One item or a whole house. Most jobs are a mix: a garage with an old fridge in it, a basement with a treadmill, a campus apartment with a futon and a TV left behind. Each one below has its own price range, the Madison or Wisconsin rule that applies, and a full page.
A crew carries out sofas, sectionals, recliners, dressers, bed frames, desks and dining sets, no landing or staircase too awkward. HomeAdvisor puts hired furniture removal at $75 to $150 a piece. Madison's own program is free for homes the Streets Division collects from: file a Large Item Work Order, pick a Sunday, and set pieces out that day. Buildings of more than 8 units lost that option on January 1, 2025, which is where most paid furniture pickup in the city comes from. In the suburbs, Fitchburg's 2025 price sheet runs $50 a piece, and Stoughton and DeForest each allow one bulk item a month. Donate what still has life in it first; Habitat ReStore and St. Vinny's both take it free. Furniture removal details.
Price: $75 to $150 per piece (HomeAdvisor); free in Madison by work order for eligible homes
Refrigerators, freezers, washers, dryers, stoves and water heaters are each banned from Wisconsin landfills under state law. National guides put hired appliance removal at $50 to $400 per unit. In Madison, appliances go out on a work order like furniture, but the $35 fee list only applies to homes whose recycling the city doesn't collect; refrigerant appliances need certified recovery under NR 488 either way. Dane County Clean Sweep charges $35 per fridge, freezer, AC or dehumidifier for anyone outside that program, and the county landfill refuses them outright. A crew handles the recovery paperwork and the dolly work so a 200-pound fridge never has to clear your own stairs. Appliance removal details.
Price: $50 to $400 per unit nationally; Madison's $35 fee applies only to homes without city recycling
TVs, monitors, computers and printers can't go in the trash anywhere in Wisconsin under E-Cycle Wisconsin, and in Madison they can't go to the curb either: the city may remove a set left out and charge $30. Madison residents recycle electronics free at the three Streets Division drop-off sites, which route them to Universal Recycling Technologies in Janesville for certified data destruction. Everywhere else in the county, Dane County Clean Sweep charges $15 per TV or monitor, and Fitchburg's 2025 price sheet lists $55 for a set up to 55 inches. A crew hauling a mixed load keeps the electronics out of the landfill stream without a separate trip. Electronics removal details.
Price: Free at Madison's drop-off sites; $15 per TV at Clean Sweep elsewhere in Dane County
Mattresses and box springs sit on Madison's large item list and off its fee list, so eligible homes get them free on a work order; national guides put a hired pickup at $70 to $150. During the August student move-out, roving crews take mattresses in the move-out area without a work order at all. Several suburbs bag them first: Fitchburg charges $56 each in 2025, each sealed in its own plastic cover, and DeForest requires full plastic wrap before its one bulk item a month. The Dane County Landfill accepts mattresses at its standard weight rate, $15.03 for up to 500 pounds in 2026, if you'd rather haul one yourself. Mattress removal details.
Price: $70 to $150 nationally; free in Madison by work order, several suburbs require bagging first
A hot tub has to be drained and cut into pieces one person can carry before it leaves the yard, which is why it costs more than almost anything else in a cleanout: $200 to $600 in national guides (HomeAdvisor), averaging $325 by LawnStarter. Fitchburg's 2025 price sheet prices a cut-up four-seater at $100 curbside, plus $20 to $50 for the cover. In Madison, hot tubs sit on the $35 fee list for homes with private recycling, free on a work order otherwise, with pieces kept under 8 feet long. Have an electrician disconnect the power before anyone touches the shell; a junk crew doesn't do that part. Hot tub removal details.
Price: $200 to $600 nationally; Fitchburg's 2025 cut-up rate for a four-seater is $100
A piano is heavy, top-heavy and usually stuck behind a flight of stairs in Madison's older housing, which is why national guides price it separately from other furniture at $200 to $400 (Angi and HomeAdvisor agree). A crew brings a piano dolly, straps and enough people for the stairs rather than trying to walk it out by hand. Several municipal programs simply exclude pianos: McFarland's spring and fall large-item weeks list them as not accepted. If it still plays, check a donation group before scheduling a haul-away; LawnStarter notes that moving one for donation alone can run $250 to $600, so confirm a group wants it before paying for the move twice. Piano removal details.
Price: $200 to $400 nationally (Angi and HomeAdvisor agree); moving one for donation can run more
An estate or whole-home cleanout is sorting as much as hauling: what the family keeps, what goes to Habitat ReStore or St. Vinny's, what Wisconsin law routes to a recycling stream, and what's left for the landfill. LawnStarter's 2026 guide puts the typical job at $625 to $2,000, up to $4,000 for a larger estate. Madison's own free pickup only covers what a household can carry to the curb on one work order, which rarely clears a full house. Paint, chemicals and other hazardous products go to Dane County Clean Sweep separately; a junk crew doesn't load them. A dumpster or pod parked on the street needs a Street Occupancy Permit from the city. Estate cleanout details.
Price: $625 to $2,000 typically, up to $4,000 for larger estates (LawnStarter)
Garages and basements are priced the same way as any junk job, by how much of the truck they fill: $70 to $125 for a minimum load up to $400 to $800 for a full truck in national guides. What makes them slower in Madison is the mix: tires banned from landfills since 1995, scrap metal the city collects separately for recycling, electronics that can never go to the curb, and mowers and tillers that need draining first. Census tracts at the center of Madison's isthmus and near-west historic districts run to homes built in the 1930s and 1940s, and older basements mean stone walls and narrow stairs, which is labor time a crew prices in before the first box comes out. Garage and basement cleanout details.
Price: $70 to $800 per truckload, priced by volume like any junk load
Around August 15 each year, well over 30,000 Madison residents move out on roughly the same day, and the city runs its own daily cart pickup and roving furniture crews from August 3 to 21 to handle it. Couches, mattresses and bookshelves go out free without a work order inside that window; appliances, tires and anything after August 21 still need one, or a hired crew. Jobs here price the same as any load, by the truck, and most are a futon, a desk and whatever the last roommate left behind. TVs and computers never go to the curb under city ordinance, which is where a crew's mixed-load pickup earns its keep during move-out week. Student move-out cleanout details.
Price: Priced by truckload like any job; the city's own August window covers only what reaches the curb
Under Wis. Stat. s. 704.05(5), a landlord may presume property a tenant leaves behind is abandoned and dispose of it, absent a written agreement saying otherwise, with exceptions for prescription medication and medical equipment (held 7 days) and titled vehicles or manufactured homes (notice required). In Madison, buildings with more than 8 units lost the city's free large item pickup on January 1, 2025, so those properties' dumpster company or a hired crew is the only route for a unit a tenant left full. A crew clears a unit in one visit rather than waiting on a work order's set-out Sunday, priced the same as any load, by the truck. Rental cleanout details.
Price: Priced by truckload; Wisconsin law (s. 704.05(5)) sets what a landlord can do with what's left behind
A hoarding cleanout is priced like any junk job, by volume and labor, but it runs over several truckloads and more hours of sorting than a single-visit load; national guides put a full truck at $400 to $800. A walk-through or a set of photos per room sets the plan for what the family wants found, documents, photos, keepsakes, before anything is loaded. Biohazard cleanup, pests and asbestos go to specialists; a junk crew handles the contents. Unmarked trucks and phone-first scheduling are reasonable things to ask for. In Madison, a pile left at the curb past its pickup week can draw a Building Inspection complaint, one more reason to haul instead of set out. Hoarding cleanout details.
Price: Priced by truckload and hours, $400 to $800 for a full truck in national guides
Remodel and demolition debris is priced like any other load, $100 to $800 per truckload in national guides, but Dane County adds a rule most homeowners never check: loads at the county's C&D Recycling Facility must be at least 50 percent recyclable material (clean wood, metal, cardboard, aggregate) to qualify for its $58-per-ton rate. Drywall, carpet and railroad ties are landfill items, not C&D recycling, and asbestos is accepted only on the first Wednesday of each month with a special waste form. Madison's own ordinance requires projects worth more than $20,000 to recycle their building debris. A crew sorts the load for the right facility instead of one trip landing the whole trailer at the regular landfill rate. Construction debris removal details.
Price: $100 to $800 per truckload; Dane County's C&D facility charges $58 per ton for clean loads
Wisconsin bans yard waste from landfills outright, and Madison gives each home five brush set-out dates a year, roughly April through September, for branches 18 inches to 8 feet long stacked on the terrace with cut ends facing one way. Piles that would take a crew more than about 15 minutes go to a crane truck a day or two later, and since July 14, 2025 the brush center no longer accepts loads from contractors at all. Outside that window, or for a storm-sized pile, Dane County takes clean brush and logs at $40 per ton, $10 up to 500 pounds, in 2026. Several suburbs, Fitchburg, Middleton and Oregon among them, run their own separate site or pickup. Yard waste and brush removal details.
Price: Banned from Wisconsin landfills; Dane County charges $40 per ton for brush outside Madison's program
Waste tires have been banned from Wisconsin landfills since January 1, 1995, which pushes most of them into a fee program rather than the regular trash. Madison lists tires as fee items, charged only to homes without city recycling collection: $5 for a car tire off the rim, $10 on the rim or for a large truck tire. The Dane County Landfill recycles tires separately at $0.17 a pound, about $350 a ton, weighed at the scale house. Several suburbs cap how many they'll take: Stoughton allows two tires per bulk pickup, DeForest two a month. A crew clears a garage's worth in one trip instead of several trunk loads to the landfill. Tire disposal details.
Price: $5 to $10 per tire through Madison's fee program; $0.17 a pound at the county landfill
Madison collects metal in its own pile, separate from furniture and lumber, because metals and appliances are recycled while the rest of a large-item load goes to the landfill; mixing the two piles slows both crews down. Residents can also take bikes, grills, bed frames, shelving and pipe straight to a drop-off site: Fitchburg's Recycling Drop Off Site, Verona's Public Works site for loads that are half metal or more, Sun Prairie's Recycle Center with a permit, and the Town of Medina's yellow scrap dumpster. Grills go without their propane tanks, which the landfill routes to Clean Sweep instead. A crew hauling a mixed load does that separating for you rather than three separate drop-off trips. Scrap metal removal details.
Price: No flat retail price; several free drop-off sites around the county take it for recycling
Most businesses, offices and apartment buildings in Madison are not on the Streets Division's route at all: the city's own 2026 briefing for new alders says it can collect from a business only if there is room on the terrace for carts and the business can follow the same rules as a house, and multi-unit housing over 8 units lost large-item pickup entirely on January 1, 2025. That leaves property managers and office tenants working through whatever hauler holds the dumpster contract, and the city's own move-out guidance tells residents to ask that private hauler about bulk pickup, or hire a junk crew directly. A crew clears an office cleanout, a tenant turnover or a storage unit by the truckload, priced the same as a residential job, on a schedule that doesn't wait for a cart route. Commercial and apartment junk removal details.
Price: Priced by truckload like a residential job; most Dane County businesses run on a private dumpster contract, not city pickup
