The cheapest way to get rid of furniture in St. Louis

The short answer

Cheapest to most expensive: give it away, use the City's monthly bulky pickup (if you are a City resident and the piece is under 100 lbs and 6 ft), haul it to a City transfer station in your own truck, then pay for pickup. A flat pickup has a $100 order minimum; a standard sofa is $126 and a dresser is $126, carried out from any floor.

1. Free: give it away

The cheapest option costs nothing but a post and a bit of patience. It works best for clean, light, useful pieces: a small dining set, a desk, a bookshelf, a dresser in decent shape.

Timing helps in St. Louis. Demand for free furniture rises in late July and August as students and medical residents move in around SLU, WashU, the Central West End and the Delmar Loop. A desk listed in the third week of August disappears; the same desk listed in January may sit.

Give the floor and the stair situation in the post. If your buyer arrives to a third-floor Tower Grove South flat with a narrow stair, they may not take it. Set a deadline, too. A free sofa that has not moved in ten days is a sofa you are still storing.

2. Already paid for: the City bulky pickup

Inside the City limits, the $14 per month per unit solid-waste fee, billed quarterly on your water bill, covers monthly bulky collection. So the cash cost of using it is zero. The rules:

• Out by 6:00 am on the Monday of your collection week.
• In the alley if your block has one; at the curb if not.
• Up to three items per pickup.
• No piece over 100 lbs, 6 ft long or 2 ft in diameter.

The real cost is the wait and the limits. A dining chair, a small end table and a lamp: perfect. A sleeper sofa, a solid-oak dresser or a 7-foot couch: probably not. And if you miss the Monday, you wait a month.

3. Cheap if you own a truck: the transfer station

City residents can drop off at the North or South transfer station Monday through Friday, 8:00 to 4:00. Bring ID and a water or solid-waste bill. Twelve loads a year, each up to a half-ton pickup's worth, 5 by 8 by 4 feet.

Do the honest math. If you own a pickup and can take a weekday morning, this is cheap. If you need to rent a truck, find a second person, and take time off work, add those up before deciding. Also note: business, charity and nonprofit waste is not accepted, so a landlord clearing a rental should check with the City before loading up.

4. County and Metro East: check your hauler first

Outside the City, the cheapest route depends entirely on your municipality or trash district. Florissant, Kirkwood, Webster Groves, Chesterfield, and the unincorporated areas like Oakville, Mehlville and Affton each have their own service and rules. Some may include bulky items; some may charge or require scheduling. Belleville, O'Fallon and Edwardsville are in Illinois with their own setups. Read your bill or your city's trash page before paying anyone, because the cheapest option may already be in your trash bill.

5. Flat pickup: what it costs

There is a $100 order minimum, so bundling saves money. One coffee table alone at $67 bills at $100. A coffee table plus a bookshelf is $67 + $72 = $139 — you get the second piece gone for $39 more than the minimum alone. A recliner and a dresser together are $98 + $126 = $224.

One living room, four ways

Here is a real-shaped example: a sofa, a loveseat, a coffee table and a bookshelf in a second-floor flat in Bevo Mill.

• Give away: $0 if someone takes all four and carries them down. Realistically the coffee table and bookshelf go; the upholstered pieces often do not.
• City bulky pickup: $0 in cash, but four items is more than the three-item limit, and a full-size sofa usually fails the 6-ft length rule. You carry everything to the alley yourself. Plan on two collection weeks, and a sofa that may not qualify.
• Transfer station: one or two half-ton pickup loads on a weekday between 8:00 and 4:00, plus the carry down the stair and whatever a truck and helper cost you.
• Flat pickup: $126 + $119 + $67 + $72 = $384, carried out from the second floor, any day 8am to midnight.

A common mix is the cheapest of all: give away the bookshelf and coffee table, then book the sofa and loveseat together for $126 + $119 = $245.

When paying is actually the cheaper route

It sounds backwards, but for some jobs the flat pickup costs less than doing it yourself once you count everything:

• Anything in a basement. Deep St. Louis basements and narrow stairs mean two strong people and an afternoon.
• More than three pieces in the City, where you would need several months of bulky pickups.
• A move-out deadline. Missed deposit returns and an extra month of rent cost more than a pickup.
• Heavy solid wood. An injured back is not cheap.

No stairs fee, no same-day surcharge, and the price is shown before you book.

A cheapest-path plan

Give away the good pieces first. City residents: set out up to three light ones for your collection week. If you own a truck, take another load to the transfer station. Bundle the rest into one pickup so you clear the $100 minimum with real items instead of air. Price it from a photo at the instant quote page.

Frequently asked questions