Seattle's Craftsman-bungalow heartland (98103) — roughly a third of the houses here were built before 1940, which means full basements, floored attics, and decades of damp storage under both. A whole basement clears for a flat $325–$985 by truck-fill, a sofa is $170, and the minimum is $95. We carry it up the stairs and out. You don't lift a thing.
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Same-day is often open across Wallingford, Fremont and Green Lake. Tell us if the basement stair is a narrow turn, if the attic is reached by a pull-down ladder, or if the alley is the only truck access.
The crew clears the room, carries every load up and out, sweeps behind, and splits the truck between donation, clean wood, metal, e-waste and the genuine remainder. You watch from the top of the stairs.
A room prices by truck-fill — how much of the truck your stuff actually fills — and individual pieces price flat. The carry up the stairs, the drive and the disposal are already inside both numbers, so the quote you get is the invoice you get.
| Job / item | Flat price |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| Sofa / couch | $170 |
| Metal shelving unit | $95 |
| Contractor bags — 10 | $178 |
| Contractor bags — 15 | $264 |
| Loose pile — medium | $174 |
| Box of books | $47 |
| Bag of clothing | $47 |
$95 minimum on any job. Loading, the basement or attic stair carry, and disposal are included. A typical Wallingford basement lands between the 4/8 ($580) and 8/8 ($985) tiers depending on how much of it is furniture rather than boxes; adding the attic usually moves it one tier, not two, because attics hold volume rather than weight. If what's down there is mostly bagged and boxed, the bag and box prices can come out cheaper than a tier — send one wide photo and we'll quote it both ways and charge the lower one. Washington does not charge retail sales tax on this service; the 3.6% state refuse tax applies to disposal and is shown in your total.
Outside context, because a whole-room number deserves a benchmark: Homeyou and Yelp Costs put the average Seattle junk-removal job at roughly $253–$325, and local haulers advertise volume tiers of about $150–$250 for a quarter load, $300–$450 for a half and $450–$700+ for a full truck. Those are third-party figures. Ours sit in the same band and arrive before a truck is dispatched. See the full Seattle price guide →
| Option | Cost | Speed | The catch on a basement |
|---|---|---|---|
| SPU special-items pickup | $30 per item | Next garbage day | Curbside-only, by appointment — dozens of items, dozens of fees, and you carry every one up the stairs |
| Put it in the garbage | Included in your bill | Weekly | SMC 21.36 bans recyclables, yard waste and food-soiled paper; over ~10% contamination gets a violation tag, not a collection |
| Self-haul to SPU North station (N 34th St) | ~$35 min/trip ≤420 lb · ~$165/ton | Same day, per trip | It's in your neighborhood — but a basement is four or five trips, plus a truck, straps and the stairs at the start of each one |
| Donation pickup (Goodwill, ReStore, Salvation Army, St. Vincent de Paul) | Free | Days to weeks | Resellable pieces only, judged at the door; trucks collect from the ground floor, not from the basement |
| JunkRabbit | $325–$985 truck-fill · $95 min | Often same day | None — flat photo price, we carry it up, sorted and donation-routed |
Municipal figures are Seattle Public Utilities' published rates; SPU's self-haul rate page is dated 4/1/2023 — confirm before you load. Ours are flat and photo-quoted with disposal included.
Only in the narrowest sense. Seattle Public Utilities collects "special items" at a published $30 per item — by appointment, scheduled to your next regular garbage day, and curbside only. You book it at seattle.gov/specialitems. If your problem is one worn-out recliner, that's the right answer and you should use it.
Then count what's actually in a Wallingford basement. A house that's been lived in since the sixties gives up a sofa bed, two dressers, a workbench, four bookcases, a filing cabinet, a mattress, a dead dehumidifier, the Christmas bins, the camping gear, the paint shelf and forty boxes. That isn't a special-items appointment — it's dozens of $30 charges, and every one of those pieces has to be carried up the basement stairs and out to the street by you before the truck arrives, because SPU's crew does not come down your stairs. Add the attic, which in these houses is floored and full, and the program stops being a plan.
There's a second Seattle rule that catches people who decide to shortcut the whole thing into the regular garbage. Under SMC 21.36, the city bans recyclables, yard waste, food scraps and food-soiled paper from the garbage, and a load more than roughly 10% contaminated gets a violation tag instead of a collection. A mixed basement pile — flattened cardboard, bottles, old lumber, a bag of yard debris that migrated indoors two summers ago — is precisely that load. It's not a technicality here; it's the reason a sorted hauler is worth hiring.
Self-haul deserves the fairest hearing in Wallingford of anywhere in Seattle, because SPU's North Recycling & Disposal Station is in the neighborhood, on N 34th St, published at roughly $35 minimum per trip (up to 420 lb) and about $165 a ton — though that rate page is dated 4/1/2023, so check it before you go. Here's the honest version: the gate fee was never the expensive part. A basement is never one trip, you need a truck and straps you probably don't own, and every one of those four or five runs begins with you hauling armloads up the same narrow staircase. Being close to the station saves you driving time, not the weekend.
On a basement job, sorting is the job — and it's also what keeps the price honest. King County tips garbage at a published $243.38 a ton while clean wood and yard waste run about $115, and electronics cost nothing at all. A sorted truck is simultaneously the compliant one and the cheap one, which is why we split it on the tailgate instead of at the gate.
Wallingford is the Craftsman-bungalow neighborhood — roughly 33.6% of the housing stock was built before 1940 — and that single fact shapes every call we get here. Pre-war Seattle houses came with full basements and floored attics, which is the thing Sun Belt cities can't claim and the reason "cleanout" means an entire room in 98103 rather than a corner of a garage.
The second fact is the climate. Decades of damp Pacific Northwest storage does something specific to a basement: the boxes at the bottom of the stack go soft, paper mildews, a dresser swells until the drawers won't open, tools rust to the pegboard. Nobody wants to spend a Saturday making individual decisions about that, and nobody should have to. You don't need to sort, dry or repack anything before we arrive — the whole room prices as one number and we bring the gloves.
The third is who lives here. This is established, walkable family stock with a lot of long-tenure and aging-in-place owners, so the jobs cluster around life events rather than mess: a parent moving to something smaller, an estate being settled by adult children, a house going on the market after thirty-five years. Those calls want care and discretion more than speed — donation routing that keeps good furniture out of a landfill, a receipt for the records, and a crew that treats a stranger's photo albums like they matter.
Physically, it's always the same staircase. Wallingford basements are reached by narrow, turning stairs with low headroom, and the attic is often a pull-down ladder. That's the hard part of the job, not the truck — and it's covered by the flat price with no stair, attic or long-carry surcharge.
"Cleared the attic and basement before listing. Donation-routed, broom-clean, realtor-ready. One fair flat price."
"Gutted the kitchen — hauled all the old cabinets and tear-out in one flat-priced trip. Fast."
"Basement full of decades of stuff, carried up and out. Didn't lift a thing. Highly recommend."
How much does a basement cost to clear?
Truck-fill: 2/8 $325, 3/8 $455, 4/8 $580, 5/8 $690, 6/8 $790, 7/8 $890, 8/8 $985. Most Wallingford basements sit between $580 and $985; the attic usually adds one tier. Sofa $170, metal shelving $95, 10 bags $178, 15 bags $264, medium loose pile $174, box of books $47, bag of clothing $47. $95 minimum.
Won't the $30-per-item city pickup do it?
Not for a room. It's $30 each, by appointment, on your next garbage day, curbside only — and SPU doesn't come down your basement stairs, so you'd carry every piece up and out first.
Can I just bin a mixed load?
No — SMC 21.36 bans recyclables, yard waste and food-soiled paper from the garbage, and over roughly 10% contamination earns a violation tag. We source-separate instead.
Should I self-haul to the North station?
For one light load, yes — it's on N 34th St, about $35 minimum per trip up to 420 lb and roughly $165 a ton as published (page dated 4/1/2023). For a basement it's four or five trips you load yourself.
Do you take moldy and damp boxes?
Yes, routinely, and you don't need to sort or dry anything first.
Do you carry it up the stairs?
Always — narrow turning basement stairs and pull-down attic ladders included, with no stair or carry surcharge.
Where does it all end up?
Donation first (Evergreen Goodwill, Salvation Army 1-800-SA-TRUCK, Habitat ReStore, St. Vincent de Paul), clean wood and yard waste separated at roughly $115/ton against $243/ton garbage, metal to scrap, TVs and computers to free WA E-Cycle, remainder tipped.
Is there sales tax on this?
Not on the service — Washington doesn't apply its ~10.35% retail sales tax here. A 3.6% state refuse tax applies to the disposal portion and appears in your total.
Rooms price as truck-fill — how much of the truck your load actually fills. 2/8 is $325, 3/8 $455, 4/8 $580, 5/8 $690, 6/8 $790, 7/8 $890 and a full 8/8 truck is $985. A typical Wallingford basement lands between 4/8 and 8/8 depending on how much of it is furniture; adding the attic usually moves it one tier. Individual pieces price flat: sofa $170, metal shelving $95, 10 contractor bags $178, 15 bags $264, a medium loose pile $174, a box of books $47, a bag of clothing $47. The minimum on any job is $95, and the carry up the stairs and the disposal are included.
No, and the arithmetic is what kills it. Seattle Public Utilities collects special items at $30 each, by appointment, scheduled to your next regular garbage day, and curbside only — booking is at seattle.gov/specialitems. A forty-year Craftsman basement plus an attic is dozens of items, so it is dozens of $30 charges, and SPU crews do not come down your basement stairs. Every single piece has to be carried up and out to the street by you before the truck comes. The program is built for the one chair that finally broke, not for a room.
Not legally. Under SMC 21.36 Seattle bans recyclables, yard waste, food scraps and food-soiled paper from the garbage, and a load more than roughly 10% contaminated gets a violation tag instead of a collection. A mixed basement pile — cardboard, bottles, old lumber, a bag of yard debris that migrated inside — is exactly that load. We source-separate it on the tailgate so the compliant route and the cheap route are the same route.
You have the best self-haul access in Seattle — SPU's North Recycling and Disposal Station is right here on N 34th St, published at roughly $35 minimum per trip up to 420 pounds and about $165 per ton. Note SPU's rate page is dated 4/1/2023, so confirm before you load. For one light load, drive it over. For a basement it does not hold up: the gate fee was never the expensive part, the four or five round trips are, and each one starts with you carrying everything up the basement stairs.
Yes — it is the normal condition of a Wallingford basement, not an exception. Decades of storage in a wet climate means soft cardboard, mildewed paper, swollen dressers and rusted tools. You do not need to sort, dry or repack anything before we arrive; we bring the gloves and the flat price covers it.
We carry it. The crew works from wherever the item sits — the back of the basement, the attic hatch, the crawlspace shelf — up the narrow turning staircase these houses were built with, and out. There is no stair, carry or attic surcharge, and nothing is ever staged at the curb.
The truck is split before it moves. Resellable furniture and household goods go to donation first — Evergreen Goodwill, the Salvation Army at 1-800-SA-TRUCK, Habitat for Humanity ReStore and St. Vincent de Paul of Seattle and King County, with a receipt on request. Clean wood and yard waste are separated because King County tips those at about $115 a ton against $243.38 for garbage. Metal is scrapped. Televisions, monitors, laptops and desktops go to WA E-Cycle free, since they are banned from the garbage. Only the genuine remainder is tipped.
It is fixed before dispatch, which on a whole basement is the difference between a budget and a guess. Third-party cost trackers Homeyou and Yelp Costs put a typical Seattle job at roughly $253 to $325, and local haulers advertise volume tiers of about $150 to $250 for a quarter load, $300 to $450 for a half and $450 to $700 or more for a full truck — figures usually confirmed only once a crew is standing in your driveway. Ours comes back from a photo and includes the carry up the stairs and the disposal.