The need to hire a skip is often an afterthought, and the hiring manifests itself in a rushed process that can end up costing you far more than needed due to inadequate preparation.

Skip hire is relatively costly and there is no way you would spend more than £100 on anything else with such a small amount of consideration.

A common mistake is to hire an undersized skip which can lead to the need to hire a second skip. A huge amount of waste though does not necessarily mean a huge waste of money if you get the skip size right first time.

It is not uncommon to be quoted around £110 for a medium sized skip, if when the skip arrives you come to realise that it is not sufficient for your rubbish then you may well end up having to shell out another £80 or £90 in a rush to get a second, smaller, skip for the overspill.

In short you can end up spending around £200 for two skips instead of getting a larger skip from the start and paying as little as £120 after some proper planning and obtaining a range of competitive quotes.

Timing and planning

The timing and planning of your skip hire are crucial, there are few things more annoying than a skip being taken away unfilled then realising over the next few days that you are going to rip up that living room carpet after all.

Ideally, you want a skip to be filled the day it arrives, so either having the pile of rubbish ready to go straight in or having the skip delivered on the day you will definitely be creating a mess are perfect.

If a skip is left unfilled for any amount of time you can guarantee that it wont be a large amount of time before someone fill sit up for you. It is no good hiring a skip for five days in the knowledge that on the fourth day you will be able to start loading it up, because by then, it will probably be full. Skips are expensive and the opportunists out there will not think twice about a cheeky offload of some of their unwanted rubbish.

Sizes and prices

As previously outlined it is of paramount importance to get the size right if you are to minimise cost and maximise efficiency. Always go slightly bigger than you think as it is likely that unaccounted for disposable waste will always surface! Perhaps most importantly, do not pile your skip with more rubbish than it was designed to take as overloading a skip is actually illegal.

It is difficult to outline a price guide due to variations in size offerings and regional fluctuations in price. The way to ensure that you get the best price available is of course to get a number of quotes before ordering.

However, the following prices should act as a loose guideline to cost of skip hiring:

Mini skips tend to be around 76cm x 152cm x 122cm (height x length x width) and can be hired from around £65.

Midi skips measure in at around 97cm x 183cm x 129cm and tend to set you back at least £90

Builders skips are the largest and are ideal for construction/home improvement waste, they measure around 122cm x 366cm x 168cm and cost anything from around £120.

If necessary you should be able to find a skip hire company that does even larger skips and covered skips without a problem.