Five kinds of haul
Junk removal services in Bellevue
These differ less in what the truck does than in what happens before it arrives. The sorting, the access and the disposal route are where the money and the annoyance live.
The five
Full-service junk removal and hauling
Two people, a truck, and the part you are actually buying: the carrying. Priced by the volume your load takes up in the truck, which is worth understanding before anyone quotes you.
Read about hauling 02Furniture and mattress removal
The category with the most alternatives worth checking first, and the one where a sofa that will not fit back down the stairwell decides the whole job.
Read about furniture 03Appliance and electronics removal
Televisions, monitors and computers recycle free in Washington under a state program. Refrigerators and freezers do not, because the refrigerant has to be recovered with EPA-certified equipment first.
Read about appliances 04Garage, attic and estate cleanouts
A whole-space job rather than a pile. The sorting is most of the work and almost none of the quote, which is why the sequence you do it in matters more than the truck size.
Read about cleanouts 05Construction and remodel debris
The category Washington regulators actually pursue. Dropping a box at a residential site for a contractor to fill counts as solid waste collection, and in a 2024 case regulators recommended an $80,000 penalty against a company for doing it without a certificate.
Read about debrisStart here
Which one you are looking at
People almost never arrive at this having picked a category. They arrive with one object, one room, or one deadline. These are the five that come up.
- A pile in the garage or the driveway. That is full-service hauling, priced by how much of the truck it fills. Worth reading the pricing section before you get a quote, because the unit is not obvious.
- One large thing that will not go down the stairs. Furniture and mattresses, where the geometry of the stairwell decides the job and there are usually alternatives worth checking first.
- An old fridge, a television, a stack of monitors. Appliances and electronics, and the split matters: the screens recycle free under a state program, the refrigerant appliances categorically do not.
- A whole space, often on a deadline. Cleanouts: garage, attic, estate, or a lease ending. The sorting is the work; the truck is the easy part.
- A contractor's debris, or your own remodel. Construction debris, and the one category where Washington's certificate requirement has actually been enforced.
If none of that fits, describing the objects is more useful than choosing a heading. Nobody is going to price a category; they price a load.
One question first
Ask what happens to it
Every page here ends up in the same place, so it may as well be said once: ask what happens to the load, and ask for the state certificate number. The first tells you whether the free routes are being used or whether you are paying to landfill a television. The second is a matter of law.
Then describe the objects, the access, and whether there is a date you are working to. Those three settle almost every quote.