Free donation pickup is real. It is not a service you can book. It is a truck that one local store decided to send, on a route that store planned. Bags of clothes and housewares are the easy yes. Furniture is where it gets slow. You call, you ask, and they hand you a date. If that date does not work, curbside removal is $99 for a sofa — book by 2 PM and it goes out today where same-day is running.
Sort the pile before you call anyone
Two different operations share the name, and mixing them up is what wastes the week.
Bagged clothing, shoes, linens, books and kitchenware ride a route truck that is already on your street. Where your Salvation Army division runs one, ask by zip. It costs nothing, the bags never leave your porch, and it is the fastest yes on this page.
Anything you cannot carry alone is the other operation. One store sends its own box truck. For a sofa, a dresser or a working appliance, call the nearest Habitat ReStore and ask for the donation coordinator.
Say four things.
- 1.What it is, and what is wrong with it. Say the stain out loud.
- 2.What floor it is on, and whether there are stairs.
- 3.Whether you can get it to the porch or the garage yourself.
- 4.What is the first date you can come?
The fourth one is the whole call. A yes with no date is not a plan.
What gets a no before you dial
A store's test is not whether your item is usable. It is whether it will sell off their floor in a few weeks. That one rule explains almost every refusal.
- •Torn, stained, pet damaged, water swollen particle board, or not working. Refused, and it does not matter who you call.
- •Mattresses and box springs. Almost nobody takes them, on hygiene grounds. Free was never on the table for that item.
- •Upstairs or in a basement. Crews collect from a porch, a garage or a ground floor room. Carrying down is not standard and it varies store to store, so ask before the truck is booked.
- •Their floor, not your item. A store holding eleven brown sofas stops taking sofas that week. Your piece can be perfect and still get a no.
- •Outside the radius. Each store draws its own map. No truck comes at any price.
The part nobody warns you about is the date
Every free pickup runs on a route. The store fills a truck for one side of town, then it goes. Your sofa gets added to a list, and the list is what sets the day.
So the date you get is the date the route had open. Ask and you will usually hear a week or two. Sometimes it is longer. Sometimes the answer is that the truck is not running right now.
Two things make it slower. Charities want the truck full, so one item waits for company. And many stores run pickups on a couple of weekdays only, in a window, not at an appointment time. You take a morning off, or you leave it outside and hope.
Paying does not buy you the calendar either. Some regions hand the pickup to a paid contractor, and the fee lands near a hundred dollars. You are paying for the lift. The route is still theirs.
City bulk pickup is the same shape with a different owner. Free in most places, on the city's schedule, and often capped per household per year.
You do not get to schedule that truck. You get to ask. The route, the radius and the floor space were all set before you picked up the phone.
So call, describe the piece the way it actually looks, and get a date in your hand. A date you can use ends this. A date past the day you need the room does not.
If the date does not work
Book by 2 PM and a local hauler comes today where same-day is running. Seven days a week, all 50 states. You pick the day, and you are not waiting on a route that was planned last week.
The highest priced item sets the first price. Everything else is added at its own lower price. That is the whole total. It is locked when you book and it does not change at the curb.
Haulers head out between 8 and 10 in the morning. Almost half of pickups are done by noon, and about three quarters by 2 PM. You get a text with the ETA before they arrive and photos once it is gone. Nobody comes inside. Put the items out the morning of the pickup, not the night before.
| Item | What it costs at the curb |
|---|---|
| Standard sofa | $99 · $28 for each extra item |
| Queen mattress | $99 · box spring with it, $22 |
| Double dresser | $79 · $32 for each extra item |
This is a removal, not a donation. If the piece is clean and a store will take it, the call above is the better answer, and it costs you nothing. If the date is the problem, you pick the day at checkout.
See my price for a sofaBefore you hand a sofa to a name you have not heard of
Handing a sofa to a name you have not heard of is a bigger ask than handing it to a charity. This is the review that answers it.
"I was concerned this wasn't a legit company, but they absolutely are and I'm so glad I found them as I was quoted $1500 by another company in the St. Louis area. I was provided with photos from the pickup to validate that the items had been removed. Even tho I had to change the pickup date several times, I was able to easily text them to let them know I needed to change dates."
— Melissa Mader, Google
5.0 on Google across 150+ reviews. 4.9 on Trustpilot across 125+ reviews. Over 1,000 items picked up every month.
If they say yes, here is the day
Put the item where you told them it would be, on the morning of the pickup, not the night before. A porch, a garage, or just inside the front door if that is what you agreed. Charity crews work a route, so you have a window, not an appointment.
Take a photo of each piece before it goes. You will need it if you claim the deduction, and the crew will not photograph it for you.
Ask for the receipt before the truck leaves. The charity will not put a dollar value on it. Under IRS rules the donor assigns fair market value, not the charity.
Take the legs off a sofa or a table if they come off. That is often the difference between a yes and a crew that cannot get it through the door.