Move-out week doesn't wait. Mattresses, futons, couches and the whole apartment's leftovers hauled from the student blocks around NC State and Hillsborough Street — twin mattress $111, futon $139, desk $112, whole-apartment loads from $295. Same-day during the May rush, carried down from any floor, flat photo-quoted. No NC sales tax on the service.
Snap a photo — flat price back in seconds
Upload a Photo & Get Quote →NC State's roughly 38,000 students clear out of dorms and the rental blocks along Hillsborough Street inside a tight window every May, and it is the single sharpest spike in the Triangle's junk-removal year. Mattresses, futons, mini-fridges, desks, the couch four roommates bought used two years ago, and the end-of-lease pile that nobody wants to claim all come out at once. There's a smaller echo of the same thing in August, when leases turn and the incoming tenants find the last group's furniture still in the living room.
We run same-day hauls straight through finals and move-out week. Send a photo, get a flat price back in seconds, take the soonest window, and we carry it down — from a third-floor walk-up, from a converted attic room in one of the old Hillsborough Street houses, from wherever it's actually sitting. Anything still usable goes toward donation. Nothing gets left at your curb for your landlord to photograph.
One picture of the mattress, the futon or the room. The price comes back in seconds — no phone estimate, no waiting on a callback during finals.
Same-day is usually open, even in May. Split it four ways with your roommates if it's a whole-house load — it's one flat number either way.
The crew takes it from the room, down the stairs, and out. Usable pieces are routed to donation; mattresses go to disposal. You keep your deposit.
Flat, quoted from a photo, with the carry-down, the stairs, the drive and the disposal already in the number. One mattress prices as one mattress; a whole emptied rental house prices by how much of the truck it fills.
| Move-out item | Flat price |
|---|---|
| Twin mattress | $111 |
| Full mattress | $126 |
| Queen mattress | $139 |
| Box spring | $124 |
| Futon | $139 |
| Loveseat / sofa | $128 / $170 |
| Desk / office chair | $112 / $82 |
| Mini-fridge / microwave | $155 / $40 |
| Bookshelf / dresser | $97 / $169 |
| TV (small / medium / large) | $84 / $91 / $98 |
| 10 bags of packed-up leftovers | $178 |
| Whole apartment or rental house | Flat price |
|---|---|
| Quarter truck — one bedroom's worth | $295 |
| 3/8 truck | $415 |
| Half truck — a typical two-bedroom clear-out | $525 |
| Three-quarter truck | $720 |
| Full truck — a four- or five-bedroom house on the last day | $895 |
$75 minimum on very small jobs. Stairs, carry-down and disposal included — there's no per-flight charge and no mattress surcharge. Roommates clearing out together? One photo, one flat quote for the whole house, split however you like. No NC sales tax on the service.
Price-check us against third-party rate cards: Junk Doctors publishes a Triangle minimum of $135, a quarter truck at $298 and a full truck at $738 (junkdrs.com/pricing). McJunk publishes a $175 minimum up to $695 for a full truck plus a $40 mattress surcharge, $10 per tire, $10 per CRT television and a $10–$50 trip charge — which matters a lot in a month when nearly every job is mattresses. Our mattress prices above are the whole price.
| Option | Cost | Speed | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| City of Raleigh Bulky Load | $35 per load ($70 special / appliance) | Scheduled collection day | One load, curbside only — and in early May your collection day probably falls after your lease ends |
| Campus move-out donation drives | Free | During the move-out window | Best option for usable clothes, food and small goods — but they don't take used mattresses or broken furniture |
| Leave it at the curb and hope | $0 up front | Immediate | The expensive one: landlords deduct removal from the deposit, and the city can't take what wasn't scheduled |
| Traditional truck-fill hauler | $135–$175 minimum, $695–$738 full truck (published Junk Doctors / McJunk rates) | 1–3 days in May | Volume estimated at your door, plus a $40-per-mattress surcharge on one published card |
| JunkRabbit | $111 twin mattress · $295–$895 by load | Same day, even in May | None — flat photo price, carried down from any floor, no mattress surcharge |
Municipal and competitor figures above are third-party published rates, not ours. Our prices are the flat numbers in the tables above.
Yes — student rentals in 27606 and 27607 sit inside the city limits, so City of Raleigh Solid Waste Services will collect a Bulky Load for $35 on a scheduled collection day, charge $70 for a special or appliance item, and take up to four electronics a week free (tires, never). For a single student with one mattress and three spare weeks, that's the cheapest answer on this page and we'll say so plainly.
In the first two weeks of May it stops working, for reasons anyone who has walked Hillsborough Street that week already knows. The curbs are stacked. Every house on the block is emptying simultaneously, and the city runs a scheduled route, not an emergency one — so the mattress you set out is competing with a hundred others and sitting there in the meantime. Your lease ends before your collection day does. A pickup you arrange for the following week is worthless when you hand back the keys on the 8th. It's one load, not a house. A five-bedroom rental with five mattresses, five desks, a couch and a dining set is several loads at $35 apiece, each on its own scheduled day. And it's curbside, which means somebody still has to get a full mattress and a pull-out futon down three flights before any of that starts.
Then there's the part that actually costs money: your landlord. Around campus, leaving furniture in the unit — or stacked at the curb past the lease date — routinely means a removal charge deducted from the security deposit, and those deductions are typically a good deal more than a flat haul would have cost. Getting it out while you still have the keys is the whole point. (Confirm current Bulky Load rules and scheduling at raleigh.gov, and check your lease for the exact move-out date and any building rules on bulk items.)
We'd rather you gave it away than paid us, and during move-out that's genuinely possible. NC State and its partners run campus move-out donation collections during the move-out window that take usable clothing, small household goods, unopened non-perishable food and working small appliances. If your stuff is in good shape, start there — it's free, it's a few steps from your building, and it's the right destination. We coordinate with those drives rather than compete with them.
What the drives can't absorb is what we're for: used mattresses and box springs, broken futon frames, a couch that four roommates finished off, particle-board furniture that won't survive another move, and everything still in the unit on the last day. Anything that comes out of a rental in genuinely resellable condition still goes to donation from our side — Habitat for Humanity ReStore runs ten stores across the Triangle and Goodwill of Eastern North Carolina is headquartered right here in Raleigh. Electronics are routed to an e-waste recycler because North Carolina bans televisions and computers from landfill disposal, and mini-fridges go to metal recycling for the same reason. What's genuinely finished is disposed of properly at roughly $37 a ton locally, which is why a twin mattress here costs $111 and not what it would in a coastal city.
The housing stock is split, and both halves are awkward. One side is purpose-built student apartments with narrow stairwells, a single small elevator and a parking deck; the other is 1920s–40s houses cut into rentals, where the third bedroom is a converted attic and the stair turn was never designed for a queen box spring. There are no basements in either — North Carolina builds on slab or crawl space — so everything comes down, never up.
Loading is the constraint on Hillsborough Street itself. It's a busy arterial with bus traffic, limited on-street parking and permit blocks on the side streets. We stage compactly, load fast, and don't leave a truck sitting in a travel lane. If your complex has a designated move-out loading zone or wants a time slot reserved, tell us when you book and we'll work inside it.
This isn't only students. 27606 and 27607 wrap around campus into long-established neighborhoods of owner-occupied historic homes, plus faculty and staff households. Those jobs look completely different — a downsizing, an estate clear, a garage and crawl-space clean-out — and we handle them the same way: one photo, one flat number, everything carried out.
"Dorm move-out near Hillsborough St — mattress and a bunch of furniture, same day. Flat price from a photo, no add-ons. Lifesaver during finals."
"Helped my daughter clear her apartment before the lease ended. Quoted from a photo, gone in an hour. So much easier than renting a truck."
How much to haul a mattress and dorm furniture?
Flat from a photo: twin mattress $111, full $126, queen $139, box spring $124, futon $139, desk $112, office chair $82, mini-fridge $155, microwave $40, TVs $84–$98. Ten bags of leftovers $178. A whole apartment runs $295 quarter-truck to $895 full. $75 minimum, stairs and disposal included, no NC sales tax.
Can you come same-day in May?
Yes — it's our busiest week and we staff for it. Book a day or two ahead in the first half of May if you can, because the whole Triangle calendar tightens then. August lease turnover is the smaller echo.
Why not just use the city's $35 Bulky Load?
You can, if you have time. It's inside the city limits here, but it's one scheduled curbside load — and in early May the curbs on Hillsborough Street are already stacked, your lease usually ends before your collection day, and a five-bedroom house is several loads, not one.
My landlord charges for anything left behind — can you beat the deadline?
That's the job. Deposit deductions for leftover furniture typically cost more than a flat haul. Send a photo, take the last window before your move-out date, and we clear it while you still have the keys.
Should I donate instead?
If it's usable, yes — start with the campus move-out donation drives for clothing, food and small goods. They won't take used mattresses or broken furniture; that's what we're for. Resellable pieces we pick up still go to Habitat ReStore or Goodwill of Eastern NC first.
Do I have to get it to the curb?
No. We carry it down from any floor — walk-up apartment, attic bedroom, tight 1920s stair turn. No per-flight charge.