Victorian and Federal row houses (20002, 20003) with English basements and cellars underneath and rear alleys behind. Everything down there has to come back UP the stairs to leave — that's our lift, not yours. Flat photo-quoted price from $75, same-day when the morning's clear.
Send a photo — exact flat price back in seconds
Upload a Photo & Get Quote →Capitol Hill is row-house country: Victorian and Federal houses, most of them with an English basement or a cellar under the front steps. That's worth saying out loud, because it isn't true everywhere — plenty of American cities build slab-on-grade and simply don't have this problem. DC homes have basements, and a Hill basement that's been quietly filling since the house last changed hands is a genuinely different job from a garage or a spare room.
The difficulty isn't the volume. It's the direction. Every box, every retired armchair, every rusted filing cabinet has to travel up a narrow flight of stairs to reach daylight — usually with a turn at the top and a door frame that doesn't cooperate. Downstairs is easy; upstairs is where people hurt their backs and give up halfway. We do that lift. You point at what goes and stay out of the stairwell.
Above ground, the constraint is the street. Hill blocks park solid, and there's often no gap in front of the house at all. That's what the rear alley is for, and we use it — shorter carry, nothing hauled across the sidewalk, no truck sitting across a neighbor's door. (DC sales tax applies at checkout.)
One picture from the bottom of the stairs is usually enough. An exact flat price comes back in seconds — no walkthrough, no "call for a quote."
Front steps or rear alley? Same-day is usually open across 20002 and 20003. We plan the carry before the crew leaves the yard.
An insured, vetted crew empties the cellar, sorts donation from disposal on the way out, and sweeps the floor before leaving.
Flat and photo-quoted. Named pieces price per item; an unsorted basement pile prices by volume; a whole cellar or row house prices as truck-fill. The haul up the stairs, the alley carry, the loading and the disposal are already in the number.
| Item | Flat price |
|---|---|
| Filing cabinet (small) | $81 |
| Bookshelf | $97 |
| Filing cabinet (large) | $101 |
| Desk | $112 |
| Queen mattress | $139 |
| Dresser | $169 |
| Sofa / couch | $170 |
| Chest freezer | $196 |
No clean item list? Price it by the pile or the truck
| Volume | Flat price |
|---|---|
| Loose pile — small | $110 |
| Loose pile — medium | $174 |
| Loose pile — large | $280 |
| Truck-fill 2/8 | $325 |
| Truck-fill 3/8 | $455 |
| Truck-fill 4/8 (half truck) | $580 |
| Truck-fill 5/8 | $690 |
| Truck-fill 6/8 | $790 |
| Truck-fill 7/8 | $890 |
| Full truck (8/8) | $985 |
$75 order minimum. Bagged-out basements are easy to price too — a contractor bag is $55, ten bags $178. Clearing several items at once? Photograph the group; a set priced together beats the same pieces added up individually. DC sales tax applies at checkout.
For an outside reference point: HomeGuide's 2026 cost research puts national franchise junk removal at roughly $400–$600 for a half-truck and $700–$1,000 for a full truck, and those quotes are typically only confirmed after a crew drives out to look. Ours is fixed from your photo before anybody is dispatched.
| Option | Cost | Speed | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| DC DPW bulk trash (311 / dpw.dc.gov) | Free | Scheduled appointment | 7 items per appointment, single-family and ≤3-unit only, no construction or renovation debris — and you carry every piece up the stairs yourself |
| Donate (Goodwill, Salvation Army, Habitat ReStore, A Wider Circle) | Free | Days | Only takes what's clean and resellable; pickups book out and rarely come down to a cellar |
| Rent a dumpster | Container + permit | Days | Hill blocks often have no driveway and no permitted street space — and it still doesn't carry anything up for you |
| Franchise hauler (1-800-GOT-JUNK, College HUNKS) | ≈$400–$600 half-truck, $700–$1,000 full (HomeGuide 2026) | 1–3 days | Priced by truck volume, usually confirmed only by an on-site estimate |
| JunkRabbit | From $75 · piles from $110 · truck-fill $325–$985 | Same day | None — flat photo price, we haul it UP the stairs, alley carry included |
For the row houses, yes — and we'd rather tell you that than sell around it. DC DPW bulk trash covers single-family homes and buildings of three units or fewer, and you request an appointment through 311 or dpw.dc.gov. If your list is short and your calendar is flexible, use it.
The program's real edges are where Capitol Hill jobs live:
And there's a slice of the neighborhood the program doesn't serve at all. The four-plus-unit conversions and condo buildings along Pennsylvania Avenue SE and around Eastern Market are excluded outright — under District rules, condos, co-ops and buildings of four or more units must have bulk items removed by a private, licensed hauler (DC DPW). If that's your building, there's no free option to weigh; the only decision is which hauler shows up with a flat price already agreed.
Sorting happens on the way out, not at the dump. Furniture and household goods still worth using are routed to Goodwill of Greater Washington, the Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity ReStore, or A Wider Circle in Silver Spring, which furnishes homes for families leaving shelters — receipts on request. Electronics go to the District's e-waste drop-off rather than into the waste stream. Metal — the old shelving, the bed frame, the filing cabinets — goes to scrap. And the basement chest freezer or second fridge gets EPA-certified refrigerant recovery before disposal, which is a legal requirement and is inside your flat price. Only what's genuinely waste tips at the regional transfer stations.
We haul UP. That's the sentence that matters most on this page. Row-house cellar stairs are narrow, steep, and frequently the original wood; we measure before we lift, break furniture down in place rather than wedging it through a frame, blanket the rail and the turn, and keep the traffic one-directional so nothing gets scraped. There is no stair fee — the haul-up is simply what the flat price buys on Capitol Hill.
We load from the alley when the street won't cooperate. Between residential permit parking, the Hill's daytime congestion and blocks with no loading zone at all, the front of the house is often unusable. The rear alley is faster anyway. Tell us which side is easier when you book.
Condo and multi-family buildings near Pennsylvania Avenue SE and Eastern Market get the paperwork handled: certificate of insurance for management, and a service-elevator or dock window booked where the building requires one. No surcharge for any of it.
"Twenty years in a rowhouse basement — furniture, boxes, a workbench. Carried it all up the stairs, swept clean. Flat price, same-day. Didn't lift a thing."
"Walk-up move-out near Eastern Market — couch and mattress down and out same-day, no stair fee. Easy."
"Cleared the house before listing — donation-routed, broom-clean, realtor-ready. Professional."
How much does it cost on Capitol Hill?
Flat, photo-quoted: sofa $170, queen mattress $139, dresser $169, bookshelf $97, desk $112, filing cabinets $81 small and $101 large, chest freezer $196. Piles price by volume — $110, $174, $280 — and a cellar or whole house runs the truck-fill ladder from $325 up to $985. $75 order minimum, haul-up and disposal included. DC sales tax applies at checkout.
Do you carry it UP from the basement?
Yes — that's the job. Cellar stairs, narrow turns, original treads. We do every lift; there's no stair fee.
Will DC bulk trash handle it instead?
For a short list at a row house, maybe: DPW serves single-family and ≤3-unit buildings via 311 or dpw.dc.gov. But it's seven items per appointment, it refuses construction and renovation debris, it's scheduled rather than same-day, and it's curbside — everything still comes up the stairs under your power. Four-plus-unit buildings are excluded and need a private licensed hauler.
Can you load from the alley?
Yes, and often we'd rather. When the block is parked curb to curb, the rear alley is the shorter, quieter route. Just tell us which side works.
Do you do small office clear-outs near the Capitol?
Yes — desks, chairs, files and copiers, priced as one truck-fill rather than desk by desk, and schedulable outside business hours. It's a busy lane around turnover.
Same-day before a move?
Usually, across 20002 and 20003, if photos land in the morning. End-of-term and end-of-lease weeks fill fastest, so book ahead of a known date.
What about the old chest freezer?
$196, and it gets EPA-certified refrigerant recovery before disposal — required by law, included in the price, and not something a curbside program solves.
Flat and photo-quoted. Single pieces: sofa $170, queen mattress $139, dresser $169, bookshelf $97, desk $112, small filing cabinet $81, large filing cabinet $101, chest freezer $196. A pile with no clean item list prices by volume: $110 small, $174 medium, $280 large. A cellar or a whole row house prices as truck-fill: 2/8 of the truck $325, 3/8 $455, 4/8 $580, 5/8 $690, 6/8 $790, 7/8 $890, full truck $985. The order minimum is $75. The haul UP the basement stairs, the alley carry, loading and disposal are all included. DC sales tax applies at checkout.
Yes, and that direction is the whole point. Capitol Hill row houses have English basements and cellars — DC homes have basements, unlike a lot of markets — and everything down there has to come back UP a narrow set of stairs to leave. That lift is ours, not yours. You point at what goes and stay out of the stairwell. There is no stair fee.
Not realistically. DC DPW bulk trash, booked through 311 or dpw.dc.gov, does serve Capitol Hill row houses — single-family homes and buildings of three units or fewer — but it caps each appointment at seven items and does not accept renovation or construction and demolition debris. A cellar under an 1890s row house is neither a seven-item list nor guaranteed debris-free. It is also scheduled rather than same-day, and it is curbside, so every piece still has to come up the stairs under your own power. Condos and buildings of four or more units near Pennsylvania Avenue SE and Eastern Market are excluded from the program entirely and are required to use a private, licensed hauler.
Yes — on Capitol Hill it is often the only sane option. When the street is parked solid curb to curb, we work the rear alley instead: shorter carry, nothing dragged across the sidewalk, and no truck blocking your neighbors. Tell us which side loads more easily when you book and we plan the route before the crew arrives.
Regularly, and it spikes around Congressional turnover. Desks are $112, L-shaped desks $139, small filing cabinets $81 and large $101, bookshelves $97, office chairs $82, and a commercial copier $131. A whole suite prices as one truck-fill rather than a per-desk tally, and we can work outside business hours so the corridor stays clear.
Usually yes across 20002 and 20003 if photos come in the morning. End-of-term and end-of-lease weeks are our busiest on the Hill, so if you already know your date, book ahead of it — the last few days before a lease ends are the hardest slots to get.
Yes. A chest freezer is $196, a refrigerator $221, a washer $179 and a dryer $172. Anything holding refrigerant — the basement chest freezer, the second fridge, a dehumidifier or window AC — gets EPA-certified refrigerant recovery before disposal. That is legally required, it is inside the flat price, and it is one more thing a curbside program is not going to solve for you.
Usable furniture and household goods are routed to donation — Goodwill of Greater Washington, the Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity ReStore, and A Wider Circle in Silver Spring — with receipts on request. Electronics go to the District e-waste drop-off, metal goes to scrap, refrigerant appliances get certified recovery, and only what is genuinely waste tips at the regional transfer stations.