Residence halls close around May 9, 2026, and the off-campus leases turn over the same weekend. The mattress, the futon, the mini fridge and the flat-pack shelving all have to be gone before the key goes back. We haul it out of the room at a flat photo-quoted price — twin mattresses $111, futons $139, mini fridges $155, or the whole unit as truck-fill from $325. Same-day through move-out week. No Arizona sales tax on the service.
Send a photo of the pile — exact flat price back in seconds
Upload a Photo & Get Quote →Stand in the doorway and shoot the room as it is — mattress on the frame, bags half-packed, the fridge still plugged in. You get an exact flat number back in seconds. No walkthrough, no "we'll price it when we get there."
Book the morning your key is due, or the day before if the lot will be gridlocked. In a Town Lake high-rise we file the COI with management and reserve the freight elevator for your window.
An insured crew takes it from inside the unit, down the stairwell, across the lot and into the truck. Usable pieces are donated. You hand back an empty room and a set of keys.
Two shapes of job come out of move-out week, and they price differently. A student leaving behind four or five specific things pays per piece. A parent or landlord emptying an entire apartment pays by how much of the truck it fills. Send one photo either way and the quote comes back as a single number.
| Item | Flat price |
|---|---|
| Mattress — twin / twin XL | $111 |
| Mattress — full | $126 |
| Mattress — queen | $139 |
| Box spring | $124 |
| Futon (frame + mattress) | $139 |
| Mini fridge | $155 |
| Sofa / couch | $170 |
| Desk | $112 |
| Bookshelf | $97 |
| TV (medium) | $91 |
| Bed frame | $92 |
| Microwave | $40 |
| Load | Flat price |
|---|---|
| Bagged & boxed debris — 10 bags | $178 |
| Bagged & boxed debris — 15 bags | $264 |
| Truck-fill — 1/4 truck | $325 |
| Truck-fill — 1/2 truck | $580 |
| Truck-fill — 3/4 truck | $790 |
| Truck-fill — full truck | $985 |
$75 minimum on any job. A typical dorm double comes out as two twin mattresses, a mini fridge and a stack of bags — photograph it all together and we price the set as one number rather than adding up five line items. Carry-down and disposal are included. No Arizona sales tax on the service, so the quote is the total.
For outside context: independent cost surveys put a typical Phoenix-metro junk-removal job at roughly $226–$237, and the national labor-booking service LoadUp advertises mattress pickups starting around $100 and up. The difference in ours is what the number covers — it is fixed from your photo before a crew is dispatched, and it includes carrying a dead-weight mattress down two flights of an un-air-conditioned stairwell in May.
| Option | Cost | Speed | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leave it by the complex dumpster | "Free" — until it isn't | Instant | The enclosure is the property's private container, not a bulk site. Management photographs it and bills the removal back to the lease-holder, out of the deposit |
| Wait for a municipal bulk window | Free | Whenever it lands | Tempe runs its own collection schedule and it isn't built around a lease that ends Saturday. You also have to store the mattress until then — in an apartment you no longer rent |
| Donate it yourself | Free | Days | Mattresses are refused outright on hygiene grounds. Furniture and mini fridges are accepted, but you need a truck, a helper and a weekday drop-off window |
| Rent a truck and self-haul | Truck + fuel + tip fee | Half a day | Every rental truck in Tempe is spoken for on move-out weekend, and you still do the stair-carry and the loading in May heat |
| JunkRabbit | Mattress $111 · truck-fill from $325 | Same day | None — flat photo price, we carry it down, donation-routed, no tax line |
This is the question every ASU family asks in the first week of May, and the honest answer is that no municipal program in the Valley is designed for the problem you have. Tempe runs its own bulk collection schedule, separate from the City of Phoenix — check the city's own site for your address before you plan around it, because the details are set by Tempe and not by us. But the structural issue is the same everywhere in the metro: a city bulk calendar is built around residents who own a house and can wait. It is not built around a lease that expires on a Saturday, a residence hall that locks at a posted hour, or a student who flies home Sunday morning.
For comparison, the City of Phoenix — a few miles west, and the program most people have heard of — moved its bulk service to an appointment basis with a maximum of four collections per calendar year, booked up to three business days out, with material set out no more than seven days ahead. That is Phoenix's rule, not Tempe's, and it is worth knowing only because it shows what "the city will take it" really means in practice: a limited number of appointments, a lead time, and a requirement that you get the thing to the street and leave it there.
And in student housing there is a harder wall than any city calendar. The dumpster enclosure behind your building is private property. It belongs to the complex, it is sized for bagged household trash, and every lease in Tempe treats a mattress or a futon frame stacked beside it as an unauthorized disposal. What follows is routine: the property photographs it, has it removed by their own vendor at their own rate, and bills it back to the lease-holder — which in student housing means the deposit, or a parent's card, usually at more than our flat quote and always without the option to argue. That is the real reason this page exists. Get it hauled properly on the day you actually move, from inside the unit, and there is nothing left for anyone to bill.
Move-out loads sort better than people expect, because most of what leaves a student apartment in May is barely a year old. Mini fridges, microwaves, desks, bookshelves, lamps, kitchenware and bagged clothing are genuinely donatable, and we route them to Goodwill of Central & Northern Arizona or St. Vincent de Paul, both of which have a deep Valley footprint and both of which will hand back a receipt on request. A mini fridge bought new last August is worth real money to someone furnishing a first apartment in June.
Mattresses are the exception, and we would rather tell you the truth than sell you a green story. Used mattresses are refused by donation centers on hygiene grounds — condition doesn't change that, and there is no statewide Arizona mattress-recycling mandate to route them into. A dorm twin goes to responsible disposal, and we say so plainly on the quote. Electronics go to e-waste recycling rather than the landfill, metal bed frames and shelving are separated for scrap, and clean cardboard is recycled instead of tipped as trash.
The hard part of an ASU move-out is not the truck, it's the ninety feet between the room and the truck. Walk-ups are the norm in the housing belt around campus — two- and three-story garden buildings along Apache Boulevard and the streets off Mill Avenue, exterior stairwells, no elevator, and a queen mattress that has to come down them sideways. That's a two-person carry on a good day and a genuinely bad idea for a student and one friend on a 100-degree afternoon. Our crews do exactly that carry, and it's inside the flat price rather than tacked on as a "stairs" fee.
Then there's the parking. Loading space near campus is tight and gets tighter every hour of move-out weekend — permit-only lots, timed loading zones, U-Hauls double-parked in the drive aisle, and gate codes that half the residents don't have. We plan around it: the crew arrives with the truck staged where it can legally sit, walks the route first, and carries the distance rather than blocking the aisle your neighbors are also trying to use.
The Tempe Town Lake high-rises are a different building type with different rules, and they matter here because plenty of upper-year students and young professionals live in them. Those towers require a certificate of insurance naming the association and the management company as additional insured, typically at least $1 million in general liability per occurrence, before any vendor touches the freight elevator — and the elevator itself has to be reserved in advance for a specific window, with everything moving through the service corridor rather than the lobby. We carry the insurance, issue the COI to your management office, and book the window. No surcharge for any of it.
"Two twin mattresses, a mini fridge and about a dozen bags out of a third-floor walk-up the morning keys were due. Flat price from one photo, no stairs charge. Saved the deposit."
"Booked it from Chicago off pictures my daughter texted. Approved the quote, paid online, her roommate let them in. Room was empty before her flight."
"Town Lake building wanted a COI and an elevator reservation. They handled both with our management office and the futon and desk were gone in twenty minutes."
How much does ASU move-out junk removal cost in Tempe?
Per piece: twin mattress $111, full $126, queen $139, box spring $124, futon $139, mini fridge $155, sofa $170, desk $112, bookshelf $97, medium TV $91. Bags price in blocks — 10 bags $178, 15 bags $264. A whole unit prices as truck-fill, $325 for a quarter truck up to $985 full. $75 minimum, carry-down and disposal included, no Arizona sales tax.
Can you come during move-out week itself?
Yes — halls close around May 9, 2026 and we staff that window deliberately. Same-day is usually open; booking two or three days ahead gets the truck assigned to your building for the morning your key is due.
Can't I just leave it by the dumpster?
That enclosure is the property's private container. Anything stacked beside it gets removed by the complex's own vendor and billed back to the lease-holder — usually more than our quote, and out of the deposit.
Do you carry it down the stairs?
Every time. Most housing near campus is a walk-up with no elevator, and the stair-carry is in the flat price, not a surcharge.
Can my mattress be donated?
No — used mattresses are refused on hygiene grounds anywhere in the Valley, so it goes to responsible disposal. The mini fridge, desk, shelving and clothes are donatable, and we route those to Goodwill of Central & Northern Arizona or St. Vincent de Paul with a receipt on request.
My building needs a COI. Is that a problem?
No. The Town Lake towers typically require at least $1M general liability naming the association and management as additional insured, plus a reserved freight-elevator window. We issue the COI and book the elevator, with no high-rise surcharge.
Is it cheaper than a national franchise?
LoadUp advertises mattress pickups from around $100 and up, and independent surveys put a typical Phoenix-metro job near $226–$237. Ours is fixed from a photo up front, includes the carry-down, and carries no tax line.
Can a parent or landlord book it remotely?
Yes, and many do. Photos from the student or the leasing office, the quote approved and paid online, the crew let in by whoever is on site.
That is the week this page exists for. ASU residence halls close around May 9, 2026, and off-campus leases along Apache Boulevard and Mill Avenue turn over the same weekend, so we staff early-morning and midday windows through it. Same-day is usually available, and we would rather you book two or three days ahead so the truck is already assigned to your building on the morning your key is due back.
Do not count on it, and do not leave it there. Tempe runs its own bulk collection schedule, separate from the City of Phoenix program, and no municipal calendar is built around a lease that ends on a Saturday in May. More to the point, the enclosure behind your building is the property's private container, not a city bulk site — anything stacked beside it is a contract violation the management company bills back to the lease-holder, which in student housing means your parents' card or your deposit. Our flat quote is almost always less than that charge, and it happens the day you actually move.
We carry it down. Most housing near campus is a two- or three-story walk-up with no elevator, and a queen mattress plus a box spring plus a futon frame is not a job for two people in a stairwell in May. Our crew takes it from inside the unit, down the stairs, across the lot and into the truck. You do not drag anything to the curb, which also keeps you out of trouble with the property's staging rules.
Almost never, and any hauler who promises otherwise is guessing. Used mattresses are refused by donation centers on hygiene grounds regardless of condition, so a dorm twin goes to disposal. The rest of the room is a different story: mini fridges, microwaves, desks, bookshelves, lamps and clothing are genuinely donatable, and we route the usable pieces to Goodwill of Central and Northern Arizona or St. Vincent de Paul with a receipt on request.
Yes. The Tempe Town Lake towers require a certificate of insurance before a vendor touches the freight elevator, typically at least $1 million general liability per occurrence naming the association and management company as additional insured, plus a reserved elevator window. We issue the COI to your management office and book the window. There is no high-rise surcharge — it is already in the flat price.
For a single mattress, the fairest comparison is that a labor-only national booking service such as LoadUp advertises mattress pickups starting around $100 and up, while independent cost surveys put a typical Phoenix-metro junk-removal job at roughly $226 to $237. Our number is different in kind rather than just in size: it is fixed from your photo before anyone is dispatched, it includes the stair-carry out of the unit, and Arizona adds no sales tax on the service, so the quote is the total.