A used mattress is the single hardest household item to give away and one of the worst things to leave sitting in front of a Valley house. This is the honest version of every route — donation, recycling, the city's appointment-only bulk trash program, a transfer-station run, and flat-price pickup from $111 — with the 2026 costs and the catch on each. No Arizona sales tax on the service.
Snap a photo — flat price back in seconds. A queen is $139, carried out of the bedroom.
Upload a Photo & Get Quote →One picture of the mattress — and the box spring or frame if they're going too. An exact flat price comes back in seconds. No walkthrough, no "call for a quote."
Same-day is usually open across the inner Valley. Between June and September we start early to beat 110°F, and a Downtown or Old Town tower gets its COI and freight-elevator slot arranged.
A vetted crew lifts it from the bedroom, down the stairs or out through the garage, and hauls it. Nothing sits at your curb waiting for a collection date.
Flat, photo-quoted, and priced by size — the carry-out, the drive across the Valley, and the disposal are already inside the number. Nothing is added when the truck arrives.
| Item | Flat price |
|---|---|
| Twin / single mattress | $111 |
| Box spring (any size) | $124 |
| Full / double mattress | $126 |
| Queen mattress | $139 |
| Futon (frame + pad) | $139 |
| King mattress | $154 |
| Mattress + box spring, together | $192 |
| Bed frame | $92 |
| Bunk bed | $165 |
| Headboard | $77 |
$75 minimum on very small jobs. Disposal and carry-out included. Clearing the whole bedroom — mattress, box spring, frame, nightstand, dresser? Send one photo and the set is priced together in a single flat number. Arizona does not tax junk-removal service, so there is no tax line at checkout.
For context: 2026 market surveys put the average metro Phoenix junk-removal job at roughly $226–$237, because most of the field prices by truck volume rather than by item. Upfront per-item competitors like LoadUp list a mattress at around $100 and up. A single mattress here is a single-item price — you're not buying a fraction of a truck you didn't fill.
| Option | Cost | Speed | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| City of Phoenix bulk appointment | Free | ~3 business days | Uses one of your four collections for the whole year; you move it to the curb yourself and it can't go out more than 7 days early. Not available to apartments. |
| Donate it | Free | — | Effectively closed. Valley charities take furniture but refuse used mattresses on hygiene grounds. |
| Mattress recycler | Free–small fee | Days | No Arizona mandate means coverage is patchy; you deliver it, and not every recycler is accepting. |
| Self-haul to a transfer station | ~$55/ton gate rate + truck | Half a day | 27th Ave or North Gateway only — SR-85 Landfill is closed to the public. A queen does not fit in a sedan. |
| JunkRabbit flat pickup | $111–$154 | Same day | None — flat photo price, we carry it out of the bedroom, no tax line |
Every free route on this table costs you either a hard deadline, a truck, or one of your four annual city collections. That's the real trade.
Yes — and this is the part most Valley guides still get wrong, so read it carefully. The City of Phoenix collects mattresses through its uncontained (bulk) trash service, but that program is now appointment-based. The old quarterly, by-zone pile-up that residents used to plan around has been retired. What replaced it has three hard limits:
Read those three together and the collision is obvious. A lease ending on the 31st doesn't care that your appointment landed on the 2nd. An HOA covenant in Gilbert, Chandler, Peoria, North Scottsdale or Ahwatukee that restricts how long anything can sit visible at the curb doesn't care either — the city tells you to stage it at the curb and wait, the HOA tells you it can't sit there, and you're standing between the two with a queen mattress in your driveway. That gap is exactly why on-demand pickup exists in this market.
Two more limits worth knowing: the program serves residential City of Phoenix trash customers only, so apartment and condo residents on private hauling generally have no city option at all; and every suburb — Scottsdale, Tempe, Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Glendale, Peoria — runs its own separate bulk program with its own schedule and caps. Don't assume Phoenix's rules apply in your city; check your own city's public-works page before you plan around it. For Phoenix specifics, phoenix.gov Public Works is the authority.
People always try this first, and it almost never works. Goodwill of Central & Northern Arizona, St. Vincent de Paul (which has one of the largest charitable footprints in Phoenix), Habitat for Humanity ReStore and the Salvation Army all take household furniture across the Valley — and all of them generally refuse used mattresses. It isn't pickiness; it's hygiene policy, and bed-bug risk makes it non-negotiable for a thrift operation.
What you can donate is the rest of the bedroom: the bed frame, the headboard, the nightstand, the dresser. If those are in good shape we route them to donation rather than disposal and can get you a receipt. Split the job in your head — the furniture has a second life, the mattress doesn't.
Straight answer, because the industry is vague about this one. Arizona has no statewide mattress-recycling program — no recycling fee at purchase, no funded take-back network like the handful of states that mandate one. Private mattress recyclers do operate in metro Phoenix and will strip a mattress down to its steel springs, foam, fiber and wood frame, but coverage across the Valley is inconsistent and capacity comes and goes. The truth is that a large share of used mattresses in this metro are disposed of, not recycled, and anyone promising otherwise as a blanket guarantee is overselling.
What we do: route the mattress to a recycler when one will take it, and dispose of it responsibly through the City of Phoenix transfer-station system when none will. Everything else in the same load gets sorted properly — a metal bed frame goes to scrap, a donatable dresser or headboard goes to a Valley charity, and any electronics that come along get pulled out for e-waste. Cheap desert disposal (Phoenix's 2026 gate rate is about $55 per ton) is part of why a per-item flat price works here at all.
If you're anywhere near Tempe, this deserves its own plan. ASU residence halls close around May 9, 2026, and that one week produces the densest concentration of discarded mattresses anywhere in the metro — dorm twins, futons and mini-fridges out of the halls, plus the simultaneous churn of off-campus apartments along Apache Boulevard, Mill Avenue and Tempe Town Lake. Everybody's lease ends the same week.
What goes wrong that week: complexes fine residents for stuffing a mattress into the shared dumpster, the bulk-appointment system can't absorb thousands of simultaneous requests, and the buildings that do have private hauling won't take bedding at all. We staff Tempe through move-out week specifically for this, usually with same-day slots, at the same $111 twin / $139 queen flat price with no move-out surcharge — and a dorm twin plus a futon can go on one quote. If you're a parent booking from out of state, the crew can meet a roommate or a leasing office instead of you.
Phoenix homes are built on slabs — there are no basements here — so an old mattress doesn't go downstairs to be forgotten. It goes to the garage, leaned against the wall next to the holiday bins, and it stays there for years taking up a parking bay. That's where most of our Valley mattress jobs actually happen, and it's the easiest possible load: garage door up, straight to the truck, nothing ever visible from the street.
The rest of the metro has its own quirks and we price none of them extra. A Tempe or Midtown walk-up means a two- or three-flight stair carry with no elevator — no stair fee. A Downtown Phoenix or Old Town Scottsdale high-rise means a building COI naming the association and management, plus a reserved freight-elevator and loading-dock window; we file and book both, and there's no high-rise surcharge. A gated North Scottsdale or Paradise Valley community means vendor check-in at the gate, which we handle on arrival. And a Mesa 55+ or RV-resort community often means narrow interior streets and a specific quiet window — tell us and we'll schedule around it.
"Move-out week at ASU and every dumpster was full. Sent a photo of the twin and a futon at 9am, both gone by 2pm. Flat price, no move-out surcharge."
"New bed came Saturday morning, the old king and box spring went out Saturday afternoon. Straight from the bedroom, nothing ever sat in the driveway — which matters in our HOA."
"Three mattresses out of my mom's house in Mesa before the sale. They took the frames and the dresser to donation and handled the whole thing in one visit."
How much does it cost in Phoenix?
Twin $111, full $126, queen $139, king $154, box spring $124, mattress and box spring together $192. Futon $139, bed frame $92. $75 minimum, carry-out and disposal included, no Arizona sales tax on the service.
Will the City of Phoenix take it?
Yes, through the appointment-based uncontained bulk trash program — but it's capped at four collections per calendar year, booked up to three business days out, with items set out no more than seven days ahead. Apartments aren't covered, and every suburb runs its own separate program.
Can I donate a used mattress?
Almost certainly not. Goodwill of Central & Northern Arizona, St. Vincent de Paul, Habitat ReStore and the Salvation Army take furniture but generally refuse used mattresses for hygiene reasons. The frame and headboard are a different story — those we'll route to donation.
Is my mattress actually recycled?
Sometimes. Arizona has no statewide mattress-recycling mandate, so recycler coverage in the Valley is inconsistent and many used mattresses get disposed rather than recycled. We route to a recycler where one will accept it, and dispose responsibly where none will.
Can I just take it to the dump?
You can use the 27th Avenue or North Gateway Transfer Station at the City of Phoenix 2026 gate rate of about $55 per ton. You can't use the SR-85 Landfill — it isn't open to the public. Bring a truck; a queen doesn't fit in a car.
Do you carry it out, or do I?
We do. Bedroom to truck, stairs or elevator included, no stair fee. That's the whole difference between this and dragging it to the curb for a collection date.
Same-day during ASU move-out week?
Usually yes — we staff Tempe specifically for the week the halls close (around May 9, 2026), at the same flat per-size price.
Yes, through its uncontained (bulk) trash program — but it is now appointment-based, not automatic. Residential city-trash customers get a maximum of four bulk collections per calendar year, appointments are scheduled up to three business days out, and items cannot be set out more than seven days before the collection. There is no longer a quarterly by-zone pile-up. Apartments and condos on private hauling are not covered, and suburban cities run their own separate programs.
Realistically, no. Goodwill of Central and Northern Arizona, St. Vincent de Paul, Habitat for Humanity ReStore and the Salvation Army all accept furniture across the Valley, but they generally refuse used mattresses for hygiene reasons. A bed frame, headboard or nightstand is donatable; the mattress you slept on is not.
Some, but not guaranteed. Arizona has no statewide mattress-recycling law, so there is no funded take-back program the way a few other states run one. Private recyclers do operate in the metro and will break a mattress down for its steel, foam and wood, but coverage is inconsistent and many used mattresses in the Valley are landfilled rather than recycled. We route to a recycler when one will take the mattress and dispose of it responsibly when none will.
You can go to the 27th Avenue or North Gateway Transfer Station — the City of Phoenix 2026 gate rate for trash is about $55 per ton. You cannot drive to the SR-85 Landfill; it is not open to the general public. The practical catch is the vehicle: a queen mattress does not fit in a sedan or a crossover, so a self-haul usually means borrowing a truck, buying straps, and doing the loading and unloading yourself in Valley heat.
That is the week we staff for. ASU residence halls close around May 9, 2026, and that single week is the densest mattress dump in the metro — dorms, Apache Boulevard apartments and Mill Avenue complexes all clearing at once. We run Tempe hard through move-out, usually with same-day slots, at the same flat per-size price with no move-out surcharge.
No. The crew comes to the bedroom, walks it down the stairs or through the freight elevator, and loads it. There is no stair fee and no carry-out fee — that is the difference between us and the city program, which requires you to move the mattress to the curb and leave it there until your appointment.