By Gabriel Torres, Discard Junk Removal
City junk pickup vs. hiring a hauler, at a glance
STRAIGHT ANSWERS IN 10 SECONDS
- The city program
- City of Sacramento residential customers get two free Household Junk Pickup appointments a year, February through October, booked through Sac311.
- When it works
- If it fits a 4 × 4 × 9 foot pile, you can get it to the street yourself, and it isn’t on the not-accepted list, use your free appointment.
- Rules that trip people up
- Cancel or reschedule by 5:00 p.m. two business days before, or the appointment still counts as one of your free ones.
- When we make sense
- Still inside, too heavy or too big? Single items start at $74. Dirt, concrete and remodel debris are priced by weight, free quote. You pay after the job, fuel is included, no travel surcharges.
- How fast
- Same-day pickup is often available, and we carry it out from any room. We’re open 24 hours, 7 days a week.
- Reviews
- ★ on Google across 506+ reviews. We’re a family-owned crew based in Midtown.
📞 (916) 866-1152 · Free estimate, no surprises
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If you live in the City of Sacramento and pay for city garbage service, you already have a free way to get rid of bulky junk. It’s the city’s Household Junk Pickup. It’s a good program, and for a lot of households it’s all you need. This guide walks through how it works in 2026, what the crews will and won’t take, and when it makes more sense to hire a hauler like us. We’re a family-owned junk removal company based in Midtown, so we see both sides of this every week.
The short version: if your junk fits in a 4 × 4 × 9 foot pile, you can get it to the street yourself, and none of it is on the city’s “not accepted” list, use your free city appointment. If it’s still inside, too heavy, too big, or includes things like dirt, concrete or remodel debris, that’s when a crew earns its fee.
How the City of Sacramento’s Household Junk Pickup works
The city’s Recycling and Solid Waste division runs the program. Every residential customer can schedule two free appointments per calendar year for bulky items. Extra yard waste counts too, as long as you keep it separate from the junk. If you rent a single-family home or a duplex, you can book your own appointments.
Appointments are only offered from February through October. The same crews pick up leaves in the fall, so free junk appointments stop in mid- to late October, and leaf collection comes first in November, December and January. You book through Sac311, online or in the Sac311 app, and you should be specific about what you’re putting out.
Two rules trip people up. If you need to cancel or reschedule, do it by 5:00 p.m. two business days before the pickup date. If you don’t, the appointment still counts as one of your free ones. And if you’ve already used both free pickups, a missed cancellation may be billed.
Apartment residents in buildings with five or more units usually aren’t on city residential service. In that case the building’s landlord, property manager or commercial hauler handles bulky pickups.
Pile rules
| Rule | What the city requires |
|---|---|
| Pile size | No bigger than 4 ft × 4 ft × 9 ft. Oversized piles may be charged a fee. |
| Set-out time | No earlier than 24 hours before the appointment. Early set-outs can be fined. |
| Deadline | Out by 6:00 a.m. on the appointment day. |
| Where it goes | On the public street, not in the alley, the driveway or on the curb. Six feet from parked cars, and not blocking the sidewalk or street. |
| Loose items | In disposable containers like cardboard boxes. |
| Yard waste | Allowed, but kept clearly separate from the junk and still inside the same size limit. |
What the city accepts
- Furniture, mattresses, carpet and toys
- Pipe up to 3 feet long
- Untreated wood and lumber up to 6 feet long; fencing has to be taken apart
- Up to four tires, off the rims
- Yard waste: leaves, grass, sod with loose dirt shaken off, and tree limbs cut to 3 feet long and no more than 4 inches across
What the city won’t take
- Household hazardous waste, paint, gas canisters, explosives and radioactive material
- Electronics, which need their own appointment
- Construction debris, including dirt, rock, rubble and concrete
- Tires still on the rim
- Treated wood such as fence posts, guard rails and decking
- Stumps thicker than 4 inches
Treated wood can be taken to Kiefer Landfill for a fee, and hazardous items go to a household hazardous waste facility. We don’t take hazardous waste either, but we do haul construction debris, dirt and concrete that the city program can’t.
Appliances and e-waste: a separate pickup
Appliances and electronics used to go out with household junk. They don’t anymore. The city now runs a separate Appliance and E-waste Pickup, with two free appointments a year on top of the two junk appointments, and it runs year-round.
- Up to two large appliances per appointment: fridges, freezers, washers, dryers, stoves, dishwashers, microwaves, water heaters, air conditioners, furnaces and similar. No commercial appliances.
- Up to four large e-waste items per appointment, like TVs, laptops and space heaters. A box of small devices such as phones and calculators counts as one item.
- Items go on your property at the end of the driveway, visible and easy to reach, with about two feet of clearance around appliances.
- Each pickup has a minimum weight of 10 pounds.
The catch is getting the appliance there. A fridge has to be emptied and moved, a washer has to be unhooked, and a gas dryer or water heater has to be shut off and capped before anyone should move it. If that’s more than you want to take on, our crew disconnects appliances, including gas dryers and gas and electric water heaters, and carries them out. Refrigerant is handled to EPA rules, and electronics go to e-waste recycling.
After your two free appointments
Used both? You still have options through the city. City Utility Billing can set up a special fee-based pickup, with a minimum fee of $39.48. That’s also the route during leaf season, when free appointments aren’t available. Or you can use the dump coupon that comes with the city’s service guide each year. It lets you take one load free to the Sacramento Recycling and Transfer Station at 8491 Fruitridge Road.
The dump coupon is a real saving if you have a truck or trailer, a free afternoon and someone to help you lift. If you don’t, that’s usually where people start calling around.
City pickup vs. hiring a hauler, side by side
| City Household Junk Pickup | Hiring a junk removal crew | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free, twice a year. Paid pickups start at $39.48. | From $74 for one item and $149 for a standard pickup; a full truck is $749. |
| When | February through October, by appointment. | Year-round. Same-day pickup is often available if you call early. |
| Who carries it | You. Everything has to be at the street by 6:00 a.m. | We do, from any room, the garage, the attic or the back yard. |
| How much | One 4 × 4 × 9 foot pile. | As much as you need, priced by truck space. |
| Appliances and e-waste | Separate appointment; you move them to the driveway. | Same visit; we disconnect washers, dryers and water heaters. |
| Dirt, concrete, remodel debris | Not accepted. | Accepted; heavy material is quoted from a photo. |
| Sorting | Yard waste separate; loose items boxed. | No sorting needed. We set aside donations and recycling. |
When the city program is the better choice
We’d rather you save the money when the free option fits. The city pickup is the right call when:
- The pile is small enough, like a couch, a mattress, a few boxes and a bundle of branches.
- You can get it to the street yourself without hurting your back or your walls.
- It’s February through October and you haven’t used both appointments.
- You can wait for the appointment date and put things out the evening before.
- Nothing in the pile is on the not-accepted list.
When calling a hauler makes more sense
Most of the calls we get from city residents fall into one of these:
- It’s still inside. A sleeper sofa upstairs, a dresser in a back bedroom or a garage packed to the door. The city crew only takes what’s at the street.
- It’s bigger than one pile. A whole garage, a move-out or an estate won’t fit in 4 × 4 × 9 feet. See garage cleanouts.
- It’s on the not-accepted list. Dirt, rock, concrete, tile, drywall and other remodel debris.
- It needs disconnecting. Gas dryers, water heaters and hot tubs. Hot tub removal starts at $249.
- You’re on a deadline. A lease ends Friday, the house closes next week or the listing photos are on Monday.
- It’s leaf season, or you’ve used both appointments and don’t have a way to haul it yourself.
Here’s what that looked like in some recent jobs in Sacramento, all things a curbside program couldn’t have taken in one appointment:
- September: two to three wheelbarrows of cinder blocks mixed with dirt and grass.
- August: broken concrete and stone, about half a load.
- August: a full truck of tree trimmings, shrubs and bamboo.
- August: fence sections from a repair and an old sit-down lawn mower.
- July: a large outdoor pile of furniture and flooring, estimated at two trailer loads.
What it costs to hire us instead
We price by how much space your things take up in the truck, not by the hour. A single item starts at $74, a standard pickup starts at $149, and a full truck is $749. Hot tubs and upright pianos start at $249. Whole-house, estate and garage cleanouts start with a free estimate. You get the price before anything is loaded, and it includes the labor, the fuel and the dump fees. About 45% of what we haul is donated or recycled.
“I requested for my dresser to be brought downstairs and taken to the dump. I had other items, chairs, frames, etc to be taken as well. The price was reasonable, as they did not charge for labor. It was based off the amount of space the items took on the trailer.”
R S., Google review
“Im going to Discard Junk Removal for all my hauling purposes from now on. Gabe responded quick, scheduled for the next day, and charged a fair price.”
Nailah P., Google review
Using both: the smart way to do it
You don’t have to pick one. Plenty of people use their free city appointments for the easy stuff, like a pile of boxes, a worn-out chair and a bundle of branches, and call us for the heavy or awkward things the city can’t take. If you’re planning a big clean-out, start with the city’s rules, see what fits, and send us a photo of the rest.
For more about working in the city, see our page on junk removal in Sacramento. If you live outside city limits, rules are different; see Sacramento County, Elk Grove or Citrus Heights.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, for residential customers on city garbage service. Each household gets two free Household Junk Pickup appointments a year, from February through October, plus two free appointments a year for appliances and e-waste.
The pile can’t be bigger than 4 feet by 4 feet by 9 feet. Oversized piles may be charged a fee, and loose items should go in boxes or other disposable containers.
No earlier than 24 hours before your appointment and no later than 6:00 a.m. on the pickup day. The pile goes on the public street, not the driveway, alley or curb, and six feet away from parked cars.
No. Appliances and e-waste need their own appointment. The city takes up to two large appliances and up to four large e-waste items per appointment, placed at the end of your driveway.
You can pay for a special pickup, which has a minimum fee of $39.48, or use the yearly dump coupon from your service guide to take one load free to the Sacramento Recycling and Transfer Station on Fruitridge Road.
When things are still inside or too heavy to drag to the street, when the pile is bigger than the city limit, when it includes dirt, concrete or construction debris, when you’re out of appointments or it’s leaf season, or when you’re working against a move-out date.
Questions about a pile the city won’t take? Call Discard Junk Removal at (916) 866-1152. We answer 24/7.
