A couple in Meridian skipped the attic cleanout before their roof replacement last spring. A week after the new shingles went on, they climbed up for a box of photos and found everything coated in black shingle grit, splinters of old decking, and a fine gray dust that got into every box without a lid.

Their roofer didn't do anything wrong. That's just what happens when a crew rips 25 years of shingles off right above your stored stuff.

If you've got a new roof coming in Boise, clearing the attic first is a small job that saves you a big mess. Here's what we've picked up from doing a bunch of these.

Why roofers want an attic cleanout before tear-off

Tear-off is loud and rough. The crew scrapes across the roof with tear-off shovels and pry bars, and the whole deck shakes for hours.

All that pounding knocks loose decades of dust, insulation bits, and whatever the mice left behind. It drifts down onto everything below.

Older homes get it worse. A lot of houses in the North End, on the Boise Bench, and in the older parts of Nampa have plank decking instead of plywood sheets, and those boards have gaps. When the shingles come off, grit and old nails fall right through the cracks.

Then there's rot. If your roofer finds soft decking, they cut it out and put in new, so for an hour or two part of your attic is open to the sky.

New nails are their own problem. They go through the decking and the tips poke into the attic, so anything stacked tight against the underside of the roof can get snagged or scratched.

One more thing. Plenty of roofing contracts have a line saying the company isn't responsible for items stored in the attic.

Check yours. Most people never read that far.

What should come out first

You don't have to empty every corner. Focus on the stuff that's easy to ruin or sits right in the fall zone.

✓Anything near the eaves or pushed up against the roof boards
✓Clothes, bedding, quilts, and stuffed animals (grit works into fabric and stays there)
✓Photos, letters, and paperwork in open boxes
✓Artificial Christmas trees, wreaths, and garland, which catch dust like a filter
✓Anything blocking the hatch or the path to your vents, in case the crew needs to get in

Heavy plastic totes with snap lids can usually stay if they're sitting in the middle of the attic floor. Throw a sheet of painter's plastic over them and you'll probably be fine.

Here's what almost always happens, though. Once people start pulling boxes down, they realize half of it is stuff they forgot they owned.

Baby clothes from kids who are now in college. A box of VHS tapes. Three broken lamps.

That's usually when "move it out of the way" turns into a real cleanout.

Timing your attic cleanout around the roof schedule

Try to get the attic cleared one to two weeks before tear-off. That gives you room to sort through things without a roofing crew standing in your driveway.

Roofers around the Treasure Valley stay booked from spring through fall, and after a big hailstorm their schedules get shuffled constantly. Don't be surprised by a call saying they can start Monday instead of next month. If the attic's already clear, that's good news instead of a scramble.

Then there's the heat. A Boise attic in late July can climb past 120 degrees by early afternoon, so if your roof is on the calendar for summer, work up there early in the morning or get it done in spring.

Watch your footing, too. If there's no real floor, you're stepping joist to joist, and one slip puts a foot through your ceiling. We wrote a whole post on whether your attic floor is safe to walk on if you're not sure.

Tip: Ask your roofer before tear-off whether they expect to replace any decking, and roughly where. Those sections come completely off, so whatever sits under them takes the most debris. Clear that spot first, even if you run out of time for the rest.

Where it all goes and what it costs

Once everything's down, sort it into three piles: keep, donate, and toss.

Keepers can live in the garage or a spare bedroom for the week. Decent furniture, holiday decor, and clothes in good shape can go to Idaho Youth Ranch.

Old metal shelving and other scrap metal can go to Western Recycling. The rest heads to the Ada County landfill.

Can you do all this yourself? Sure. If it's eight boxes and a fake tree, save your money and knock it out on a Saturday morning.

Yes, we'd happily take the job. But we'd rather be straight with you than sell you something you don't need.

A packed attic is different. The trips up and down the ladder add up fast, and so do the dump runs. That's the kind of job our attic cleanout service is for, since we carry it all down, set aside what can be donated, and haul the rest off in one visit.

Most attics we clear around Boise run $300 to $800, depending on how much is up there. A packed attic, or one where old insulation has to come out too, can land between $800 and $1,200.

If you want the full breakdown, we covered it in our post on what an attic cleanout costs in Boise. A typical job takes us two to four hours, so it won't mess with your roofing timeline.

The bottom line

A new roof is a big check to write. You don't want ruined photo albums and gritty quilts thrown in on top of it.

Clear the attic a week or two before the crew shows up. Start with fabric, paper, and anything close to the roof boards, and get rid of what you don't need while it's already coming down.

If you'd like a hand, call us at (208) 593-2877. We'll come take a look, give you a straight price, and work the job around your roofer's schedule.

We cover Boise, Meridian, Nampa, Eagle, and the rest of the Treasure Valley.