Condo & Apartment Junk Removal in DC —
Why City Bulk Pickup Isn't an Option

How it works in a 4+ unit building

The District rule, stated plainly

DC DPW's Bulk Trash Collection serves single-family homes and buildings of three units or fewer. It's requested through 311 or at dpw.dc.gov, allows up to 7 items per appointment, and does not accept renovation or construction and demolition debris. Those are the terms of the free program.

And here is the line that governs this page: condominiums, co-ops and apartment buildings of four or more units are excluded from that program, and those residents must have bulk items removed by a private, licensed hauler. That isn't a preference, a service-level limitation, or a scheduling backlog. It's the structure of the program. A resident of a 4+ unit building in the District has no free municipal option for a mattress or a sofa — the only lawful path is a private hauler, which is why "we're the licensed private hauler" is the honest description of what we do here rather than a marketing line.

How to tell which side of the line you're on

It's the unit count, not the building's size, its age, its street, or whether you own or rent. That trips people up constantly in a city built out of subdivided row houses:

• A Dupont or Logan Circle row house converted into six condo units is excluded. It looks like a house from the sidewalk, it sits on a block of houses, and it is nevertheless a 4+ unit building.
• A purpose-built three-flat in Petworth or Brookland is not excluded. Three units or fewer means the program applies — curbside, scheduled, seven items.
• Every tower, mid-rise and garden-apartment building is excluded, obviously — but so is the modest four-unit walk-up on your corner.

A quick practical tell: look at how the building's trash leaves. If you take a bag to a District-issued can or supercan at the curb, you're probably in the small-building world. If there's a trash room, a chute, a compactor, or a dumpster in the garage emptied by a private contractor, your building is on the excluded side and always has been. If you'd rather not guess, your property manager or condo board can answer instantly, and 311 or dpw.dc.gov will confirm eligibility for your specific address.

Your options in a DC condo, honestly compared

Note what the top two rows have in common: they're the two things condo residents try first, and neither of them is actually available. That's the whole reason this page exists.

Which buildings this covers

Practically every dense residential pocket in the District, and a lot of blocks people don't think of as "condo neighborhoods":

• Navy Yard / Capitol Riverfront (20003, 20024) — the District's newest high-rise belt, wall-to-wall 4+ unit buildings with docks, service elevators and strict COI desks. Nobody here has ever had a bulk-trash appointment.
• NoMa (20002) — new towers around Union Market, heavy renter turnover, formal move-in/move-out windows.
• West End & Foggy Bottom (20037, 20006) — established condo buildings plus GWU-adjacent housing, with a May move-out spike that fills every elevator in the neighborhood.
• The Wharf — waterfront condo towers where loading is coordinated through the building, not the street.
• Downtown DC / Penn Quarter (20004, 20005) — loft conversions above retail, after-hours dock access, no curb to put anything on in the first place.
• The 14th & U Street condo towers (20001, 20009) — the newer buildings along the corridor, sitting next door to row houses that are eligible, which is exactly why the rule confuses people here.
• Dupont Circle condo conversions (20036) — the trickiest case in the city: historic row houses split into four, six or eight units. They look like houses. They're excluded.
• Logan Circle (20005, 20009) — the same conversion pattern plus the newer 14th Street buildings.
• Columbia Heights, Adams Morgan and Anacostia apartment buildings — large rental properties across Wards 1, 7 and 8 where the resident has no personal appointment to book and the building's contractor doesn't take bulk furniture.

If your building isn't on that list, the test still holds: four or more units means the private hauler is your route.

What it costs to clear a condo unit

Flat, per item, quoted from a photo — not by the hour, not by how much of a truck the crew thinks you filled. The order minimum is $75, and the carry from your unit to the truck is inside every number below, along with the loading, the drive and the disposal.

A one-bedroom's worth of leftovers usually reads as a handful of these lines combined into a single flat number — sofa, mattress, box spring and TV, say — rather than four separate charges. The $75 minimum only binds when there's genuinely one small thing.

Clearing the entire unit — a lease end, an eviction, an estate, an investor flip — is where truck-fill takes over: 2/8 of the truck $325 · 3/8 $455 · 4/8 $580 · 5/8 $690 · 6/8 $790 · 7/8 $890 · full truck $985. Photograph the rooms rather than each object and we'll tell you which side of that line you're on before anything is booked.

For an outside benchmark: HomeGuide's 2026 pricing research puts 1-800-GOT-JUNK at roughly a $100–$150 minimum rising to $700–$1,000 for a full truck, and College HUNKS Hauling Junk starting around $150 — both priced by truck volume and both confirmed after an on-site estimate, which in a secured building means arranging access twice. The disposal underneath all of it is real money here: Fairfax County charges commercial haulers about $90 a ton in FY2026 at the I-66 Transfer Station and the I-95 Landfill / Energy-Recovery Complex (Fairfax County DPWES). DC applies sales tax on the service at checkout; Maryland and Virginia don't — the full breakdown is in the DMV cost guide.

What happens to it after it leaves the building

Donation first, when the piece deserves it. Clean, structurally sound furniture goes to Goodwill of Greater Washington, the Salvation Army, a Habitat for Humanity ReStore, or A Wider Circle in Silver Spring, which furnishes homes for families leaving homelessness and issues a receipt on request. Condo turnover produces a lot of genuinely good furniture — three-year-old sofas from people moving cities for work — and routing it is a phone-call-length decision when you book.

What can't be donated is separated rather than dumped whole. Electronics and TVs go to e-waste recycling through the DC, Montgomery, Prince George's, Arlington and Fairfax programs. Metal — bed frames, shelving, washer and dryer bodies, exercise equipment — goes to scrap. Refrigerators, freezers, wine coolers and window air conditioners require EPA-certified refrigerant recovery before disposal, which is the specific reason a fridge costs more to remove than a dresser and the specific reason it can't simply be wheeled to a dumpster. Mattresses get routed to a recycler where one will take them; there's no DC, Maryland or Virginia mattress-recycling mandate, so we won't claim a diversion rate we can't stand behind.

Whatever genuinely can't be diverted is tipped at the Fairfax I-66 Transfer Station, the I-95 Landfill and Energy-Recovery Complex, or Montgomery County's Shady Grove facility — already priced into your flat number.

What your building will ask for — and what we hand them

Excluded from city collection doesn't mean unregulated. The building takes over where the District leaves off, and DMV high-rises are consistent about what they want.

A certificate of insurance, 48–72 hours ahead. Naming the management company or the condo association as additional insured, with general liability and workers' comp shown. We issue it directly to management — you send the contact, we send the paperwork. There's no charge for it, and it's the single most common reason a cheap one-truck operator gets turned away at the front desk on the day of your move.

A reserved freight-elevator and loading-dock window. Most buildings run move-outs in fixed blocks, protect the passenger elevators, and require pads hung in the service car. We book the window with the building rather than showing up and hoping, and we work inside it.

Sectionals split for the service elevator. A service car in a Navy Yard or Rosslyn tower is deeper than it is wide, and a 3-piece sectional that came in before the drywall went up doesn't leave whole. We split it at the seams, take the legs off, and reassemble into the truck. It's part of the job, and the price is still set by piece count: $190 / $249 / $307.

Corridors, trash rooms and the long walk to the dock. Nothing gets staged in a shared hallway, nothing is left beside the compactor, and the corridor and elevator lobby are left clear. In older Dupont and Logan Circle conversions there's often no service elevator at all — just the original staircase — and that's fine: there's no stair fee on any floor.

No high-rise surcharge. Worth saying flatly, because it's the pricing trick this segment is most exposed to. Twelfth floor, long dock walk, elevator reservation, COI — the sofa is still $170. When a whole category of residents is required by rule to hire someone, charging them extra for the requirement is exactly the wrong instinct.

When condo residents and managers call us

• The lease ends Friday and the mattress is still in the bedroom. The building wants the unit empty, the trash room won't take it, and there's no 311 appointment to book.
• A new sofa is being delivered and the old one has to be out first. Delivery crews won't haul away, and the freight elevator is booked for the delivery, not the removal.
• Unit turnover between tenants. The property manager needs the leftovers gone, the carpet clear and the unit showable — usually inside a week, sometimes inside a day.
• An investor flip in Rosslyn, Tysons or NoMa. Everything the last owner left, out in one visit, priced from photos the agent took at the walkthrough.
• A PCS or federal relocation. Orders set the date, the weight allowance sets what survives, and the rest has to leave the building on schedule.
• Downsizing into the condo. The furniture that fit a Bethesda or Chevy Chase house doesn't fit a two-bedroom, and half of it never makes it past the lobby.
• An estate or an inherited unit. Executor-side work, done discreetly, with the good pieces donated and receipted.
• Someone abandoned furniture by the compactor. Management's problem now, and a recurring one in every large building in the District.

What residents need vs. what managers need

If you're the resident: a flat price you can see before anyone comes, a same-day slot when the building's lead time allows, a crew that comes into the unit instead of asking you to bring it down, and nothing of yours left in a shared space afterwards. You're being told by rule to hire a private hauler — the least the hauler can do is make it a two-minute decision.

If you're the property manager: a COI kept on file rather than requested afresh each time, recurring dock and elevator windows, a flat photo quote you can approve from an email without scheduling an estimator into a secured building, insured and vetted crews, and a trash room that stays clear between pickups. Turnovers, evictions, abandoned units, model-unit refreshes and the perpetual pile beside the compactor are all the same work to us, and we'd rather be the standing vendor than a series of one-offs.

• Private, licensed and insured — the category of hauler District rules point 4+ unit buildings toward.
• Flat photo-quoted prices — $75 minimum, sofa $170, queen mattress $139, refrigerator $221; whole units $325–$985.
• COI and elevator booking at no charge, filed 48–72 hours ahead with your management company.
• No high-rise surcharge, no elevator fee, no stair fee.
• Donation-routed — Goodwill, Salvation Army, Habitat ReStore, A Wider Circle, receipts on request.
• Three jurisdictions, one price list — same numbers in the District, Montgomery and Prince George's, Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax; only the tax line changes.

What condo customers say

Condo junk removal questions, answered

Can my DC condo use city bulk trash pickup?

No. DC DPW Bulk Trash Collection serves single-family homes and buildings of three units or fewer. Condos, co-ops and apartment buildings of four or more units are excluded and must use a private, licensed hauler. It's the unit count that decides it — not the building's size, and not whether you own or rent.

How do I know if my building is over the three-unit line?

Count the units, not the floors. Four or more unit numbers on the mailboxes and you're outside the program. An easy tell: a trash room, chute, compactor or private dumpster means a 4+ unit building; a District can at the curb usually means a small one. Your manager or condo board knows instantly, and 311 / dpw.dc.gov will confirm your address.

How much does condo junk removal cost in DC?

Flat per item from a photo, $75 minimum: sofa $170, sectional $190 / $249 / $307, queen mattress $139, king $154, box spring $124, dresser $169, large TV $98, Peloton $108, treadmill $155, refrigerator $221, washer/dryer combo $255, large wine cooler $210, mini fridge $155. Whole unit: 2/8 $325 · 3/8 $455 · 4/8 $580 · 5/8 $690 · 6/8 $790 · 7/8 $890 · full $985.

Do you charge extra for a high-rise or an elevator?

No. No high-rise surcharge, no elevator fee, no stair fee, and no charge for the COI or the dock booking. A sofa is $170 on the twelfth floor and $170 in a row house.

Can you provide a COI for my building?

Yes — filed 48–72 hours ahead naming the management company or association as additional insured, with the freight-elevator and dock window reserved alongside it. Send the management contact when you book; the lead time belongs to the building, so earlier is faster.

Will the sectional fit in the service elevator?

We split it so it does — seams undone, legs off, cushions out, reassembled into the truck. Price is set by piece count alone: $190 / $249 / $307. Same for bed frames and dressers built inside the unit.

I'm a property manager — can you work with the building directly?

Yes: COI kept on file, recurring dock and elevator windows, flat photo quotes you can approve by email, and the trash room and move-out corridor left clear. Turnovers, evictions, abandoned units and model-unit refreshes are all the same job.

What about condos and apartments in Maryland and Virginia?

Montgomery County, Prince George's County, Arlington County, the City of Alexandria and Fairfax County each run their own bulk programs with their own caps and exclusions, and multi-family properties there are typically served through the property, not the individual resident — so a renter mid-move still has no personal appointment to book. Same price and service from us in all three jurisdictions, and MD and VA don't tax the service.

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