Scrap and appliance resale covered the entire dump bill
Following on from my dumpster question. I did the cleanout myself over two weekends and before anything went in the can I pulled out anything metal.
What came out: the riding mower, which ran once I put a battery in it, sold for $225. A washer and dryer set, working, $110 for the pair, buyer came and loaded them himself. About 240 pounds of assorted steel and aluminum, mostly old shelving and a bed frame, at the scrap yard for $0.09 a pound on steel and better on the aluminum, call it $28.
Total $363, minus the $22 battery, so $341.
Dump was 3.1 tons over the 4 included, meaning I stayed inside the roll-off allowance and paid the flat $580 with no tonnage overage. So the resale essentially covered more than half the container.
The part that took real time was listing and meeting buyers, probably five hours across the two weekends including two no-shows. If I put a wage on that it's a wash. I'd still do it, because pulling the metal out first is also what kept me under the tonnage cap.