Los Angeles, California junk removal
Junk removal in Los Angeles for furniture, mattresses, appliances and cleanouts
A couch that no longer fits the room. A mattress still sitting in the spare bedroom after the new one arrived. Junk removal in Los Angeles starts with a plain account of what the house holds and the way the piece has to leave it.
What has to leave the house
A couch or chairs
A sectional in the family room, dining chairs stacked in a spare bedroom, a worn love seat still in the way after the new one arrived. Furniture removal in Los Angeles picks up the carry out of a sofa and chairs from the room they are in to the driveway, through whatever doors and halls the house has.
An old mattress and box spring
A mattress pickup for a Los Angeles house covers the carry from a bedroom at the back of the house to the driveway, once the new mattress has arrived and the old one has to be gone. A bed frame is a separate piece and sits on the furniture page.
A washer, dryer or refrigerator that was replaced
The replacement is already in the laundry room or the kitchen, and the old unit is still in place after the swap. A replaced refrigerator, a dead washer or a worn dryer are what appliance removal from a Los Angeles house covers.
A garage or attic that stopped being used for anything but boxes
A detached garage packed from the back wall out, with the leftover gear a household stopped using: a broken water heater that was swapped out years ago, holiday boxes nobody has opened, two bikes and the lawn tools that have doubled up, the kids' outgrown furniture stacked against a wall. A garage cleanout is the right page.
A parent's house to clear out
A house to clear after a parent passes or moves to care, with the family deciding what stays and what leaves. An estate cleanout of the house handles the pieces the family has decided to let go.
Bags of yard trimmings
Grass clippings, hedge trimmings and small prunings from a weekend in the yard, bagged and sitting beside the garage after a long Saturday. Yard waste removal covers bagged yard trimmings off the driveway. LA Sanitation lists flowers, grass clippings, tree and bush trimmings and clean untreated wood as yard trimmings for the green bin.1
Houses, garages and driveways
Detached houses make up about 36 percent of the city's housing units,2 the median home in the City of Los Angeles was built in 1965,3 and about 44 percent of housing units were built before 1960.4 A haul out of a house moves along a short path from the room where the piece sits through to the driveway. A piece of upholstered furniture coming out of a house uses that same path as a half-garage of boxes heading out through the open garage.
Junk removal services, by the job
Each kind of removal has its own page, with the specifics for its own carry out: the room the piece sits in, the stairs, the garage door and the driveway. For one combined list, the full set of household jobs sits on the services page.
Furniture and mattresses
Appliances and yard
Cleanouts
The City's free bulky item pickup, and the other ways out
The first option worth checking before any hauler is the City's own route from the curb. A household on LA Sanitation service may find the piece going out of the house is already covered.
LA Sanitation says it is happy to come to the home to pick up large items that do not fit in the bins, and calls it an unlimited curbside service at no additional charge5 for the single-family residents it serves. Five locations across the city open one Saturday a month, from 8am to 4:30pm,5 as a free monthly drop-off option. Automotive parts and used oil, construction materials, paints and solvents, medicines and needles, and fluorescent lights are among the items the City will not pick up at the curb.5
Scheduling the City's bulky pickup, step by step covers the request itself, and free routes out of a Los Angeles house for large items collects the free options first. For the paid route, what sets the price of a removal in Los Angeles runs the drivers.
What stays off our list
Batteries, paint, light bulbs, electronics and chemicals belong at a S.A.F.E. Center, not in the black bin,6 and the trip is the resident's. Permanent S.A.F.E. Centers accept household hazardous waste free of charge, up to 15 gallons or 125 pounds per visit;7 a longer walk-through of that trip covers what to have in the car. Building and remodel materials are outside this list. Nonfunctioning cathode ray tubes and mercury bulbs from televisions, laptops, tablets and monitors are hazardous waste in California's wording.8 Where a large item from the house goes runs the right route for each one before the call to a hauler.
Junk removal in Los Angeles: your questions
What do you haul?
Furniture, mattresses and box springs, replaced appliances, the contents of a garage or an attic, the contents of a parent's house as part of an estate cleanout, and bagged yard trimmings. The six household jobs we take names each one with its own page behind it.
What do you not haul?
Household hazardous waste. LA Sanitation says accepted items at a S.A.F.E. Center may include aerosol cans, automotive fluids, household cleaners and chemicals, fluorescent bulbs, paints, stains and solvents, pesticides, pool chemicals and propane cylinders;7 residents drop them off. Building and remodel materials are outside the list, and so are old tube televisions and monitors.
Does the City pick up for free?
For single-family residents on LA Sanitation service, yes. The City calls it an unlimited curbside service at no additional charge5 for the residents it serves. The City also runs a free monthly Saturday drop-off at five locations. The step-by-step guide to the City's bulky pickup covers the request from the resident's side.
What sets the price of a removal?
The number of items, how heavy they are, how far the carry runs from the room to the curb, whether anything has to come apart on the way, and any item that needs its own route after it leaves. The removal cost guide covers each driver on its own.
What happens to a mattress or an appliance?
CalRecycle says California's Mattress Stewardship Program ensures used mattresses, box springs and futons are reused, recycled or properly disposed, that CalRecycle oversees it, and that the Mattress Recycling Council runs it.9 A used mattress can go to a participating location at no additional cost.10 An appliance goes on the City's Metal Appliance Pickup at no extra cost for residents on LA Sanitation service.11
Is junk removal the same as trash pickup?
No. Trash pickup is the City's weekly bins; a single-family home or duplex gets a black 60-gallon trash can for refuse, a blue 90-gallon bin for recyclables and a green 90-gallon bin for organic waste from LA Sanitation.12 Junk removal is the pickup for what the bins will not hold: a sofa, an old mattress, a replaced refrigerator, or a garage of boxes.
What should I say when I phone?
What has to go, where it sits in the house, and the way to the driveway, with any step between the room and the curb and anything that must stay in place. A rough count of the heavy pieces helps on the first call. If anything needs its own route after it leaves, the specifics of that item come out on the phone too.
A sentence like "a sectional out of the back bedroom, down a flight to the driveway" is enough on a call to (818) 533-6275.
Sources
- LA Sanitation & Environment, Weekly Curbside Green Bin Collection (Organics)
- U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25024, Los Angeles city (via Census API)
- U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25035, Los Angeles city (via Census API)
- U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25034, Los Angeles city (via Census API)
- LA Sanitation & Environment, Schedule a Bulky Item Pickup
- LA Sanitation & Environment, Weekly Curbside Black Bin Collection (Trash)
- LA Sanitation & Environment, Household Hazardous Waste Disposal (S.A.F.E. Centers)
- CalRecycle, Electronic Waste Management
- CalRecycle, Mattress Product Management
- Mattress Recycling Council, Bye Bye Mattress: Mattress Disposal in California
- LA Sanitation & Environment, Metal Appliance Pickup
- LA Sanitation & Environment, Curbside Trash Cans and Bins: Guidelines, Repair, and Replacement
Clearing something out?
Describe what has to go and where it sits in the house.