In a normal clear-out someone holds something up and asks. From twelve hundred miles away that conversation can't happen — so every question a crew would have asked has to be answered before it's asked, in writing, in advance. That single constraint shapes the whole job.
Half truck $431 · full truck $732 · $75 minimum · COI for your building included
Upload Photos & Get Quote →We won't tell you who has authority to clear a unit, what a power of attorney permits, how estate matters work in Florida, or what an association may or may not allow. Those are questions for an attorney and for the association's own documents.
If there's any uncertainty about who may authorise this, settle that first. It's much easier to ask before a truck is booked than to unpick afterwards, and it's the one part of this we genuinely cannot advise on.
What we can do is the practical half: how a remote clear-out is actually organised, what has to be decided in advance, and what it costs.
Not harder, exactly. Differently shaped.
When you're present, judgement stays live. A crew can hold something up. You can change your mind about a chair at eleven o'clock. Decisions get made at the moment they arise, which is the natural way to make them.
Remotely, none of that is available. There's no one to ask, and a crew that stopped to phone about every ambiguous object would take three days and still get it wrong.
So the judgement doesn't disappear — it moves forward in time, into a written list made before anyone opens the door. Almost everything that goes wrong on a remote clear-out is something that should have been decided earlier and wasn't.
In this order, because each depends on the one before.
Authority. The owner agrees, or someone with clear authority to act for them does. If that's unclear, an attorney first.
Access. How a crew physically gets in, and what the building requires before they can.
Photographs. Somebody on site has to see every room, because that's the entire basis of a remote quote.
Nothing after this matters much until those three exist. With them, the rest is ordinary.
More flexible than people expect, and worth knowing the options.
A key with management is the commonest arrangement — many buildings will release a key to an approved contractor with the owner's written authorisation, though whether yours does is a question for the management office.
A trusted local person — a neighbour, a friend, a realtor, a property manager — who opens the unit and locks up afterwards.
Building staff escorting the crew, where the building offers it.
Any of the three works for us. What we can't do is tell you which your building permits, because that's theirs to say.
The part of this most likely to move your date, and the part hardest to manage remotely.
Most South Florida towers require a certificate of insurance naming the building before a contractor works on site, and many need a service elevator or loading dock slot reserved inside set hours.
That's routine when you're local and can call the office. From out of state it's slower — different time zone, unanswered phones, a form that has to reach the right person.
Start it early and let us handle our side. We produce the COI at no charge; what takes the time is management accepting it. The high-rise guide has the full sequence.
There's no substitute, and the effort here pays back more than anywhere else.
Whoever goes in should photograph every room from the doorway — the whole space, not the interesting parts — plus cupboards, closets, any storage cage or balcony, and the inside of the wardrobes. Lights on.
Nothing needs tidying first. A photograph of the unit as it actually is produces a price that holds; a tidied corner produces one that moves later, which helps nobody.
Five or ten minutes of careful photographs is the difference between a fixed number and a conversation on the day that you won't be present for.
If you read one section, this one.
To a crew clearing a unit, everything present reads as contents. That has to be the default — the alternative is people you've never met deciding what your family should keep.
So anything that must not go has to be named before they start. Not described afterwards. Not assumed to be obviously important.
The arrangement that works best is a room, not a list. Have whoever has access put everything to be kept into one room and close the door, and tell us that room isn't part of the job. A closed door is unambiguous in a way "the blue box in the spare bedroom" is not.
Documents, photographs, jewellery, anything with a name on it, anything with sentimental weight — those go in that room, or leave with your local person before we arrive.
A distinction worth making early, because it saves both money and second-guessing.
Shipping furniture across the country routinely costs more than replacing it, and the pieces people feel most obliged to ship are usually the least suited to travelling.
Keepsakes are the opposite. Photographs, documents, letters, small personal items and jewellery fit in a box or two, ship cheaply, and are the things that turn out to matter.
A useful way to hold it: you're shipping memory, not furniture. Have your local person set the keepsakes aside first, then price the clear-out on whatever remains.
Anything genuinely good and still sound is worth offering to a reuse organisation before it becomes a removal line at all.
Worth expecting, so it isn't a disappointment.
Contents are usually in worse condition than anyone remembers. South Florida humidity is hard on soft furnishings, and a unit sitting shut through a warm season with the air conditioning off preserves nothing — damp is what closes off donation as an option.
Upholstery, mattresses, paper and anything stored in a cupboard are the usual casualties. It affects what can be reused rather than what removal costs.
Which is another argument for photographs taken now rather than a memory of how the place looked last season.
What replaces standing in the room.
Before-and-after photographs of every room, so you can see the state it was left in.
An itemised receipt — date, address, what was removed, what it cost. That's your record, and it's worth keeping regardless of what happens with the unit next.
A crew that stops when asked. If your local person is present and something changes, work stops immediately, whatever stage it's at. That costs nothing.
It isn't the same as being there. It's what's available, and it's more than most remote arrangements give you.
Identical to an on-site job — being remote doesn't change the price.
| What leaves | Price |
|---|---|
| Minimum job | $75 |
| Sofa | $126 |
| Dresser | $126 |
| Mattress + box spring, as a set | $143 |
| Dining table (large) | $129 |
| Refrigerator | $164 |
| Loose pile — medium / large | $129 / $208 |
| Quarter truck (4 cu yd) | $241 |
| Half truck (8 cu yd) | $431 |
| Three-quarter truck (12 cu yd) | $587 |
| Full truck (16 cu yd) | $732 |
No charge for the certificate of insurance, no elevator or long-carry fee, and no surcharge for coordinating remotely. The condo cleanout cost page has more detail.
A furnished unit in Sunny Isles, cleared for a family in Ohio. What remained after keepsakes were set aside:
By volume that's around eleven cubic yards — the three-quarter truck tier at $587, quoted from twelve photographs taken by a neighbour with a key.
The COI went to management on a Monday, the elevator was booked for the Thursday, and the family saw the empty rooms in photographs that afternoon. Nobody flew down.
Simplest case. Owner authorises, someone photographs, keepsakes come out, we clear the rest. Book the building first.
Take it slowly, and make sure decisions are genuinely theirs where they can be. There's rarely a real deadline, and no advantage to rushing.
Settle authority with an attorney before anything is booked. Then treat the written set-aside list as the most important document in the job.
Start with management about key release and what written authorisation they need. Without photographs there's no fixed quote, so this is the first knot to untie.
Tell us the date when you first make contact. It changes sequencing rather than price, and the building's lead time is the part that needs the most warning.
Then it isn't. A quote costs nothing, expires on nobody's schedule, and getting one commits you to nothing at all.
Settle three things. Authority — the owner agrees or someone with clear authority does, and if that's uncertain, ask an attorney first. Access — the building usually needs a COI filed and a service elevator reserved, and a remote client can't chase that in person, so allow time. Photographs — somebody on site must photograph every room, because that's the entire basis of a remote price. After that it runs on written instructions, with before-and-after photographs and an itemised receipt.
Yes, and it's a large part of what we do here. You don't need to fly down. We need someone who can get in once to photograph — a neighbour, friend, realtor or property manager — and a written list of what must not be touched. What we can't do is make judgement calls about individual belongings on your behalf, which is why the list matters most.
Put it in writing before the crew starts, and be specific. To a crew clearing a unit, everything present reads as contents — that has to be the default. Nobody can phone you room by room. The arrangement that works best is naming a room that's entirely off limits and closing the door, because a room is unambiguous in a way a described object isn't.
For furniture, clearing is almost always the sensible answer — shipping bulky items routinely costs more than replacing them. Keepsakes are the opposite: photographs, documents and small personal items ship cheaply and are what actually matters later. You're shipping memory, not furniture.
The same as if you were standing there. Quoted flat from photographs by volume: quarter truck $241, half $431, three-quarters $587, full 16-cubic-yard load $732, $75 minimum. A furnished one-bedroom is commonly a half to three-quarters of a truck. Single pieces price separately — sofa $126, mattress set $143. No charge for the COI.
Expect the contents to be in worse condition than anyone remembers. South Florida humidity is hard on soft furnishings, and a shut unit with the air conditioning off preserves nothing. It affects what can be donated rather than what removal costs — and it's another reason photographs now beat a memory of last season.
Decide it in writing before anyone opens the door, because nobody can ask you once they're inside.
Distance doesn't make this job harder so much as it removes the ability to improvise. Everything that would normally be settled by a glance and a question has to exist as a sentence someone can follow without you.
Get the authority clear, get the building started early, get honest photographs, and put the keepers behind a closed door. Do those four and a clear-out twelve hundred miles away runs about as smoothly as one you could drive to — and you'll have photographs of the empty rooms the same afternoon.
Flat price back · COI produced at no charge · before-and-after photos and a receipt
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