Whether your hiring a skip in South Africa or hiring a skip in the UK, if your waste bins are overflowing with rubbish, it is a sign that your habits are not right when it comes to disposing household waste, or you probably have way to much and need to hire a skip to keep on top of it. The accumulating waste in the bins is a clear indication that you are allowing harmful germs and bacteria to make their way into your house from these rubbish dens.
The smell alone is enough to make you gag every time you cross the neighbourhood dumpster. Did you plan for this when you started cleaning out your house? Of course not! A skip might come in handy next time you are trying to spring clean your house. These are the top tips that will help you find the perfect skip for the job.
1. Don’t pay for Air
Go back to science 101 and you will know that air has volume. This means that more garbage disposal bags will be needed if there are air pockets in them. When you start to pack the debris and rubbish into garbage bags, you will realise that air will also take up some space.
The swollen plastic bags that you put the debris into can accommodate more debris if there are small holes. These holes will keep the air out after the bags are compressed. Fill them just below the brim and tie them up after compressing them (safely: you don’t want to injure yourself while packing the garbage into the bag).
The next time you hire a skip, make the necessary change in the way you pack the garbage bags. Soon enough, you’ll find that you just saved up on the endeavour.
2. Check online for a good bargain
The internet is your best friend when it comes to hiring a skip. Leave the old yellow pages behind and do a quick search on a website such as Skip Hire Comparison to find out which skips are offering the best value for your money.
You can ask your neighbour afterwards to confirm the rates you saw online that they paid for their recent skip hire. You are bound to come across the website of the skip provider that they hired when you searched online.
You can find out some of the best skip hire services in the UK when you search hard enough. You have to look for something that falls in your budget and gets the job done. Sometimes the local skips near you might not even charge you on a daily or weekly basis. They may be overbooked and ask you to wait, but you won’t have to pay as high as the skips given out on a daily or weekly basis.
3. Don’t let food go to waste
Everyone’s up for a good house party, once in a while where you can enjoy with friends and family. Food may even go to waste if you make or buy too much. There is always a contingency of more food being bought or made so you should plan ahead.
In case food is left over from the party, give it to your local shelter for the homeless without a second thought. Don’t throw it away or put it away on a skip that’s likely going to be there at your doorstep for a week. The rotting smell as the food decomposes is enough to make you nauseous. Not to mention the bacteria it will attract while it is on the skip.
4. Book a skip in advance
The skip service you had in mind may be over booked. On the off chance that that is true, consider planning in advance. Book a skip earlier from some other company after following tip number 2.
Having trash lying outside your house will not be a pretty sight, especially if you have “extra-conscious” neighbours. They will complain about the bags of trash when they see them in plain sight. So it is all the better for you to call in a skip and book in advance so that you can throw away the trash the same day that you collect it in those bags.
5. Ask which size is best for you
There are different sized skips, each designed for supporting different clean-up levels. They can be as small as two or as large as forty yards. What’s needed from you is the assessment of how much trash do you need “skipped away.” Large skips will incur unnecessary costs while small ones will leave you in an unsorted mess.
It is a good idea to communicate with the skip hire company in any case. You should tell them what kind of waste you need to have picked up. For renovations, this might be rubble, concrete and glass, while for spring cleaning, it may be paper and old furniture that you don’t need any more.
You can ask them to advise you about what size will be appropriate for you. The company will better be able to advise you accordingly.
6. You’ll need a permit
A permit may be necessary for the skip if you don’t have a driveway or some other place that you can store the skip which you wait for it to be picked up by the truck. Contact your local council. Tell them that you need a skip permit.
A skip permit will allow you to keep your skip on the road or pavement. Otherwise, that area is public property. You will not be taken lightly without a skip permit and may be fined as well and have the skip taken away by the police. The skip permit takes a couple of days so be sure to get on top of it as soon as you are given the go ahead from the skip company.
7. Make the skip mobile
It may be best to raise the skip up on a platform when you receive it. This is because it keeps increasing in weight when you load it with the debris. When the truck comes to pick it up, the skip is dragged to the truck. This makes scratches on your pavement and if the skip is damaged it means you will be charged extra. Therefore, put your skip on a movable platform or on a carpeted surface to avoid unnecessary damage to it and to your pavement.
