Sizing Guide
A full walkthrough of all five roll-off sizes matched to real Clifton-area project types, from a basement cleanout to major demolition.
Picking a dumpster size comes down to two separate questions that people often collapse into one: how much space does your debris take up, and how much does it weigh? Every roll-off container has a volume measured in cubic yards and a separate tonnage allowance, and the project you're running decides which limit you hit first. This guide walks through all five sizes we run out of our Clifton yard — 10, 15, 20, 30 and 40 yard — and matches each one to the kind of project that actually suits it, so you can size your own job with more than a guess.
Household clear-outs, furniture, cardboard and construction offcuts run out of space long before they run out of weight allowance — that's a volume problem. Concrete, brick, sand fill, tile, wet soil and waterlogged carpet run out of weight allowance while the container still looks mostly empty — that's a weight problem, and it's the more expensive mistake to make, because the fix is paying overage per ton rather than simply ordering a bigger box next time. Knowing which kind of problem your project has is the real first step in sizing, before you even look at the five sizes below.
The 10 yard dumpster holds roughly 50 to 70 kitchen-size trash bags and comes with a 1 to 2 ton weight allowance in a footprint of about 14 feet long by 7.5 feet wide by 3.5 feet high. It's the right call for small home projects, a single-room strip-out, roofing tear-off debris, or dense material like concrete and dirt where weight, not space, is going to stop the load. A lot of homeowners assume smaller means less capable; for dense debris, it's often the only size that makes financial sense.
The 15 yard dumpster steps up to about 80 to 100 bags and a 2 to 3 ton allowance, at roughly 16 feet long by 7.5 feet wide by 4.5 feet high. This is a common fit for a garage or shed cleanout, flooring removal, yard waste and landscaping tear-outs, or a project one size up from the smallest home jobs without yet needing full-house capacity.
The 20 yard dumpster is the size most Clifton-area projects land on — about 110 to 130 bags and a 3 to 4 ton allowance in a 22 foot by 7.5 foot by 4.5 foot container. It's the standard choice for a medium renovation, a full roof replacement, or a large single-area cleanout, and it's the size that usually gets recommended by default when a project doesn't obviously belong to one of the smaller or larger categories.
The 30 yard dumpster holds about 170 to 190 bags with a 4 to 5 ton allowance, at 22 feet long by 7.5 feet wide and a taller 6 feet high. This is the size most multi-room remodels and whole-home estate cleanouts need, and it's also a common choice for storm or flood debris cleanup after a nor'easter or a flash flood, when a property is generating more volume than a single smaller container can absorb in one haul.
The 40 yard dumpster is the largest we run — about 230 to 250 bags and a 5 to 6 ton allowance, at 22 feet long, 7.5 feet wide and a full 8 feet high. It's built for commercial projects and major demolition work generating a large volume of bulky, comparatively light debris. It is deliberately not the default safe choice for every job: filling a 40 yard with dense material like concrete is neither practical to lift nor cost-effective to haul, since you'd hit the weight allowance with the box barely a third full.
Putting the five sizes next to real, common Clifton-area project types:
A few other common jobs worth naming directly: a roof replacement is covered in detail in our roofing checklist, and an estate or downsizing cleanout gets its own patient walkthrough in our estate cleanout guide. Both link back to the specific sizes that tend to suit them.
These are working ranges, not guarantees, because two projects that sound identical on paper — two kitchen remodels, two garage cleanouts — can carry very different actual weight depending on what's really in them. Describing the job on the phone, including what's dense and what's just bulky, gets you a more accurate size than working from a table alone. You can compare every size side by side on our size comparison page, check pricing factors in our cost guide, or just call (862) 319-3865 and describe the project directly.
Talk to a real person
Call (862) 319-3865 and describe the job. Flat price, stated tonnage allowance, and a delivery window on the same call.
Mon–Sat 7:00am – 7:00pm
From this guide
The 20 yard is the size most Clifton-area projects land on. It handles medium renovations, full roof replacements and large single-area cleanouts without the extra footprint of a 30 or 40 yard.
Most basement cleanouts fit a 15 yard or 20 yard container, depending on how much has accumulated and whether old carpet, furniture or flooring is coming out along with general storage items.
A 15 to 20 yard container usually covers a single kitchen remodel, including cabinets, countertops, flooring and drywall scrap. A larger, more involved gut renovation can push that up to a 30 yard.
Yes. If a container fills before the job is done, we can swap it for a larger size, which costs another haul but is a straightforward fix. It's the opposite mistake — ordering too large for a dense, heavy load — that tends to cost more.
It depends on the material. Bulky, light debris like furniture and construction offcuts runs out of space first. Dense material like concrete, brick, tile and wet soil runs out of the weight allowance first, often while the container still looks far from full.
Keep reading
Where a roll-off should sit, how we protect the surface underneath it, and the clearance rules that keep a Clifton delivery off the wrong side of a garage door, a utility meter or the street itself.
ReadWhat a North Jersey winter actually leaves behind, why Clifton's spring cleanout season has its own timing, and how to size a container for a garage, basement or attic clear-out done right.
ReadA look at Botany Village's real textile-mill heritage, Rutt's Hut's long run as one of New Jersey's most talked-about hot dog stands, and the other real neighborhoods that make up Clifton.
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