The whole Triangle move-out, one service
Every spring, roughly 38,000 students at NC State, about 21,000 undergraduates at UNC and around 17,000 at Duke all finish within days of each other. The dump clusters early-to-mid May — a single compressed week when every lease on Hillsborough Street flips, every apartment stairwell near Ninth Street in Durham has a futon coming down it, and every rental house in Chapel Hill and Carrboro empties at once. Then August brings the echo: move-in weekend, when the last tenant's furniture is still in the unit and yours is on the sidewalk.
It is a genuinely hard logistics problem for the person living it. You have a final exam, a car packed to the roof, a landlord counting the days, and a mattress that will not fit in anything you own. We're built for that week specifically — same-day hauls straight through it, a flat number quoted from one photo before anyone drives out, and a crew that brings it down the stairs so you can keep studying, keep packing, or keep driving.
How it works during move-out week
Stand in the doorway, photograph the pile. Every item is identified and priced automatically and one flat number comes back in seconds. No walkthrough, no phone call, no estimate appointment during finals week.
Book against your actual move-out date, not the morning of. The first two weeks of May are the tightest of our year — the students who text on May 1 get the window they want.
An insured local crew climbs the stairs, takes the mattress and the futon out of the room, loads, and leaves the unit clear for the walkthrough. Nothing has to be at the curb.
How much does student move-out junk removal cost in Raleigh?
Flat, photo-quoted, and the same whether it's a dorm room, a shared house on Gorman Street or a one-bedroom off Ninth Street. Disposal and the carry-down are already in the number.
| The usual move-out items | Flat price |
|---|---|
| Microwave | $30 |
| Bag of loose stuff (each) | $35 |
| Office / desk chair | $83 |
| Bookshelf | $72 |
| Twin mattress | $82 |
| Desk (standard) | $83 |
| Full mattress | $94 |
| Loveseat | $119 |
| Queen mattress | $103 |
| Futon | $111 |
| Mini-fridge | $115 |
| Sofa / couch | $126 |
| Ten bags, priced together | $132 |
Clearing the whole apartment instead of a few pieces? It prices as truck-fill — quarter truck $241, half truck $431, full truck $732, whichever is cheaper than the itemized total.
$75 minimum on any job. Split it four ways with roommates and a shared-house clear-out gets cheap fast. No NC sales tax on the service.
Worth comparing against the published local rate cards: Junk Doctors lists a $100 minimum and $738 for a full truck; McJunk lists a $175 minimum and $695 for a full truck, plus a $30 per-mattress fee and trip surcharges of $10–$37. A single twin mattress is the classic student job, and those minimums are the reason it's usually the most expensive item you'll ever throw away.
5 ways to clear a student apartment in the Triangle
| Option | Cost | Speed | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your campus move-out donation drive | Free | During the collection window only | Start here. Working mini-fridges, lamps, clean clothes, unopened food, textbooks — usable things that should stay in the community, not go in a truck |
| Sell it (Marketplace, campus groups) | Free, you get paid | Days — if it sells | The desk or the TV. Everyone on Hillsborough Street is selling the same futon the same week, so price low and start early |
| City of Raleigh Bulky Load (curbside rentals) | $35 | Scheduled — you wait for the assigned day | Students whose lease ends weeks after their last exam and who can carry it out themselves |
| Rent a truck and haul it yourself | Truck rental + ~$37/ton tip fee ($15 per mattress) | One long afternoon | A group with a driver, straps and a free Saturday |
| JunkRabbit | Twin mattress $82 · quarter-truck $241 · $75 min | Same day, through the May rush | The stained mattress, the dead futon, and the day you're actually leaving |
We'd rather say this plainly than sell you something you don't need: if your stuff is still good, the campus drive is the better answer and we're not competing with it. Call us for what the drive won't take, and for the pile that's still there after it closes.
Does the City of Raleigh pick up move-out furniture?
Most student rentals — the houses off Hillsborough Street, the duplexes in 27606 and 27607 — are on curbside collection, which means the city's bulky program technically covers you. City of Raleigh Solid Waste Services charges $35 for a Bulky Load pickup and $70 for a special or appliance item, and it collects household electronics free, capped at four items per week. Tires aren't accepted. Cheap, real, and worth using if your timing allows.
The problem is that all of it is scheduled. You submit the request, you're assigned a collection day, and then you wait for it — and in the first week of May, the curbs along Hillsborough Street are already piled from the houses that requested theirs before you did. Meanwhile your landlord isn't waiting: anything left in the unit or stacked out front past the lease date comes out of the security deposit, and in a shared house that's four people's money. A Tuesday pickup window is useless when your lease ends Saturday, your parents' car is loaded, and you have a nine-hour drive ahead. That gap — between a cheap scheduled service and a hard personal deadline — is the entire reason this page exists.
What we take out of a student place
- Mattresses & box springs — twin, twin XL, full, queen. The number-one move-out item and the one nobody's car will take.
- Futons, loveseats and hand-me-down sofas — including the one that's been passed between four tenants and is finally done.
- Desks, chairs, bookshelves and dressers — the particle-board furniture that won't survive another move.
- Mini-fridges and microwaves — if it still runs, take it to the campus drive first; if it doesn't, appliances are landfill-banned in NC so we route them to scrap metal.
- TVs, monitors and desktops — also landfill-banned here, so they go to certified e-waste recycling with no four-item weekly cap.
- Bagged clutter — clothes, bedding, kitchen odds and ends, the closet nobody claimed. Priced by the bag or as one truck-fill tier.
- The whole unit — houses where every roommate left something behind, cleared in one visit.
We can't take hazardous items — paint, propane canisters, solvents, ammunition. Those go to Wake County household hazardous waste drop-off.
Where your move-out pile actually ends up
Anything still usable is routed to donation before it ever gets near a landfill — Habitat ReStores operate ten Triangle stores across Wake, Johnston, Durham and Orange, and Goodwill of Eastern NC is headquartered in Raleigh — which is the same instinct the campus drives are built on, just extended past the collection deadline. Appliances and metal, banned from NC landfills, go to scrap; the Durham transfer station takes appliances and metal free. Televisions, monitors and computers go to a certified electronics recycler, because North Carolina bans those from landfills too. Only what's genuinely finished — a torn mattress, a broken futon frame — goes to disposal, where the South Wake Landfill charges about $37 per ton and $15 per mattress. That routing is inside your flat price, not billed back as an extra line.
Campus by campus — the access reality
NC State / Hillsborough Street (27606, 27607). A mix of dorms, purpose-built student apartments and older rental houses on the side streets. The apartments mean stair carries and one loading zone shared by six moving trucks; the houses mean narrow driveways and a porch. We time around the worst of it and there's no stair fee either way.
Duke / Ninth Street, Durham (27705). Apartment-dense and student-heavy, tight on-street parking, plenty of second- and third-floor walk-ups. Same-day is usually open here even during peak week because it runs on a slightly different calendar than Raleigh.
UNC / Chapel Hill and Carrboro (27514, 27516, 27510). Old rental houses with steep staircases and small doorways, plus a lot of shared-house clear-outs where four leases end on the same day. Sectionals and futons frequently have to come apart to clear a 1940s stairwell — that's included, not an upcharge.
Wherever you are, if the building or property manager wants a certificate of insurance before a crew works in the stairwell, we'll send one — the larger student-apartment complexes ask more often than the houses do.
When students and parents call us
- Graduation week. The ceremony is Saturday, the lease is up Sunday, and the mattress is still in the bedroom.
- The deposit deadline. The landlord's list says "unit must be empty" and the campus drive closed two days ago.
- Summer sublet handoff. The incoming subletter isn't inheriting a broken futon, so it needs to be out before their keys.
- Parents driving in from out of state. They've got one day, an SUV, and no interest in strapping a queen mattress to the roof on I-40.
- August move-in. The previous tenant left furniture behind and the unit needs to be clear before your things come up the stairs.
- Landlords and property managers flipping student units between May and August, one building at a time.
Why Triangle students book us
- You see the price before anyone drives out. One photo, one flat number — no crew standing in your apartment quoting you while you're mid-move.
- No mattress surcharge. A twin is $82 and a queen is $103; local rate cards that add $30 per mattress on top of a minimum are a real thing, and this isn't that.
- We do the stairs. Third floor, no elevator, tight landing — no stair fee, no long-carry fee.
- Roommates can split it. One flat number, four ways, on a shared-house clear-out.
- Parents can pay remotely. Whoever's in the apartment sends the photo; whoever's paying approves from anywhere.
- Donation-first, and honest about the campus drive. If your stuff is good, we'll tell you to take it to the drive.
Move-out questions, answered
How much does it cost?
Twin mattress $61, full $94, queen $103, futon $111, desk $83, office chair $61, bookshelf $72, mini-fridge $115, microwave $30, loveseat $119, sofa $126; bags $35 each or ten for $132; a whole apartment from $241 (quarter truck). $75 minimum, disposal included, no NC sales tax.
Can you come the same day in May?
Usually — it's our busiest stretch of the year and we run same-day through it. Slots go fastest in the first two weeks of May, so text a photo when you know your date, not the morning you're leaving.
Should I use the campus donation drive instead?
For anything still usable, yes — start there. NC State, Duke and UNC all run end-of-year collections and we're not trying to compete with them. Call us for what they won't take and for after they close.
Will the city pick it up from the curb?
Only on a scheduled day, for a $35 Bulky Load fee, and only if you carry it out yourself. In early May the curb is already full and your landlord is already counting deposit deductions.
Do you charge extra per mattress?
No. The listed price is the price, with no per-mattress fee added at the truck.
Can my parents book it from out of town?
Yes. The photo can come from the apartment and the approval from anywhere; nobody needs to be present at pickup as long as the crew can reach the unit.
By campus
Frequently asked questions
Do you run same-day during the May move-out rush?
Yes — the first two weeks of May are the busiest of our year across NC State, Duke and UNC, and we run same-day hauls straight through them. That window is also when slots disappear fastest, so text a photo as soon as you know your move-out date rather than the morning of.
Should I donate my stuff to the campus move-out drive instead?
If it's usable, yes — start there. NC State, Duke and UNC all run their own end-of-year donation collections, and a working mini-fridge, a solid desk lamp, unopened food or clean clothing belongs in those bins, not in our truck. We're for what the drive won't take — the stained mattress, the collapsing futon, the particle-board desk that won't survive another move — and for the moment when the drive has closed and you're leaving tomorrow.
Will the City of Raleigh just pick it up from the curb?
Eventually, and only if you can wait. Most student rentals are on curbside collection, where a Bulky Load pickup costs $35 and is scheduled — you request it and are assigned a day. In the first week of May the curbs along Hillsborough Street are already stacked, your landlord starts charging the deposit for anything left behind, and a collection day next Tuesday does nothing for a lease that ends Saturday.
Can my parents book and pay from out of town?
Yes, and most do. Whoever is standing in the apartment texts the photo, the flat price comes back in seconds, and whoever is paying approves it from anywhere. Nobody has to be present at pickup as long as the crew can get to the unit.
Do you carry it down, or does it need to be at the curb?
We carry it down. Third-floor walk-ups off Hillsborough Street, apartment stairwells near Ninth Street, and the tight staircases in old Chapel Hill and Carrboro houses are the normal job. There is no stair fee and no long-carry fee.