Northgate, Maple Leaf, Lake City and Bitter Lake (98125, 98133) — garden apartments, new light-rail-corridor buildings, and mid-century houses with basements. A sofa is $170, a queen mattress $139, a mini-fridge $155; a whole unit clears for $325–$985 by truck-fill, $95 minimum. We carry it down and out — no stair fee, no curb drag.
Snap a photo — flat price back in seconds
Upload a Photo & Get Quote →North Seattle around the Northgate light-rail station is really three housing stocks stacked on top of each other. There are the mid-century single-family houses of Maple Leaf and Lake City, most with a basement and a garage and an owner who's been there thirty years. There are the 1960s and 70s garden apartments — two and three stories, exterior stairs, no elevator, a shared trash enclosure out back. And since the Link station opened there's a growing wall of new transit-oriented buildings with elevators, key fobs and a loading area you have to book.
Those buildings produce very different jobs, but almost all of them arrive with a hard date attached. A lease ends. A tenant moves out and the unit has to be rentable by the weekend. A closing is Friday. That's the defining feature of junk removal in 98125 and 98133: the problem is rarely "what do I do with this couch," it's "the couch has to be gone by Saturday and I don't own a truck." We give you a flat price from a photo, then show up inside the window and carry it down.
One photo of the couch, or a wide shot of the room. The flat price comes back in seconds — no walkthrough, no estimate visit, no hourly meter running while you decide.
Same-day and next-day are usually open. Tell us the floor and whether it's a walk-up or an elevator building so we bring the right crew — and we'll book the loading area if the building requires it.
Out of the unit, down the exterior stairs or through the elevator, into the truck. Usable furniture is routed to donation, e-waste to E-Cycle, metal to scrap. The unit is left swept.
Single pieces are flat and quoted from a photo. A whole unit — a studio's worth of leftovers, a two-bedroom's worth, a basement — prices by truck-fill, meaning how much of the truck it actually occupies. The carry-down and the disposal are inside both numbers.
| Item / job | Flat price |
|---|---|
| Sofa / couch | $170 |
| Queen mattress | $139 |
| Twin mattress | $111 |
| Box spring | $124 |
| Mini-fridge | $155 |
| Refrigerator (full size) | $221 |
| Desk (standard) | $112 |
| Contractor bags — 10 | $178 |
| Truck-fill — 2/8 (quarter) | $325 |
| Truck-fill — 3/8 | $455 |
| Truck-fill — 4/8 (half) | $580 |
| Truck-fill — 5/8 | $690 |
| Truck-fill — 6/8 | $790 |
| Truck-fill — 7/8 | $890 |
| Truck-fill — 8/8 (full truck) | $985 |
$95 minimum on any job. Stair-carry, elevator wait and disposal included. Moving several things at once? Send one photo of the room rather than pricing pieces one at a time — a studio or one-bedroom's leftovers usually land at 2/8–4/8 ($325–$580), and a mid-century basement in Maple Leaf runs higher. A small WA refuse tax may apply on the disposal portion.
For outside context, Homeyou and Yelp Costs put the average Seattle junk-removal job at roughly $253–$325. See the full Seattle price guide →
| Option | Cost | Speed | The catch when you have a move-out date |
|---|---|---|---|
| SPU special-items pickup | $30 per item | Your next garbage day, by appointment | Won't match your lease date; curbside only; four items is four fees, and many buildings ban staging furniture in the trash area |
| Donation pickup (Goodwill, ReStore, Salvation Army) | Free | Days to weeks | Resellable items only, scheduled on their calendar, and they collect from the ground floor — not a third-floor walk-up |
| Sell or give it away online | Free | Days to never | Buyers ghost, and a queen mattress with a stain has no market at all — it's still in the unit on Saturday |
| Self-haul to SPU North station (Wallingford) | ~$35 min/trip ≤420 lb · ~$165/ton | Same day, if you drive | You need a truck, a second person, and the sofa down the stairs before you even start driving |
| JunkRabbit | $170 sofa · $325–$985 truck-fill · $95 min | Often same day | None — flat photo price, we carry it down, donation-routed |
Municipal figures are the published Seattle Public Utilities rates (SPU's self-haul page is dated 4/1/2023 — confirm before you load). Ours are flat, photo-quoted, and include the labor.
It does, on its own schedule and only if you meet it at the curb. Seattle Public Utilities runs a special-items collection at a published $30 per item, by appointment, tied to your next regular garbage day, and curbside only. You book it at seattle.gov/specialitems.
For a homeowner with one broken recliner and no particular deadline, that's a reasonable deal. For the person this page is actually about — a renter in a Northgate garden apartment whose lease ends Saturday, or a landlord who needs a unit rentable Monday — it fails on three counts at once. First, the timing isn't yours: collection happens on the building's next garbage day, which may be after you've turned in the keys. Second, the fees multiply: a couch, a queen mattress, a box spring and a desk is four separate $30 charges, and once you're past a few pieces the program stops looking cheap. Third, and most decisively, it's curbside only — you are personally carrying every piece down two or three flights of exterior stairs and leaving it on the street to wait.
That last part is where Northgate has a wrinkle other neighborhoods don't. Many apartment buildings here prohibit leaving furniture in the shared trash enclosure at all — it's a dumpster area sized for household bags, not a staging yard — and a sofa parked next to it gets you a notice from the property manager, not a collection. So the "free-ish" city option can leave you with a couch that's legal nowhere: not in the trash room, not in the hallway, and not on the curb until the appointed day.
Self-haul is the other DIY route. SPU's North Recycling & Disposal Station in Wallingford on N 34th St is the closest facility, published at roughly $35 minimum per trip (up to 420 lb) and about $165 per ton — the rate page is dated 4/1/2023, so verify before you go. It's genuinely cheap if you own a pickup. Most people who need a sofa gone by Saturday don't, and renting one plus recruiting a friend plus the stairs usually costs more in a weekend than the flat price does.
An apartment clear-out is mostly still-usable stuff, which is why sorting matters more here than the tipping does. King County tips garbage at a published $243.38 a ton; donated furniture and E-Cycle electronics cost nothing at all. We split the truck on the tailgate.
Access in North Seattle splits by vintage, and we plan for both. The 1960s–70s garden apartments that ring Northgate are walk-ups: exterior stair runs, a tight landing at the top, an interior door that a queen box spring only clears at an angle. That's a normal carry for us and it costs nothing extra — there is no stair fee in the flat price. Give us the floor number in the photo message and we'll send enough people.
The new transit-oriented buildings along the light-rail corridor work the opposite way: a fobbed lobby, a service elevator that may need to be reserved, a designated loading area rather than street parking, and a property manager who wants to know a vendor is insured before anything moves. We handle that end — booking the elevator window, checking in at the desk, protecting the floor — and we're insured and vetted, so paperwork requests aren't a surprise.
Then there's the other half of the neighborhood: the mid-century houses of Maple Leaf and Lake City, with a basement under the main floor and a garage off the alley. Those are stair-carry jobs too, just in the other direction — up, not down — and they price as truck-fill rather than per piece. Same crew, same flat-quote logic, no surcharge for the steps at either end.
"Basement cleared same-day, carried up and out. Flat truck-fill price. Easy."
"Walk-up move-out — couch and mattress down and out, no stair fee. Fair flat price."
"Rental turnover, hauled and swept same-day. Reliable. Highly recommend."
How much does it cost in Northgate?
Flat per piece: sofa $170, queen mattress $139, twin $111, box spring $124, mini-fridge $155, refrigerator $221, desk $112, ten bags $178. Whole units by truck-fill: $325 (2/8), $455, $580 (half), $690, $790, $890, $985 (full). $95 minimum, carry and disposal included.
My lease ends this weekend — can you make it?
Usually yes. Same-day and next-day windows are often open across Northgate, Maple Leaf, Lake City and Bitter Lake.
Will SPU just take my couch?
At $30 per item, by appointment, on your next garbage day, curbside only — and many buildings won't let you stage furniture by the trash enclosure while you wait. Details at seattle.gov/specialitems.
Is there a stair fee in a walk-up?
No. Two or three flights of garden-apartment stairs are in the flat price, same as an elevator building.
Do you work with landlords on turnovers?
Yes — photo quote from the manager, lockbox access if needed, unit hauled and swept, completion photo sent.
What happens to the mattress and the mini-fridge?
Usable furniture is donated (Goodwill, ReStore, Salvation Army — receipt on request), fridges go through EPA-certified refrigerant recovery, TVs and monitors to WA E-Cycle free, metal to scrap.
Should I drive it to the transfer station myself?
You can — SPU North on N 34th St publishes about $35 minimum per trip up to 420 lb and roughly $165/ton (page dated 4/1/2023). You'll need a truck, a helper, and the sofa down the stairs first.
Is there sales tax on it?
Not the ~10.35% retail rate. A 3.6% state Refuse/Solid Waste Collection Tax (RCW 82.18) applies to the disposal portion and may appear on your receipt.
Usually yes. Same-day and next-day slots are often open across Northgate, Maple Leaf, Lake City and Bitter Lake, and lease-end jobs are what this neighborhood calls us for most. Send a photo of the room, lock the flat price, and pick the window that clears the unit before the walkthrough.
Only slowly and only at the curb. Seattle Public Utilities' special-items collection is $30 per item, by appointment, and scheduled to your next regular garbage day — not to your move-out date. A couch, a queen mattress, a box spring and a desk is four separate $30 fees, and all four still have to be carried down and staged at the street by you. Many Northgate buildings also prohibit leaving furniture in the shared trash area at all, so there is nowhere legal to put it while you wait. Booking details are at seattle.gov/specialitems.
No. The 1960s and 70s garden apartments around Northgate are two- and three-story walk-ups with no elevator, and that carry is already inside the flat price. There is no stair fee. In the newer light-rail-corridor buildings we book the elevator and use the loading area instead.
Yes — it is a steady Northgate job. Whatever the last tenant left behind gets hauled and the unit swept, usually in one visit, priced as truck-fill from a photo the property manager sends. We can work from a lockbox code and send a completion photo if nobody can be on site.
Usable furniture is routed to donation first — Evergreen Goodwill, the Salvation Army at 1-800-SA-TRUCK, and Habitat for Humanity ReStore — with a receipt on request. Refrigerators and mini-fridges go through EPA-certified refrigerant recovery rather than into a compactor, TVs, monitors and computers go to WA E-Cycle free because they are banned from Washington garbage, and metal frames are pulled for scrap.
You can. SPU's North Recycling and Disposal Station in Wallingford on N 34th St is the nearest one, published at roughly $35 minimum per trip up to 420 lb and about $165 per ton — that page is dated 4/1/2023, so confirm before you load. You will need a vehicle that fits a sofa, a second person, and enough time on the last weekend of your lease, which is the part that usually fails.
Not the roughly 10.35 percent retail rate — it does not apply to this service. Washington instead charges a 3.6 percent state Refuse/Solid Waste Collection Tax (RCW 82.18) on the disposal portion, which may appear as a small line on your receipt.