How much does junk removal cost in Boston?

The short answer

Two ways to price a job, and you take whichever comes out lower.

By item. Every common object has a published price. Sofa $170. Queen mattress $139. Standard refrigerator $221. Washer $179. Treadmill $155. Dining table for six to eight $220.

By how much of the truck you fill. A quarter truck is $325, three-eighths $455, a half $580, five-eighths $690, three-quarters $790, seven-eighths $890, and a full truck $985.

The visit minimum is $75. Below that there is nothing to talk about; above it, the total is the sum of what you actually have.

What a typical Boston job looks like

Some real shapes, with the arithmetic shown:

• One sofa out of a Southie apartment. $170.
• Bed replacement in Dorchester. Mattress-and-box-spring set $192 plus a standard frame $92 = $284.
• Kitchen appliance swap in Somerville. Refrigerator $221 plus an electric range $180 = $401.
• Student apartment in Allston at the end of a lease. Two twin mattresses, a sofa and a desk: $111 + $111 + $170 + $112 = $504. At that point look at the half truck at $580 as well and take the smaller number.
• Triple-decker basement in Roslindale. Usually a truck-fill job. Quarter truck $325 if it is one corner, half truck $580 if it is the whole floor.

Why item pricing usually wins in this city

Boston housing does not produce many neat, dense piles. It produces a sofa on a third floor, a fridge in a basement, a mattress in a back bedroom and an air conditioner on a porch. Those are four objects in four places, not a heap by a garage door.

For that shape of job, pricing by item is almost always cheaper than pricing by truck volume, because four objects do not fill a quarter of a truck but they do take an hour to collect. A sofa at $170 and a queen mattress at $139 is $170 + $139 = $309, which is under the quarter-truck price of $325.

The flip happens when the volume gets real — a whole basement, a garage in West Roxbury, a full apartment clear-out. Then the ladder takes over and a half truck at $580 covers more than you could economically list piece by piece.

What the price already includes

• The carry. From wherever the thing is. Third floor of a triple-decker, a Back Bay walk-up with no elevator, a bulkhead basement in Hyde Park. There is no stair charge and no walk-up fee.
• The labor. Including taking a bed frame or a treadmill apart if that is what it takes to get it through a landing turn.
• The disposal. Tip fees are inside the number. Nothing is added afterwards.
• The sorting. Metal, electronics, textiles and usable furniture get separated out rather than all going the same way.

What is not in there: a fee at the door, a fuel line, a surcharge for a same-day slot, a charge because your street is narrow. The quote you accept is the amount charged.

The Boston things that change the job but not the price

Three realities shape nearly every pickup in this city, and none of them move the number.

Triple-decker stairs. Narrow, enclosed, a turn at every landing, and often the back stairs are the only usable route because the front has a storm door and a stoop. A sectional sofa comes down that in pieces.

Where the truck can legally sit. Resident permit parking, streets in Charlestown and the North End that are barely one lane wide, and snow banks from January through March that take out the only spot outside your door. Sometimes the carry to the truck is longer than the carry down the stairs.

Real basements. Unlike a lot of the country, Boston houses have basements, and Boston basements accumulate. A 1920s two-family in Jamaica Plain can hold thirty years of somebody's storage, and the route out is a bulkhead with four stone steps.

The two weeks when the whole city books at once

Boston concentrates its lease turnover on September 1. Not spread over a month — one day. Half the rental stock changes hands, U-Hauls get wedged under Storrow Drive overpasses, and every sidewalk in Allston, Brighton, Fenway and Mission Hill sprouts furniture. The second peak is May, when graduation empties the student housing around BU, Northeastern, Harvard and Tufts all at once.

Prices do not move in those weeks. Availability does. If you are moving on or around September 1, book before the last week of August and you will get the slot you want. Outside the peaks, same-day and next-day are usually open, and a same-day slot costs exactly what the items cost.

Common items and what they cost

How to get an accurate number in two minutes

List what you have, in words. Not photos — typed words. "Queen mattress, box spring, metal frame, two nightstands" gets you an exact total in seconds, because every one of those is a line item with a published price.

If it is a basement or a garage and you genuinely cannot list it, describe the footprint instead and price it off the truck ladder. A corner of a basement is usually a quarter truck at $325. A full one-bedroom's worth is usually closer to a half truck at $580.

Either way the number appears before you commit, and it is the number on the invoice.

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