Apartment cleanout cost
in Austin

How apartment cleanouts are priced

A full-unit clear isn't priced per item — it's priced by how much of the truck the contents fill. That keeps it simple and honest: you're not counting chairs, you're filling a fraction of a truck. Send a photo of the rooms and we quote the exact flat price up front, loading and disposal included. Here's the typical range by unit size:

$75 minimum. Loading and disposal included; no stair fee. A photo gives the exact number.

The full truck-fill ladder

Seven tiers, not three, so a unit that's between sizes doesn't get rounded up:

If it's just a few things — the per-item ladder

Half the calls we get from West Campus and Riverside aren't whole units at all. They're the three things that won't fit in the car. Those price individually, and whichever total is lower — per item or truck-fill — is what you pay.

$75 minimum on any pickup — so a single moving box or a couple of bags prices at the minimum, not per piece.

For context on what everyone else charges: 1-800-GOT-JUNK and College Hunks Hauling Junk publish no Austin price and quote only after an on-site or phone estimate — awkward when your lease ends Friday. Muvr does publish upfront pricing from $99, but it isn't a carry-out service, so a third-floor Riverside walk-up is still your problem. Disposal itself isn't free either: commercial tipping at Texas Disposal Systems' Creedmoor landfill ran about $60 per ton of MSW with a two-ton minimum on the published 2025 gate rates, and that cost sits inside the flat prices above.

Why Austin renters have to pay at all

This is the part that catches people, especially anyone who's just moved here from a city with free bulk collection. Austin Resource Recovery's on-demand bulk collection — the program that gives residents a limited number of free curbside pickups a year — serves City of Austin residential curbside-trash customers. Apartment and condo buildings are not on city collection; they're served by private hauling contracts the property signs.

The consequence is blunt: an apartment resident cannot request on-demand bulk at all. Not a reduced allotment, not a paid version — no access. The single-family house one street over can request a free pickup; the tenant in the four-story building can't, and neither can the owner of a Rainey Street condo. The terms are published at austintexas.gov/service/ondemand, and you can start a request through Austin 3-1-1 if you do live in a city-serviced house.

That leaves renters exactly two options. The first is the building dumpster, which virtually every Austin property bans bulk furniture and mattresses from — and enforces, because the property pays per pull and a mattress jammed in the compactor is a service call. Complexes around campus post fines for it during move-out week for precisely that reason. The second is a paid haul. That's the whole market this page prices.

Four ways to clear an Austin apartment

What we clear out of an apartment

• The furniture that won't fit the next place — sofas, loveseats, futons, dressers, bookshelves, desks, dining sets.
• Beds — mattresses, box springs and frames, from a twin in a shared West Campus unit to a king in a Domain one-bedroom.
• Electronics — TVs, monitors, printers and desktops, routed to e-waste rather than the dumpster.
• The kitchen leftovers — mini fridges, microwaves, small appliances and the cabinet contents nobody packed.
• Bagged and boxed overflow — the closet, the pantry and the "deal with it later" pile, priced by the bag count.
• Whole units — landlord and property-manager turnovers cleared to broom-clean between tenants.

Where it goes after we carry it down

Student and renter furniture is some of the most donatable material in the city — a two-year-old IKEA dresser is not landfill material. Usable pieces go to Goodwill Central Texas and the Austin Furniture Bank, which places beds, dressers and sofas with households leaving shelter; during the summer exodus the city's own MoveOutATX donation stations absorb the same flow, diverting 249 tons in a past season. Mattresses are recycled where a facility will take them — Texas has no statewide mattress-recycling mandate the way California or Connecticut do, so this depends on the load and the facility. TVs, monitors and computers go to Austin e-waste recyclers. Only what's genuinely spent gets tipped, at the per-ton rate already inside your quote. Want a donation receipt for the tax file? Ask on the day.

Walk-ups, freight elevators, and the building's own rules

Riverside and West Campus: stairs, no elevator. The garden apartments along Riverside Drive and the old houses chopped into units near campus are walk-ups by design. Getting a sleeper sofa down an exterior staircase in August is the job — there is no stair fee, and there's no floor we won't come up to.

The Domain and downtown: paperwork before muscle. High-rise units at The Domain (78758/78759) and downtown and Rainey Street (78701) require a Certificate of Insurance naming the association and the management company — $1M general liability is the typical requirement — plus a freight elevator reserved several business days in advance and a loading-dock window. There is no curb at these buildings; everything goes out the dock. We file the COI and book the elevator, and none of it is a surcharge. One thing to budget separately: many buildings charge their own move-out fee, which the management office bills you directly and which nobody outside the building controls.

Book the elevator before you book us. The single most common scheduling snag in an Austin high-rise cleanout isn't the truck — it's a dock window that was already taken by a moving company three days earlier. Call the office first, then send us the photo.

The late-July UT crunch

If your lease ends July 31 — like most around campus — you're moving out the same week as everyone else. Dumpsters overflow, complexes fine dumpster-dumping, and the bulk schedule can't keep up. Booking a flat-price whole-unit clear ahead of the crush is the calm way through it; we run West Campus (78705) and Riverside (78741/78742) hard through August.

What that week actually looks like: a single ZIP turning over almost simultaneously, moving trucks double-parked, and every complex's dumpster full by Tuesday. The city stands up its MoveOutATX donation stations specifically to catch the overflow, which tells you the scale of it. There's a smaller version in May, when graduating seniors clear out weeks before the July wall. If you can pick your day, the last week of July is the one to book early; the first week of August is when everyone who didn't plan is calling at once.

When people book an apartment cleanout

• The July 31 lease wall — students and their parents, clearing a unit before the walkthrough.
• May graduation — an earlier, quieter version of the same job.
• Landlord and property-manager turnovers — a unit left half-furnished by the last tenant, cleared to broom-clean before the next showing.
• Relocation — the Domain and North Austin tech churn, where the movers take what's worth moving and everything else needs a home.
• Downsizing into a smaller unit — the sectional that fit the two-bedroom and won't fit the one.
• Estate and family situations — clearing a relative's apartment from out of town, handled without you flying in.

Why renters pick us for this

• A price before anyone shows up. You get the number from a photo, which matters when you're comparing options at 11pm the night before a walkthrough.
• We carry it down. Third floor, exterior stairs, no elevator, 100 degrees — that's the service, not a surcharge line.
• The building side is handled. COI filed, freight elevator and dock window booked, front desk coordinated.
• Same-day at the same price, including through the move-out crush when everyone needs it at once.
• Donation-first. Furniture with life left in it goes to Central Texas charities instead of the complex dumpster.
• You don't have to be there. Parents, landlords and out-of-state family clear units remotely all the time.

Apartment cleanout questions, answered

What does a one-bedroom cost?

Usually a quarter to a half truck — $241 to $431 — depending on how furnished it is. A photo of each room pins it exactly.

Can I use Austin's free bulk pickup instead?

Not from an apartment. On-demand bulk is for City of Austin residential curbside-trash customers; apartments and condos are on private hauling and can't request it at all (austintexas.gov/service/ondemand).

Is there a stair fee?

No. Walk-ups are the norm in Riverside and West Campus, and carrying it down is included.

Do you handle buildings that require a COI?

Yes — Domain, downtown and Rainey Street towers. We file the COI naming the association and management, and reserve the freight elevator and dock window. No high-rise surcharge. Your building's own move-out fee, if it has one, is separate and billed by them.

Can you come the same day?

Often, at the same flat price. Through the late-July crush we run West Campus and Riverside hard, so slots turn over fast.

What happens to the furniture?

Donation first — Goodwill Central Texas, the Austin Furniture Bank, and the MoveOutATX stations in summer. Mattresses are recycled where a facility takes them; electronics go to e-waste recyclers.

Do I need to be in the unit?

No. Approve the photo quote, arrange access through the office or a key, and we'll confirm when it's empty.

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