Renting a truck vs junk removal in St. Louis

The short answer

Renting a truck makes sense if you have strong help, a weekday free, a load that a transfer station or disposal site will accept, and nothing heavy below ground or upstairs. It stops making sense when the junk is in a basement or a walk-up flat, includes appliances or tires, or is bigger than one trip. Junk removal here is a flat price: sofa $126, quarter truck $241, half truck $431, including the carrying, loading and disposal.

The DIY route, step by step

1. Rent a truck or pickup. Reserve it, pick it up, pay for the time and the miles.
2. Find help. A sofa or a fridge is a two-person carry, minimum.
3. Carry everything out. Basement stairs, flat stairways, gangways to the alley.
4. Load and strap it. Loose loads on I-64 or I-55 are dangerous.
5. Find a place that takes it. See below — this is where most plans stall.
6. Unload it yourself at the site.
7. Return the truck clean, on time, and refueled.

That is most of a day for most people, and two days for anything big.

Where you can actually take it

For City of St. Louis residents, the main self-haul option is the City's North or South transfer station:

• Monday to Friday, 8:00 to 4:00. No weekends.
• Bring ID and your water or solid-waste bill.
• 12 loads per year, where a load is what fits a half-ton pickup, up to 5 by 8 by 4 feet.
• No household hazardous waste, and no commercial, business, charity or nonprofit waste.

Note the load definition. A rental box truck holds far more than a half-ton pickup bed. County and Illinois residents need to find what their own city or other disposal sites accept, and what they charge.

What you cannot just toss

• Appliances are banned from Missouri landfills (RSMo 260.250) and need to go to recycling, with refrigerant recovered from fridges, freezers and AC units.
• Tires must be cut, chipped or shredded before landfilling (RSMo 260.270).
• Yard waste is banned from Missouri landfills.
• Electronics cannot go in the trash on the Illinois side.

A DIY run with a fridge, four tires and a TV can mean three different stops. Our price list covers them all: fridge $164, set of tires $87, a 42-to-65-inch TV $68. Together that is $164 + $87 + $68 = $319, one visit.

The St. Louis carry problem

The truck is the easy part. The carry is the hard part. City brick flats have narrow, turning interior stairs. Many St. Louis homes have deep basements. Old solid-wood furniture is heavy. Getting a sleeper sofa out of a third-floor Tower Grove South flat, or a chest freezer up a Florissant basement stair, is where people get hurt and walls get damaged.

Parking adds another layer. In Soulard, Benton Park and the CWE, street parking is tight, and a rental truck in a City alley blocks neighbors' garages and the shared refuse dumpsters while you load. With junk removal, carry-out from any floor is included, with no stairs fee, and the crew loads quickly.

A side-by-side example

Take a typical Webster Groves basement: an old sofa, a chest freezer, a dresser and a pile of boxes and broken shelving.

• DIY: truck rental, fuel, a helper, a day, a separate appliance-recycling stop for the freezer, and the disposal fees at whatever site accepts the rest.
• Flat pickup: sofa, freezer and dresser are $126 + $146 + $126 = $398; add a quarter truck for the boxes and shelving, $398 + $241 = $639. Or ask whether a single tier fits the whole load better — a 3/4 truck is $587.

You see the number before you book, and it only changes if you approve.

Moving day: the truck for the move, a pickup for the junk

Plenty of St. Louis households already have a rental truck booked, for a move. The temptation is to use it for the junk too: load the keepers, then swing by a disposal site with the rest. In practice that turns a moving day into two jobs on a deadline. The truck is due back, the transfer station closes at 4:00 on weekdays and is shut on weekends, and the leftover sofa still has to come down the stairs.

A cleaner split is to book the junk pickup for the day before the movers, so the truck only carries what is moving. For a CWE apartment, that means booking the freight elevator twice or asking for a longer slot. For a Scott AFB family leaving O'Fallon on PCS orders, it means the garage leftovers are gone before the packers arrive. A sofa, a mattress set and a quarter truck of boxes is $126 + $143 + $241 = $510, booked in a two-hour window up to midnight.

If you do rent the truck: tips that save the day

• Confirm the destination first. Before you reserve a truck, confirm where the load is going, what they accept, their hours, and what they charge. City transfer stations close at 4:00 and are shut on weekends.
• Load heavy and flat first. Appliances and dressers against the cab, mattresses standing along the sides, bags on top.
• Bring straps, a dolly and moving blankets. An appliance dolly with a strap is the difference between a safe stair carry and a dropped washer.
• Watch the alley. Load quickly and move the truck.
• Split heavy jobs. If the basement is full, do the basement one day and the rest another, rather than two exhausted trips in one afternoon.

Most DIY trouble comes from discovering at 3:30 on a Friday that the site will not take the load.

When to DIY and when to book

DIY if it is light, already in the garage, one trip, no appliances, and you have help and a weekday. Book if it is heavy, in the basement or upstairs, mixed with appliances or tires, or needed out on a weekend or tonight — we work 8am to midnight, seven days. Get a flat price from a photo at the instant quote page.

Frequently asked questions