The short answer
Apartment cleanouts price one of two ways, and you take whichever is cheaper. Item by item, if you have a short list. Or by truck volume, if the place is genuinely full.
The volume ladder: quarter truck $241, three-eighths $338, half $431, five-eighths $513, three-quarters $587, seven-eighths $661, full truck $732. Minimum $75 on any visit.
Rough shapes we see in this market: a studio or one-bed with a bed, a sofa and a few boxes lands around the quarter to three-eighths tiers. A furnished two-bed being handed back empty is usually five-eighths to a full truck.
The gated dumpster enclosure
Almost every garden-style complex in Houston keeps its dumpsters inside a gated enclosure with a narrow pedestrian gate. That gate is the reason apartment cleanouts get booked here. It is wide enough for kitchen bags and nothing else. A mattress will not go through it, a sofa will not go through it, and a dresser will not go through it.
Leaving anything against the outside of the enclosure is how residents end up with a charge on the final statement, because the property has to pay somebody to move it and passes that on. Valet trash service does not help either — it is a doorstep bag pickup and the contract says so.
So the choice in an apartment is not curb versus pickup. There is no curb. It is pickup, or a deposit deduction.
Walk-ups, breezeways and the third floor
Most of Houston's apartment stock is two- and three-story garden complexes — Gulfton, Sharpstown, Alief, Spring Branch, the belt around the Texas Medical Center, the corridors off the Southwest Freeway. Exterior stairs, open breezeways, a long carry to a parking space that is nowhere near your door.
None of that changes the price. There is no stair charge and no walk-up fee. What it does change is the time on site, which is why it is worth telling us at booking whether you are on the third floor and how far the truck can get from your stairwell. It affects the schedule, not the bill.
High-rise apartments near the Galleria and along Post Oak are a different job again: loading dock, freight elevator reservation, and usually a certificate of insurance on file with building management before anyone is allowed up. We carry that.
The Medical Center and Energy Corridor clock
Houston's apartment turnover is not evenly spread. The belt around the Texas Medical Center empties and refills on the academic and residency calendar — matches in, fellows out, travel nurses rotating every thirteen weeks. The Energy Corridor runs on project cycles instead, with relocations landing whenever a contract does.
Both produce the same scene: a lease ending on a Friday, a walkthrough on the Monday, and a bedroom that still has a bed in it. The practical advice is to book the cleanout for two or three days before the walkthrough rather than after the keys go back, because getting re-admitted to a building you have already handed back is the expensive version.
Item pricing, if the list is short
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Sofa / Couch | $126 |
| Loveseat | $119 |
| Mattress — Queen | $103 |
| Box Spring (any size) | $92 |
| Dresser (Standard) | $126 |
| Desk (Standard) | $83 |
| Dining Table (2-4 Seat) | $103 |
| Dining Chair | $45 |
| TV (42" to 65") | $68 |
| Small Junk Pile | $82 |
| Medium Junk Pile | $129 |
A typical one-bedroom left furnished: sofa, queen mattress, box spring, dresser and a medium pile of everything else — $126 + $103 + $92 + $126 + $129 = $576. At that point the three-quarter truck at $587 is close enough that we would put both numbers in front of you and let you take the lower one.
Eviction and abandoned-unit work
Property managers in this market deal with abandoned units regularly, and the job is different from a resident move-out. Everything goes, there is nobody to ask about what stays, and the unit usually needs to be rentable again inside a week.
We price those the same way — by volume, agreed before the crew arrives — and we will work from photos taken by your maintenance tech rather than needing a walkthrough first. What we will not do is quote you a number on site after the truck is already loaded.
How to bring the number down
Volume is the only lever. Anything you carry to your own car is volume you are not buying. Flatten boxes. Bag clothes rather than boxing them — a bag of clothes is $35 as a line item and takes a fraction of the space of the same clothes in cardboard.
And do not let it accumulate. The single biggest driver of an expensive apartment cleanout in Houston is a storage closet or a patio that has been quietly filling for two years because there was never a curb to put anything on.
Frequently asked questions
How much does an apartment cleanout cost in Houston?
Most land between $241 for a quarter truck and $732 for a full one, depending on volume. A lightly furnished one-bedroom is usually $241 to $338; a full two-bedroom emptied to the carpet is typically $587 to $732.
Is there an extra charge for a third-floor walk-up?
No. There is no stair charge and no walk-up fee. Exterior stairs and long breezeway carries are the normal case in Houston's garden complexes and are included in the flat price.
Why can I not just use the complex dumpster?
Because the enclosure gate is too narrow for furniture, and most leases prohibit leaving bulky items beside it. Items left outside the enclosure usually come back as a charge on your final statement.
Do you work with property managers on abandoned units?
Yes. We quote from maintenance photos, agree the price before the crew arrives, and can carry a certificate of insurance for buildings that require one.
Can you come before my move-out walkthrough?
Yes, and that is the right order. Book two or three days ahead of the walkthrough while you still have access to the unit and the building.