on the north side of town, and it's free for residents. Drop the shelf there before or after the crew comes and the garage is truly empty.

Lakefront rebuilds and the garage that came with them

Lakefront lots on the chain are being bought for the water and rebuilt, and the old garage gets emptied before the demo crew arrives. Tools, dock hardware, decades of boat parts. Rob's crew hauls the light stuff by the trailer and quotes any concrete separately through partner dump trucks, since it doesn't ride in the trailer. Dock lumber and screen-room aluminum ride with the garage load, so one visit usually clears the whole lot before demo day.