Review: Bagster

A few times during our marriage, between buying and selling houses. Or purging. Or spring cleaning. Or getting rid of items that were ruined with a flooded basement. Or two. The Ex and I would rent a small dumpster. They tend to be a bit pricey, so we sometimes shared the cost (and dumpster space) with friends. But it was a good way to get rid of a bunch of stuff in one fell swoop.

We would recycle or donate appropriate items, but some things are just garbage, you know? And I like to keep our garbage men on my side, and while they are awesome at taking pretty much everything, dumpsters allowed us a massive purge, and the option to not overwhelm our garbage men.

Win. Win.

But these days, there is a new way to get rid of things. A bagster. I actually heard about it for the first time on Young House Love. It looked so easy and (relatively) inexpensive, and I filed that information away for future use.

And for the next time I felt the need to do a major purge.

And then, a week later, a PR firm that I work with asked if I wanted to review the Bagster. Seriously. Life is funny like that with timing sometimes, isn’t it?

Since the kids and I moved back into this house, I actually didn’t have much to throw away or purge for once, so the honor went to my parents.

Getting a Bagster is the simplest thing ever. You can find them at your local home improvement store (like Home Depot or Lowe’s), and even on Amazon. I’m a big fan of Amazon, their free shipping, and the fact that it saves me another stop to make with the kids, so that’s where I purchased mine (for under twenty five bucks).

My parents spent a weekend filling up the Bagster with a wide variety of items, everything from wood scraps and a grill to furniture and old picture frames. Pretty much anything goes (although yard waste is not accepted everywhere, you can doublecheck your area right here).

While you can go to town when it comes to filling up the Bagster, there are a few rules to be aware of. While it looks a little small when you first open it and set it up, it actually *does* hold quite a bit (up to 3300 lbs!), but the yellow straps on the sides need to be able to meet on top once it’s full (so it can be properly picked up by the crane).

If you place it in your driveway, the driveway has to be 12 feet wide. My parents have a very long and narrow driveway, but ended up missing the width requirement by one foot, which meant they needed to put it on their lawn near the end of the driveway. Not terrible, but because their driveway is so long, this also meant that they had to lug all the stuff down to the end to where the Bagster is.

When filling up your Bagster, with a few smart choices, you can maximize the space to get the biggest bang for your buck. For example, if you put furniture in it, the Bagster will fill up quickly. My parents ended up taking some items apart so they could use the space as efficiently as possible. Once you have the Bagster filled up, you call their telephone number, pay with a credit card (cost for pick-up varies by area but is between $90-175), and it will be picked up within a few days. With its bright green canvas and unsightly odds and ends sticking out of it, we wondered if the neighbors would object to the Bagster being on the lawn, but thankfully, no one complained.

It certainly is a very easy product to use, and depending on your particular project, it can be more economical than a dumpster. With warmer weather (hopefully!) on the horizon, and spring cleaning projects starting up soon, this novel idea could come in handy.

Have you used a Bagster? Do tell.

Tomorrow? A Greek-inspired stromboli recipe.

*I was compensated for my purchase and the pick-up of the Bagster, and compensated for my time in reviewing it. All opinions are, of course, completely my own.