There’s a game people often play with each other when they are trying to guess what an object is. They ask a series of questions to get clues and they often start with size.

Is it as big as a breadbox?

People generally know how big a common, everyday object like a loaf of bread is. They have good concepts for the size of a car, or a bar of soap.

But it is really hard to envision 15 cubic yards, the size of a medium residential or small industrial dumpster.

First, what is a cubic yard?

But before we envision 15 cubic yards, we must picture one. And to do that, we go back to high school math and the difference between a square yard and a cubic yard.

A yard is, of course, three feet long.

A square yard is a flat surface that is one yard long and one yard wide. It is simply a square.

But a cube is different, because it also has height. A cubic yard is one yard long, one yard wide, and one yard high.

So now comes the hard part, picturing 15 of these.

15 Cubic Yards is … ???

Unhelpfully, Google suggests that 15 cubic yards is 3029.61 gallons.

That is ALSO very hard to picture, but people can think about it in terms of swimming pools. We have seen those.

This would represent a shallow pool that you could walk around with 20-25 steps.

But maybe that doesn’t help so much, so picture instead a small car, like a Honda Civic or a Chevy Spark. You could park that small car in a 15 cubic yard garage, with a little bit of space on every side.

Sadly, you wouldn’t be able to get out of the car by opening the door. Sorry. Maybe crawl out the window?

Perhaps you are familiar with a pickup truck. Maybe you are around trucks a lot and you have a good concept of one truck load? Well 15 cubic yards is about 6 of those full truck loads.

If you are considering a dumpster rental, a quick way to determine the right size for your project is to talk to a professional at Big Daddy Dumpsters. Their experience and know-how will help guide you to the right size dumpster for your project.