Free mattress disposal is real, and every route has a rule. Donation, resale and give-away all refuse a stained, torn or wet mattress, and that is most used mattresses. The city truck does not care about the stain, but it comes on its own date, one to six weeks out. If neither fits, curbside pickup is $99 for a queen, and it goes today where same-day is running.
The free routes, and the rule each one has
There are three free routes worth your time. Each one has a rule attached, and the rule is decided by someone other than you.
Give it away. Craigslist, Nextdoor, or a local Buy Nothing group. Someone will take it, often the same day, and they carry it out themselves. The rule is condition. It has to be clean, dry and unstained. If yours is, stop reading and go post it. That is the fastest free option there is and you do not need us for it.
City bulk pickup. Free in most places. You call or fill in a form and you get a date. The rule is the calendar, plus a set-out window and an item cap. Some cities also require the mattress sealed in a plastic bag before it goes out. New York City is one of them, and this rule is set city by city, so check yours before you set anything at the curb.
A state drop-off site. Four states run a statewide mattress recycling program paid for when a new mattress is sold there: California, Connecticut, Oregon and Rhode Island. Sites are listed on byebyemattress.com. The rule is that you drive it, so you need a truck and a second person. Site hours and what each one accepts are set locally, so call before you load.
The stain rule is the one that stops most people
Nobody tells you this part until you are already on the phone.
A stain, a tear, a soft spot, or any bed-bug history is an automatic no at donation, at a resale shop, and with almost every stranger who answers your listing. It is not a judgment call at the counter. Several states regulate the resale of used bedding, so a store that takes a stained mattress is taking on a problem it does not need.
Wet counts as stained. This is where free plans die. You set the mattress out early to get it out of the hallway, it rains once, and the mattress that three people wanted on Tuesday is refused by everyone on Thursday. A soaked queen also gains real weight, which turns a two-person carry into a fight.
The city truck is the one route that does not apply a condition rule. Landfill does not care. That is the honest answer to "where do I put a stained mattress for free," and it comes with the other rule instead.
Every free route has a date, and the mattress has to wait somewhere
That is the part people underestimate.
Between today and your pickup date, the mattress physically exists in one of two places. The hallway, where it blocks a doorway and the new bed cannot go in. Or outside, where the weather ends the free option and a neighbor decides how long is too long.
Apartment buildings and HOAs are stricter than the city, and the complaint almost never comes from an inspector. A mattress standing in front of a building is the most visible thing you can leave there.
So the real question is not what free costs. It is whether you have three weeks of somewhere to put it.
Gone from the curb today, whatever condition it is in. A queen mattress is $99, and a second queen mattress after it is +$30. Twin $89. Full $94. King or Cal King $104. A queen mattress and box spring together are $121. Book by 2 PM and a local hauler comes today where same-day is running, seven days a week. Book first, then set it out. The price locks when you book. It needs to be outside, and nobody comes inside.
See my price for a queen mattressWhat we do with the ones they refuse
Stained, torn, wet, foam that will not roll back up, bed-bug history. Those are the mattresses we pick up every day. Condition is not a question we ask, because we are not reselling it.
About 1,000 items leave curbs through Dropcurb every month, in all 50 states, and the hauler is local to your address. You get a text when they are close and photos of the empty curb when it is done.
"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."
Melissa Mader, Google
5.0 on Google across 150+ reviews. 4.9 on Trustpilot across 125+ reviews.
Will a charity take my mattress?
Sometimes, and less often than the internet suggests.
Habitat for Humanity ReStore and The Salvation Army both list furniture pickup, but used-mattress acceptance is set locally, not nationally, and it changes. Plenty of individual stores and affiliates stopped taking mattresses years ago, mostly over bed bugs. The national page is not the answer. The store nearest you is.
Call the specific location, name the item, and ask whether pickup is running in your ZIP. If they say yes and the mattress is clean, take it. It is free, they load it, and you get a receipt.
If they say no, that is not a partial no. Nobody else in that chain will say yes either, and the reason will be the condition, not the schedule.
Can I take it to the dump myself?
If you own a pickup or a van, yes, and it is cheap. Transfer stations and landfills usually charge a per-item rate for a mattress, roughly $10 to $40, because mattresses jam compactors and balers. Rates and hours are set site by site, so call ahead. Many close early Saturday and are shut Sunday.
If you do not own a truck, run the numbers honestly. A rental is a deposit, a mileage rate, fuel, and an hour of your Saturday, and you still need a second person at both ends. A queen is 60 by 80 inches and 60 to 100 pounds, more in memory foam. It flops. It is not a one-person carry down a stairwell.
Two things to skip. A mattress on a car roof lifts at highway speed, and rope run through the door frames means you cannot open the doors. And a bed-in-a-box was compressed once, at a factory, with industrial equipment. You are not rolling it back up in the bedroom.
Does it have to be outside before I book?
No, and this is the thing people get backwards.
Book first, then set it out. The price locks when you book and it does not change at the curb. You can book with the mattress still against the bedroom wall and carry it out the morning of, once the text says the hauler is close.
That is the whole difference from a bulk request. With the city you are guessing at a date weeks out and staging the mattress in advance to be safe. Here the mattress stays inside until the same morning. Haulers head out between 8 and 10 AM, about half of pickups are done by noon, and three quarters by 2 PM. Book by 2 PM and it goes today where same-day is running, seven days a week. Nobody comes inside.
Mattress and box spring together is $121.