18th- and 19th-century row houses with narrow historic stairs and cobblestone carry-outs, plus estates and waterfront condos (22314, 22301–22305). Flat photo-quoted price from $75, same-day, careful with historic finishes — and no sales tax on the service in Virginia.
Send a photo — exact flat price back in seconds, no tax line
Upload a Photo & Get Quote →Old Town's housing stock is genuinely old — 18th- and 19th-century row houses, brick, three or four narrow floors, a cellar underneath, and no elevator anywhere. The staircases in these houses were built for people carrying a candle, not for a three-seat sofa: shallow treads, a hard winder at the landing, a low door header at the top, and original plaster you can't rub a corner against.
Then you get outside and the second problem starts. There's usually no driveway, the curb is permit-parked, and depending on the block you're crossing cobblestone to reach the truck. Half of the actual work of an Old Town job happens between the front door and the tailgate.
That's the whole reason this page exists. Anyone can quote a sofa. Getting one out of a Federal-era row house on a residential-permit block without a mark on the plaster or a complaint from the neighbors is a specific skill, and it's what we're set up for. It's also why the price we quote from your photo already includes the carry — no stair fee, no "we didn't realize" surcharge when the crew sees the landing.
Add to that Old Town's second constant: military and government relocation. This is a neighborhood that turns over on the federal calendar, and a PCS date is not a suggestion. And a piece of local texture worth naming — Alexandria hosts the region's third Ethiopian business cluster, and small-business turnover along those blocks is real work here too.
One flat number covers all of it, and because Virginia doesn't tax junk removal as a service, there's no sales-tax line waiting at checkout.
Photograph the pieces and — genuinely useful here — the staircase and the front of the house. An exact flat price comes back in seconds, and we plan the carry before we arrive.
Same-day is usually open across 22314 and 22301–22305. Working to a PCS report date or a settlement date? Tell us the deadline and we schedule backwards from it.
An insured crew blankets the treads and banister, brings it down, dollies it over the cobbles to the truck, and routes what's usable to donation.
Flat and photo-quoted. Named pieces price per item; a whole house, a cellar or an estate prices as truck-fill. The stair carry and the cobblestone walk to the truck are already in the number — there is no stair fee, no long-carry fee, and no Virginia sales tax on top.
| Item | Flat price |
|---|---|
| Queen mattress | $139 |
| Loveseat | $160 |
| Sideboard | $165 |
| Dresser | $169 |
| Sofa / couch | $170 |
| China cabinet | $215 |
| Refrigerator | $221 |
| Sectional — 3-piece | $249 |
| Cast-iron bathtub | $249 |
| Upright piano | $390 |
Whole houses, cellars and estates — the truck-fill ladder
| Truck fill | Flat price |
|---|---|
| 2/8 of the truck | $325 |
| 3/8 | $455 |
| 4/8 (half truck) | $580 |
| 5/8 | $690 |
| 6/8 | $790 |
| 7/8 | $890 |
| Full truck (8/8) | $985 |
$75 order minimum. Clearing a dining room or a full floor? Photograph the group rather than each piece — a set quoted together lands well under the same items added up individually, and boxes, linens and cellar clutter price by volume rather than per item.
Third-party benchmarks, for context: 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, confirmed only after an on-site estimate. And disposal itself isn't free in Northern Virginia — Fairfax County charges commercial haulers about $90 per ton in FY2026 at the I-66 Transfer Station and the I-95 complex (Fairfax County DPWES). That per-ton cost is inside our flat price rather than added on arrival.
| Option | Cost | Speed | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| City of Alexandria bulk / special collection | Free for serviced households | Scheduled appointment | Item caps and exclusions set by the city, and you get it to the curb yourself — on a cobblestone block with no driveway that's the whole problem |
| Donate (Habitat ReStore, Goodwill, Salvation Army, A Wider Circle) | Free | Days to weeks | Clean, resellable pieces only; most pickups won't come up a narrow historic staircase |
| Self-haul to a transfer station | Truck rental + tipping fee (≈$90/ton commercial in Fairfax, FY2026) | Half a day | You still do the stairs, and you need somewhere in Old Town to park a rented truck |
| Franchise hauler (1-800-GOT-JUNK, College HUNKS) | ≈$400–$600 half-truck, $700–$1,000 full (HomeGuide 2026) | 1–3 days | Volume-priced and confirmed on site, with historic-stair care rarely part of the pitch |
| JunkRabbit | From $75 · sofa $170 · truck-fill $325–$985 | Same day | None — flat photo price, no VA sales tax, stairs and cobblestone carry included |
For many Old Town households, yes — and if you have one or two things and time to spare, use it. The City of Alexandria runs its own bulk and special collection program for the households it services, with item caps and exclusions the city sets. The caps and the accepted-item list are the city's to define and they change, so check the City of Alexandria's own collection page for the current rules at your address rather than trusting a neighbor's memory of how it worked three years ago.
Then there's the Old Town reality nobody writes on the city page. The program is curbside, which in most of America means wheeling something twenty feet down a driveway. Here it means getting a sectional down a 200-year-old staircase, through a front door that opens directly onto the sidewalk, and out to a permit-parked curb across cobblestone — and then leaving it sitting there, in a local historic district, in front of your neighbors, until the scheduled appointment comes around. "Put it at the curb by 6am" is a genuinely hard ask on these blocks, and the appointment isn't same-day.
The categories that fall outside it are predictable too. Renovation debris from a historic-home project — plaster, lath, old cabinetry, a cast-iron tub coming out of a second-floor bathroom — is the classic exclusion, and a whole-house estate volume is several appointments' worth of items rather than one.
So the honest version: the city program is real and it's free, and it works for a short list from a household that can get things to the street. Everything else in Old Town — the estate, the renovation, the PCS deadline, the piece that physically has to be carried down by two people who know what they're doing — is private-hauler work, and that's the lane we're in.
Old Town houses hold good furniture, and a lot of what leaves one still has decades in it. Usable pieces are routed to donation first — Habitat for Humanity ReStore, Goodwill of Greater Washington, the Salvation Army, and A Wider Circle, which furnishes homes for families leaving homelessness — with receipts on request, which matters when you're an executor putting an estate's paperwork together.
Metal — bed frames, that cast-iron tub, appliance shells, radiators — goes to scrap rather than a landfill. Electronics go to Northern Virginia e-waste recycling. Anything holding refrigerant, from a kitchen refrigerator to a window AC unit pulled out of a sash window, gets EPA-certified refrigerant recovery before disposal; that's a legal requirement, and it's inside your flat price, not a line item.
Only what's genuinely waste goes to the scale. At roughly $90 a ton commercially in Fairfax County (FY2026), diverting isn't a marketing position for us — it's the economics of the job.
The staircase: shallow 18th-century treads, a winder at the landing, and often a header at the top of the stairs low enough that a sofa has to go through at an angle nobody would guess from the bottom. We blanket the treads and the banister, take doors off hinges where a piece won't clear, and pad the newel post. Where something genuinely will not make the turn we tell you before the truck is loaded — not after there's a gouge in the plaster.
The floors and finishes: original heart-pine boards, tile in the entry, painted plaster in the stairwell. Runners go down on the path, corners get padded, and nothing gets dragged. This is a local historic district; property care is the baseline expectation, not an upgrade.
The street: no driveway, permit-only parking, cobblestone on plenty of blocks, and an alley behind some houses that's the better route. Tell us the block when you book. We work a tight loading window as close to the door as the street allows, use the rear alley where there is one, and dolly loads over the cobbles strapped down rather than dragging anything across them.
The condos: where a King Street or waterfront building requires a certificate of insurance and a booked elevator window, we file it and reserve it before dispatch. No high-rise surcharge, same as the row houses: no stair fee, and no curb-drag — we carry it from the room it's in.
"Sofa down three flights of winding rowhouse stairs without a scratch on the walls. Flat price, no tax line. Impressive."
"Waterfront condo cleared before the move — COI filed, elevator booked, no sales tax in Virginia. Easy."
"Old mattress and a dresser gone same-day. Photo, flat quote, careful on the stairs. Highly recommend."
How much does it cost in Old Town?
Flat, photo-quoted: sofa $170, loveseat $160, 3-piece sectional $249, queen mattress $139, dresser $169, sideboard $165, china cabinet $215, refrigerator $221, cast-iron bathtub $249, upright piano $390. Whole houses and estates run the truck-fill ladder, $325 at 2/8 up to $985 full. $75 order minimum, stair carry and disposal included, no Virginia sales tax on top.
Is there sales tax on junk removal in Virginia?
No. Virginia doesn't tax the service, so there's no sales-tax line on an Old Town bill — unlike a quote taken across the river in the District, where tax applies at checkout.
Can you get it down the historic stairs?
Yes — that's the signature job here. Treads and banister blanketed, doors off hinges where needed, nothing dragged. If a piece genuinely won't make the winder we tell you before we load, not after. No stair fee.
Will the city take it instead?
The City of Alexandria runs its own bulk and special collection with item caps and exclusions it sets — check the city's collection page for your address. It's scheduled and curbside, which on a cobblestone block with no driveway is the hard part.
Do you work with PCS and government moves?
Constantly, and summer is peak. Tell us the report date and we schedule backwards from it; the whole property quotes flat from photos so it fits a relocation budget.
Can you handle an estate cleanout?
Yes — multi-floor row house plus cellar, truck-fill priced, discreet unmarked crews, and donation documentation for the executor.
Where will you park?
As close to the door as the block allows, using the rear alley where the house has one. Tell us the block when you book and we plan the approach in advance.
Can you come same-day?
Usually across 22314 and 22301–22305 if photos arrive in the morning. A condo building that needs a COI on 48–72 hours notice is the one thing that can push the date.
No. Virginia does not tax junk removal as a service, so there is no sales-tax line on your Old Town bill. The flat number quoted from your photo is the number you pay — which is not true of a quote taken across the river in the District, where sales tax is applied at checkout.
Yes, and it is the signature Old Town job. These staircases were built before modern furniture existed: shallow treads, a tight winder at the landing, low door headers and a banister you cannot lean a sofa against. We blanket the treads and the banister, take doors off hinges where a piece will not clear the turn, and where a sofa genuinely will not make the corner we say so before the truck is loaded rather than after something is scratched. There is no stair fee — the carry is inside the flat photo price.
Constantly, and summer is the peak. A PCS move gives you a report date, a weight allowance and a lease or quarters turnover deadline, and whatever is over the allowance either costs you out of pocket to ship or has to go. We work to the report date rather than a vague window, quote the whole property flat from photos so it fits a relocation budget, and can clear it in one visit so the walkthrough happens on schedule.
Yes. An estate near King Street is usually a multi-floor row house plus a cellar, and it prices as truck-fill from photos, $325 at 2/8 up to $985 for a full truck, with multiple trucks for a whole property. Named heavy pieces price individually — china cabinet $215, sideboard $165, upright piano $390. Usable furniture is routed to Habitat for Humanity ReStore, Goodwill of Greater Washington, the Salvation Army and A Wider Circle with donation documentation for the executor, and we work discreetly with unmarked, insured crews.
We work a short, tight window as close to the door as the block allows, use the rear alley where the house has one, and dolly the rest over the cobbles with the load strapped rather than dragging anything. Tell us the block when you book and we will plan the approach — Old Town street loading is a real constraint and it is better solved before the truck arrives than in front of your neighbors.
Usable furniture goes to donation first — Habitat for Humanity ReStore, Goodwill of Greater Washington, the Salvation Army and A Wider Circle — with receipts on request. Metal goes to scrap, electronics go to Northern Virginia e-waste recycling, and any refrigerant appliance, including a refrigerator or a window AC unit, gets EPA-certified refrigerant recovery before disposal. Only what is genuinely waste tips at the regional transfer stations.