The short answer
Most Chicago households land in one of three places. A couple of items is priced item by item, starting at the $75 minimum. A room's worth is usually a truck-fill step: a quarter truck is $241, a half is $431, a full truck is $732. A whole basement or a garage is the top of that ladder.
Concrete examples. A sofa is $126. A queen mattress is $103. A standard refrigerator is $164. A washer and dryer stacked as a unit is $189. A treadmill is $115. You see the number before anyone drives to Avondale.
Two ways a job gets priced
By the item. If you can name what is going, you get a per-item price and that is the whole bill, subject to the $75 minimum. This is the right model for the single couch, the dead fridge in the basement, the treadmill that has been a coat rack since 2021.
By the truck. When the pile stops being a list and starts being a volume, it is priced by how much of the truck it fills. The steps are fixed:
| Truck fill | Flat price |
|---|---|
| 1/4 truck | $241 |
| 3/8 truck | $338 |
| 1/2 truck | $431 |
| 5/8 truck | $513 |
| 3/4 truck | $587 |
| 7/8 truck | $661 |
| Full truck | $732 |
Whichever way it is priced, disposal and the carry-out are inside the number. There is no dump fee added at the end.
Chicago items at Chicago prices
The catalog is published, so here is the part of it a Chicago household actually uses:
| Item | Flat price |
|---|---|
| Sofa or couch | $126 |
| Loveseat | $119 |
| Sectional, 2-piece | $141 |
| Sectional, 5 to 6 piece | $271 |
| Mattress, queen | $103 |
| Dresser, standard | $126 |
| Refrigerator, standard | $164 |
| Washer | $133 |
| Dryer | $128 |
| Cast iron radiator | $123 |
| Treadmill | $115 |
| Snow blower | $71 |
| Riding mower or lawn tractor | $152 |
| Upright piano | $290 |
| Small junk pile | $82 |
| Medium junk pile | $129 |
| Large junk pile | $208 |
The cast iron radiator is on that list because this is Chicago. Every gut rehab in Logan Square and Humboldt Park produces a row of them in the yard, and at $123 each they are the line item people forget to budget.
What Chicago housing does to the job
It changes the work. It does not change the price.
A three-flat means a rear wooden porch and a back staircase with a tight turn at each landing, and a sofa comes down that staircase on edge with two people talking to each other the whole way. A bungalow in Portage Park or Garfield Ridge means a basement with narrow stairs and a turn at the bottom, and whatever went down there in pieces has to come up in pieces. A courtyard building in Rogers Park means a long walk from the unit to the gangway before anything reaches the truck.
There is no stair charge, no walk-up fee and no long-carry fee for any of it. The $126 sofa is $126 from a garden unit in Pilsen and $126 from a third floor in Andersonville.
Alley access and where the truck goes
Chicago's alleys are the quiet advantage in this business. On most residential blocks the truck can pull into the alley, park behind the garage, and cut the carry down to a few feet from the back stairs. That is why a two-flat cleanout in Avondale often runs faster than the same volume out of a suburban house with a long driveway and no rear access.
Where it gets tighter: blocks without alleys, downtown addresses with no loading zone, and winter, when snow piles narrow the alley to a single lane and the garage apron has not been shoveled. Clear a path to the back door before the crew arrives and the whole thing moves faster. None of this is a surcharge. It is just the difference between a ninety-minute job and a three-hour one.
Downtown and lakefront high-rises
Towers in River North, Streeterville, the South Loop and along the lake in Lakeview add two requirements before anyone touches your furniture: a certificate of insurance naming the association and the management company, and a reserved freight elevator window. Management offices usually release those windows on weekday business hours and they book out, so the elevator is the constraint, not the truck.
Book the elevator first, then schedule the pickup inside it. Send the management contact so the certificate goes to the right entity. The price on the sofa does not move because you live on 34.
Where the money actually goes in a Chicago year
There is a rhythm to this city and it shows up in the invoices.
November to April the garage fills. Nobody wants to stand in an unheated garage off the alley in January deciding what to do with four tires, so the tires, the broken snow blower and the patio furniture just accumulate. A set of four tires is $87. A snow blower is $71. Patio chairs are $30 each.
May 1 and October 1 the leases flip. Those two weeks are when half the city moves and the alleys fill with what did not fit in the truck. A tenant clearing a one-bedroom usually lands on a quarter truck at $241 or a half at $431, depending on whether the sofa is going.
Late spring is the basement. Water finds Chicago basements, and a wet basement means the boxes, the rug and the particleboard bookcase all go at once. A rolled carpet is $68 and a flat-pack bookcase is $100.
Worked examples
One-bedroom in Lakeview, October 1 turnover. Sofa at $126, queen mattress at $103, box spring at $92: $126 + $103 + $92 = $321. Or call it a quarter truck at $241 if the sofa stays with the apartment.
Two-flat basement in Avondale. Washer at $133, dryer at $128, and a medium junk pile of boxes and shelving at $129: $133 + $128 + $129 = $390.
Garage clear in Portage Park before the snow. Riding mower at $152, four tires at $87, and a workbench at $100: $152 + $87 + $100 = $339.
If the list gets long enough that adding it up stops being useful, the truck ladder takes over and you pay the step you actually fill.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest a Chicago junk removal job can be?
$75. That is the minimum for a visit. Items priced under it, like a $57 headboard or a $68 area rug on its own, still come to the $75 minimum, so it is worth adding a second item if you have one.
Is there an extra charge for stairs or a third-floor walk-up?
No. There is no stair charge, no walk-up fee and no long-carry fee. A sofa off the top floor of a Wicker Park three-flat is the same $126 as one sitting in the alley.
Does the price include disposal?
Yes. Transfer and disposal are inside the flat price. Nothing is added at the end of the job, and you are not paying a separate dump fee.
How do I know whether my job is per-item or per-truck?
If you can list what is going, per-item is almost always cheaper and clearer. Once the list passes about a dozen things, or once it is really a volume rather than a list, the truck-fill steps take over: $241 for a quarter, $431 for a half, $732 for a full truck.
Do prices change between the city and the suburbs?
The catalog is the same across the market, so a sofa is $126 in Bridgeport and $126 in Skokie. What changes in the suburbs is access, since you are usually working off a driveway instead of an alley.