Questions about junk removal in Los Angeles

A sofa or set of chairs, an old mattress with the box spring, a replaced refrigerator or washer, and bagged yard trimmings. Garage and attic cleanouts and estate work round out the list. The services page names each one with its page behind it.

Yes. A sectional, a sofa, a love seat, dining chairs and side chairs are the sofa-and-chair side of the list; an old mattress with the box spring is the bedroom side. For the sofa side, furniture removal is the page, and a bed frame rides with it. For the bedroom side, mattress pickup for a house covers the carry from the back of the house.

Replaced refrigerators and freezers, dead washers and dryers, older dishwashers and air conditioners that stopped running. For the carry out, the appliance removal page covers the specifics. For a household on City service, LA Sanitation picks up large metal and household appliances at no extra cost¹ through its Metal Appliance Pickup, and that page is worth checking first.

Bagged grass clippings, hedge trimmings and small prunings from a weekend in the yard. Loose branches and long limbs are not on the list, and neither are tree trunks or stumps. For reference, LA Sanitation lists flowers, grass clippings, tree and bush trimmings and clean untreated wood as yard trimmings for the green bin.² The yard waste removal page names what fits in a bagged pickup.

Household hazardous waste is not on this list. Building and remodel materials are outside the list as well, and CalRecycle says California law views nonfunctioning cathode ray tubes and mercury bulbs from televisions, laptops, tablets and monitors as hazardous waste.³ Where a large item from the house goes runs the right route for each kind.

Those are household hazardous waste. LA Sanitation says the City accepts them at a S.A.F.E. Center free of charge up to 15 gallons or 125 pounds per visit, with the address where the waste originated requested at drop off.⁴ The resident drops them off. What a trip to a S.A.F.E. Center looks like covers the details.

A standing tree, a stump or long limbs are not on this list. Bagged weekend trimmings are, and those are on the yard waste page.

For single-family residents on LA Sanitation service, yes. The City picks up large items that do not fit in the bins, and calls it an unlimited curbside service at no additional charge⁵ for the residents it serves. A free monthly Saturday drop-off also runs at five locations across the city, from 8am to 4:30pm. The step-by-step guide to the City's pickup covers the request itself from the resident's side.

Automotive parts and used oil, construction materials, commercial appliances, paints and solvents, medicines and needles, fluorescent lights, and cardboard outside a scheduled service exception are the items the City cannot pick up at the curb.⁵ The free options first collects the City's own routes.

Yes, if the piece is in good enough shape. Furniture or appliances still in good shape can go to a local charity or a community exchange, which is why the City suggests thinking about donating before scheduling a pickup.⁵ The estate cleanout page covers the whole-house version of that same sorting.

California's Mattress Stewardship Program ensures used mattresses, box springs and futons are reused, recycled or properly disposed, with CalRecycle overseeing it and the Mattress Recycling Council running it;⁶ the program says a used mattress can be dropped off at no additional cost at a participating location.⁷ Mattress disposal in Los Angeles runs through the routes.

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 out, and any item that needs its own route after it leaves the house. What sets the price of a Los Angeles removal runs each driver on its own.

A single mattress and a half-garage of boxes are different jobs, and a chart on a page cannot answer the question for a specific house. The cost guide walks through what shifts the number for a specific household.

A truck's volume is one driver, but the pieces, their weight, the carry out from the room to the driveway, and anything that needs its own route after it leaves all sit beside it. A single mattress out of a back bedroom and a half-garage of boxes come out at different numbers for exactly those reasons.

What has to go, where it sits in the house, the room it is in, the way through the house to the driveway, the garage door, and the number of steps between them. A rough count of the heavy pieces helps. If anything needs its own route after it leaves, the specifics come up on the call to (818) 533-6275. The contact page has the longer version of what to have ready.

A short count of what is going, the floor it sits on and the rooms it moves through, pets, the way through the gate or around the driveway, and anything that must stay in place. The garage cleanout page runs a longer version of that same walk around the house.

Trash pickup is the City's bins: LA Sanitation gives single-family homes and duplexes a black 60-gallon trash can, a blue 90-gallon recycling bin and a green 90-gallon organics bin.⁸ Junk removal picks up what does not fit the bins: a sofa, a mattress, a replaced refrigerator or a garage of boxes. The trash pickup guide runs the bins side by side.