How junk removal works in Seattle
One picture of the couch, the appliance, or the whole basement. An exact flat number comes back in seconds — no walkthrough, no "we'll quote it on site."
Same-day is usually open across Seattle and the Eastside. If your building wants a COI naming management or a booked freight elevator, tell us and we set it up.
The crew goes to the room the stuff is in — basement, attic, third floor, the far end of a Lake Union dock — carries it out, sweeps up, and hauls it. Usable pieces get donated.
Junk removal built for how Seattle actually lives
Seattle isn't the Sun Belt — the classic Craftsman and box homes have basements and attics, and that's where decades of stuff piles up. Clearing the basement (or the attic, or both) is one of the most common jobs we do, and we carry it up and out — you don't touch it. Then there are the hills: Capitol Hill, Queen Anne, First Hill, and Magnolia are full of no-elevator third-floor units, so we haul furniture and mattresses down the stairs and out at no stair fee. Downtown, Belltown, and South Lake Union add a high-rise COI + freight-elevator belt; the Lake Union floating homes have their own dock-and-gangway access; and across the water the Eastside tech suburbs — Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Sammamish — bring estate and relocation clears.
We price the same way across all of it: send a photo, get a flat number that already covers the labor, the truck, the dump fees, and the drive. No "call for a quote," no hourly meter, no day-of upcharge. Same-day pickup is usually available. (A small WA refuse/solid-waste tax may apply at checkout on the disposal portion — see the tax note below.)
How much does junk removal cost in Seattle?
Two shapes of price. Single items have a set flat rate. Big jobs — a full basement, an estate, a garage — price by how much of the truck they fill. Both are quoted from your photo before anyone leaves the yard, and the labor, the stair-carry, the drive, and the disposal are already inside the number.
| Item | Flat price |
|---|---|
| Sofa / couch | $126 |
| Loveseat | $119 |
| Sectional (3-piece) | $185 |
| Queen mattress | $103 |
| King mattress | $114 |
| Box spring | $92 |
| Refrigerator | $164 |
| Washer | $133 |
| Dryer | $128 |
| TV (small / medium / large) | $62 / $68 / $73 |
| Treadmill | $115 |
| Hot tub | $390 |
| Hot tub — 6-8 person | $501 |
| Upright piano | $364 |
Truck-fill — basements, garages, estates, whole homes
| How full | Flat price |
|---|---|
| 2/8 truck | $241 |
| 3/8 truck | $338 |
| 4/8 truck (half) | $431 |
| 5/8 truck | $513 |
| 6/8 truck | $587 |
| 7/8 truck | $661 |
| 8/8 truck (full) | $732 |
$100 minimum — that's the floor on any job, so a single small item still books at $100. Got more than one thing? Send one photo of the pile and we price the whole set together rather than stacking single-item rates; two or three big pieces usually land near a 2/8 or 3/8 truck-fill instead. Disposal and carry-out are included, and the price is fixed before the truck rolls.
For outside context: Homeyou and Yelp Costs put the average Seattle junk-removal job at roughly $253–$325, with a broad range of about $170–$433. Local rules of thumb run around $111–$186 for a quarter truck, $300–$450 for a half, and $450–$700+ for a full load. Our ladder sits inside that band — the difference is that you see the number before anyone shows up.
See the full Seattle price guide → — every item and truck-load price, what actually drives the cost here, and how the WA refuse tax works.
5 ways to get rid of junk in Seattle
| Option | Cost | Speed | Catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| SPU special-items pickup (city limits) | $30 per item | Your next garbage day | By appointment, curbside only — you get it out to the street yourself |
| King County transfer station (Eastside) | $40.25 min load, $243.38/ton | Same day, if you drive | Your truck, your muscle, plus $25 if the load isn't secured |
| Donate (Goodwill, Salvation Army, ReStore) | Free | Days to weeks | Resellable condition only; no used mattresses; pickup slots book out |
| 1-800-GOT-JUNK / College HUNKS | ~$400–$1,000 (third-party) | 1–3 days | Volume-priced and quoted on site only — you learn the number when they're standing there |
| JunkRabbit | $126 sofa · $241–$732 truck-fill · $100 min | Same day | None — flat photo price, we carry it out, donation-routed |
Franchise figures are the companies' own published ranges, not ours: 1-800-GOT-JUNK quotes on site only, with a half truck commonly cited at $400–$600 and a full truck $700–$1,000; College HUNKS cites $600–$800+ for a full load. Municipal fees are the published 2026 King County and Seattle Public Utilities rates.
What we haul out of Seattle every week
- Basement & attic cleanouts — the signature Seattle job: decades of furniture, boxes, tools, damp storage; carried up and out, truck-fill priced. See basement cleanouts.
- Furniture — sofas, sectionals, dressers, dining sets, bookshelves, wardrobes. See furniture removal.
- Mattresses & box springs — carried down from any floor, no bagging required of you. See mattress removal.
- Appliances — fridges, freezers, washers, dryers, dishwashers, water heaters, with freon recovered and documented. See appliance removal.
- TVs & e-waste — flat screens, CRTs, monitors, desktops, printers, routed free to WA E-Cycle. See TV & e-waste removal.
- Exercise equipment — treadmills, Pelotons, ellipticals, home gyms, usually out of a basement. See exercise equipment removal.
- Estate & whole-home cleanouts — Mercer Island, Madison Park, Laurelhurst, Magnolia; discreet, donation-routed. See estate cleanouts.
- High-rise condo & office turnover — Downtown, Belltown, SLU, First Hill, downtown Bellevue; COIs and freight elevators handled.
- Urgent jobs — closings, lease deadlines, inspections. See same-day junk removal.
We can't take hazardous materials — paint, solvents, chemicals, propane tanks, asbestos. Ask and we'll point you to the right King County or Seattle household-hazardous-waste drop-off.
What happens to your stuff after we load it
Diversion isn't decoration here — in King County it's the difference between a $243.38-per-ton garbage load and a $115-per-ton clean-wood or yard-waste load, and it keeps material out of the 3.6% refuse-tax base too. So the sorting is genuinely in everyone's interest, and it happens on every job.
- Donation first. Resellable furniture and household goods go to Evergreen Goodwill, the Salvation Army (1-800-SA-TRUCK), Habitat for Humanity ReStore, or St. Vincent de Paul of Seattle/King County. Ask and we'll get you a receipt for the tax deduction.
- Electronics to WA E-Cycle. TVs, monitors, laptops, and desktops are banned from Washington garbage and recycled free through the state program (ecyclewa.org / 1-800-RECYCLE). We divert them rather than dump them.
- Metal and appliances recycled. Steel, aluminum, and appliance carcasses go to scrap; refrigerant units get EPA-certified freon recovery first.
- Wood, yard waste, and cardboard source-separated. Required under Seattle's SMC 21.36 ban, and cheaper at the gate.
- Only the remainder gets tipped — at SPU's Wallingford or 5th Ave S stations inside the city, or a King County station like Factoria or Bow Lake on the Eastside.
Hills, stairs, docks, and towers — the Seattle access problems
Basements. Start here, because it's the lane the Sun Belt markets can't claim. Ballard, Wallingford, Ravenna, and Wedgwood are wall-to-wall pre-war Craftsman and box homes with full basements, and after thirty rainy years those basements hold furniture, boxes that have gone soft, tools, and a treadmill nobody has touched since 2014. We clear them from the bottom of the stairs up.
Hills and walk-ups. Queen Anne Ave N's Counterbalance is roughly an 18–19% grade, and the city has more than 100 public stairways. Capitol Hill and First Hill are dense with 1900s no-elevator walk-ups. Every one of those carries is in the flat price: no stair fee, no hill fee, whatever the grade or the flight count.
Towers. Downtown, Belltown, South Lake Union, First Hill, and downtown Bellevue buildings want a Certificate of Insurance naming building management, typically at $1M general liability, and the freight elevator reserved days in advance with a dock window. We carry the insurance and file the COI, and we book the elevator rather than showing up and being turned away at the desk.
Floating homes. There are about 507 floating homes on roughly 70 docks around Lake Union — Eastlake, Westlake, Northlake, Portage Bay. No vehicle reaches the door; everything is hand-carried down the shared dock to the street. It's slow, careful work and a niche no franchise bothers to market.
West Seattle. We keep crews working the peninsula, because anyone who lived through the 909-day West Seattle Bridge closure from 2020 to 2022 knows exactly what "we'll come over when we can" is worth.
When Seattle calls us
- Move season, April through September. Leases turn and home sales peak; furniture that isn't making the move has to be gone before the walkthrough.
- UW move-out. The dorm deadline is noon Saturday, June 13, 2026, with June 10–13 the busiest stretch — and an even larger off-campus surge in late August as U-District and Ravenna leases end. Book ahead for both.
- Amazon and Microsoft churn, year-round. SLU and Redmond relocations cycle desks, monitors, Pelotons, and whole furnished apartments on no particular calendar.
- Damp-basement and moldy-box cleanouts, all year. Rain country doesn't give us a snow surge or a hail surge — it gives us water-damaged garages and cardboard that has quietly given up, in February as much as in July.
- January declutter. The post-holiday reset is real, and it's the quietest week to book.
- March–April donation and tax season. People clear the house and want the donation receipt in the same trip. We can do both.
- Estate and downsizing work. Executors on Mercer Island, in Madison Park, and in Magnolia clearing a lifetime of a house, quietly.
Why Seattle chooses JunkRabbit
- Flat price from a photo. The number is fixed before anyone leaves — no on-site estimate, no hourly meter, no upsell in your driveway.
- We do the carrying. Basement stairs, third-floor walk-ups, an 18% grade, a hundred feet of floating dock. All in the flat price, no surcharge.
- Honest about the minimum. $100 per visit, and King County tips at $243.38 a ton — we'd rather tell you that up front than surprise you later.
- Honest about the tax, too. Washington doesn't apply its ~10.35% retail sales tax to the service; there's a 3.6% state Refuse/Solid Waste Collection Tax (RCW 82.18) that rides on disposal. Local incumbent Junk B Gone itemizes that same 3.6% line — anyone telling you "no tax at all" or charging you 10.35% is telling you something wrong.
- Donation-first and compliant. Goodwill, Salvation Army, ReStore, St. Vincent de Paul, WA E-Cycle, and a source-separated load that satisfies SMC 21.36.
- Insured, vetted crews and same-day COIs for the tower belt on both sides of the lake.
What Seattle customers say
"Cleared out a Ballard basement that had 20 years of stuff in it — old furniture, boxes, a workbench. They carried it all up the stairs, flat price from a photo, gone same-day. Didn't lift a thing."
"Downsizing my mom's house on Mercer Island — discreet, careful with the good furniture, donated most of it. One fair flat price, realtor-ready. Highly recommend."
"Third-floor Capitol Hill walk-up, no elevator. They carried the couch and mattress down and out same-day. Flat price, no stair fee. Lifesaver."
Seattle junk removal questions, answered
How much does junk removal cost in Seattle?
Flat and photo-quoted: sofa $126, loveseat $119, 3-piece sectional $185, queen mattress $103, king $114, box spring $92, fridge $164, washer $133, dryer $128, TVs $62–$73, treadmill $115, upright piano $364, hot tub $390. Bigger clears go by truck-fill from $241 (2/8) to $732 (8/8). $100 minimum, disposal included. Third-party sources put the average Seattle job around $253–$325.
Does Seattle pick up bulky items?
Inside city limits, SPU takes "special items" at $30 each, by appointment, curbside only, on your next garbage day (seattle.gov/specialitems). Outside city limits it's King County Solid Waste — a self-haul transfer-station system, not a pickup service. Neither comes inside.
Why is the Seattle minimum $100?
Disposal here is genuinely expensive: King County charges $40.25 minimum per load and $243.38 per ton in 2026, plus $25 for an unsecured load; SPU's stations publish about $35 minimum and $165 per ton. The $100 floor covers that honestly.
Do you carry it up from the basement?
Yes — that's the most common Seattle job there is. Basements, attics, garages, third-floor walk-ups. No stair fee and no hill fee, whatever the grade.
Is there sales tax on junk removal in Washington?
Not the ~10.35% retail rate — that applies to goods, not this service. Washington charges a 3.6% state Refuse/Solid Waste Collection Tax (RCW 82.18) on the disposal portion, which may show as a line on your receipt.
Can I throw away a TV in Washington?
No. TVs, monitors, and computers are banned from Washington garbage. The state's E-Cycle program recycles them free, and that's where ours go.
Do you cover the Eastside?
Yes — Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Sammamish, Issaquah, Mercer Island, Newcastle, Renton, Bothell, and Woodinville, plus all of Seattle proper.
Do you do floating homes?
Yes. About 507 floating homes on roughly 70 Lake Union docks, hand-carried down the dock to the truck. Tell us the dock and slip when you book.
Seattle neighborhoods we cover
The King County Eastside
Serving the City of Seattle and the King County Eastside. Tacoma/Pierce and Everett/Snohomish coming in a later phase.
Services & guides
Frequently asked questions
Why is the Seattle minimum $100?
Because Puget Sound disposal is genuinely expensive. King County Solid Waste charges $40.25 minimum per load (up to 320 lb) and $243.38 per ton for garbage in 2026, plus a $25 fee for an unsecured load. Seattle Public Utilities' own stations publish roughly a $35 minimum per trip (up to 420 lb) and about $165 per ton. The $100 minimum covers the trip and that disposal floor honestly, rather than quoting low and adding it at the door.
Do you haul from the basement and attic, not just the curb?
Yes — unlike the no-basement Sun Belt, Seattle's Craftsman and box homes have basements and attics where decades of stuff piles up. We carry it up and out; you don't move a thing. That is the single biggest difference between us and any curbside program.
Can you handle a steep walk-up with no elevator?
Yes — Capitol Hill, Queen Anne, First Hill, and Magnolia are full of no-elevator walk-ups, and Queen Anne Ave N's Counterbalance runs roughly an 18 to 19 percent grade with more than 100 public stairways around it. We carry furniture and mattresses down the stairs and out at no extra charge — no stair fee, no hill fee.
Do you do floating homes on Lake Union?
Yes. There are about 507 floating homes on roughly 70 docks around Lake Union — Eastlake, Westlake, Northlake, and Portage Bay — and no truck reaches the door. We hand-carry items down the dock to the street, which is exactly the kind of access no franchise markets for.