Looking for a 1-800-GOT-JUNK alternative in Philadelphia?

The short answer

Most national junk removal works on an on-site estimate. A crew comes to your address, looks at the pile, and quotes you there. It is a legitimate model and it has been running a long time. The trade-off is that you find out the price at the point where saying no is the most awkward — two people are already parked on your one-way street in Northern Liberties and you have already taken the morning off.

We publish the prices instead. A sofa is $126. A queen mattress is $103. A washer is $133 and a dryer is $128. A standard refrigerator is $164. If you would rather price by volume, the ladder is $241 for a quarter truck, $338 for three-eighths, $431 for a half, $513 for five-eighths, $587 for three quarters, $661 for seven-eighths and $732 for a full load. The minimum is $75 per visit.

You can read that list right now, on your phone, at 11pm, without giving anyone your address.

Two models, plainly described

On-site estimate

You book a window. A truck comes. Someone walks your Graduate Hospital basement or your Rittenhouse condo, sizes the load by eye, and gives a figure. If you agree, they start. The strength is that a human is judging the actual pile. The weakness is timing: you commit to the appointment before you commit to the price, and you negotiate standing up.

Published flat pricing

You pick your items, or pick a truck fraction, and the total appears on screen. You book at that total. The crew arrives to do the job, not to price it. The strength is that the decision happens while you are sitting down with a coffee. The weakness is that you have to know roughly what you have — which for most Philly jobs means counting the furniture in one room.

Why this matters more in Philadelphia than in most cities

Because in this city the estimator's variables are exactly the things that make you nervous.

• Stairs. Half of Philadelphia lives above a first floor reached by a narrow staircase with a turn at the landing. When pricing happens on site, you spend the whole wait wondering whether the third floor is going to cost extra. With published pricing, $126 for that sofa is $126 whether it is in the front room or the back bedroom under the roof.
• Trinities. Three stacked rooms, one winder stair, no way to carry anything straight. In Queen Village, Bella Vista and Society Hill this is normal housing stock, and it is precisely the kind of thing that invites an adjustment at the door.
• Access. No driveway, no alley, permit parking, and a street that is one lane once both curbs are full. That is our logistics problem to solve, not a surcharge.
• Buildings with rules. Center City towers want a reserved freight elevator and a certificate of insurance on file before anyone touches a service lift. That is paperwork to organize, not a price variable.

None of those change your number.

What the published price actually includes

Disposal. The carry-out from wherever the item is, on whatever floor. Loading. Sweeping up after. Two people when two people are needed. And the parking arrangement on your block, whatever that takes.

What it does not include is a line you did not see coming. There is no stair charge, no walk-up charge, no same-day charge, no narrow-street charge and no charge for the fact that the crew had to circle Passyunk twice to find a legal spot.

A like-for-like Philadelphia example

A one-bedroom in Fairmount being emptied before settlement. The furniture leaving is a sofa, a queen mattress and box spring set, a dresser, a coffee table and a 55-inch TV. Priced per item:

$126 + $143 + $126 + $67 + $68 = $530. You see that before you book, not after someone has looked at it. The same load priced by volume sits on the truck ladder between the half at $431 and the three-quarter rung at $587, and you can choose whichever way of pricing you prefer.

We are not going to invent numbers for anyone else

You will find pages online claiming to know exactly what a national brand charges for a Philly sofa. Ignore them. Franchise pricing varies by operator, by load, by day, and no third party has a published rate card to quote. Anybody who tells you otherwise is guessing at your expense.

What we can tell you with certainty is our own side, because it is published and it does not move: $126 a sofa, $103 a queen mattress, $241 a quarter truck, $732 a full one, $75 minimum. Compare that against whatever quote you get from anyone else, in writing, before the truck is on your block.

How to choose

If your pile is genuinely unknowable — a Kensington basement you have not opened in nine years, a whole house in Mayfair — an on-site look has real value and you may prefer it.

If you can name the things that are leaving, and most Philadelphia jobs are exactly that, take the published number. Book it in three minutes, know the total, and spend the appointment window doing something other than negotiating on your own doorstep.

Frequently asked questions