The short answer

Four options, in rough order of how much of your weekend they cost: put it out under your city's bulky rules, sell or give it away, haul it yourself, or book a flat-price pickup.

  • Sofa / Couch — $126
  • Loveseat — $119
  • Sofa (oversize 90 inch-plus, or needing cut-apart) — $185
  • Sleeper Sofa — $149
  • Reclining / Power Sofa — $152
  • Sectional — $141 two-piece, $185 three-piece, $228 four-plus, $271 five to six
  • Futon — $111, Recliner — $98, Armchair — $77, Chaise Lounge — $93

Minimum $75 per visit. No stair charge, no same-day surcharge.

Selling it: what Houston humidity does to your odds

Upholstery here has a shorter resale life than it does anywhere dry. Fabric holds moisture, the air never lets it go, and a sofa that spent even one summer in a garage or a closed-up house picks up a smell that no buyer misses. That smell is the single most common reason a listed couch in this city gets three enquiries and zero collections.

If yours has lived indoors with the air conditioning running, list it — it will go. If it has been in a garage in Katy or Cypress since last spring, or in a ground-floor room that took water, skip the listing stage entirely and save yourself two weeks of no-shows.

Donation: call first, always

Charities in Houston are picky about upholstery for the same reason buyers are, and picky about anything flood-adjacent for obvious ones. Rips, pet damage, a sagging frame or any odour will get a truck turned around at the driveway, which wastes their afternoon and yours.

Ask two questions on the phone: do you accept upholstered furniture at all right now, and do you collect from a third-floor walk-up. The second one rules out most of the apartment stock in Gulfton, Sharpstown and the Medical Center belt before you have carried anything.

The doorway problem

This is the part people discover at the worst moment. Inner-loop Houston is full of bungalows from the twenties and thirties — Montrose, the Heights, Woodland Heights, Norhill — with narrow interior doors, hallways that turn, and a raised pier-and-beam porch with steps at the front. A modern eight-foot sofa did not come through that front door easily and it is not leaving easily either.

The newer housing has the opposite failure mode. Three-story townhomes in Rice Military, EaDo and the Washington corridor stack living space over a garage, with two switchback stair runs and a landing too tight to turn a long piece horizontally. Sectionals get built in place in those houses and then have to come apart to leave.

That is what the $185 oversize-or-cut-apart price covers: a crew that will take the legs off, split the frame and carry it out in pieces rather than standing in your hallway explaining why it cannot be done.

The curb route

Free where it applies. Whether it applies depends on which city actually serves your street, because this metro is a patchwork — the City of Houston, Bellaire, West University Place, Pearland, Sugar Land, Missouri City, the Katy-area cities, and large unincorporated stretches of Harris County with no municipal collection behind them at all.

Read your own city's current bulky-item page for the window and the placement rules, then look at the radar. A fabric sofa left out ahead of a few days of Gulf rain doubles in weight and stops being something anyone wants to touch.

What a living room usually costs

Plain addition, no bundles, no surprises:

  • Sofa and loveseat: $126 + $119 = $245
  • Sofa, coffee table and two end tables: $126 + $67 + $52 + $52 = $297
  • Three-piece sectional and a recliner: $185 + $98 = $283
  • Sofa, armchair, large area rug and a TV stand: $126 + $77 + $68 + $96 = $367

If the whole room is going, price the truck-fill ladder against the item list: a quarter truck is $241, three-eighths is $338, a half is $431. Whichever is lower is what you should book.

What we would do

Clean, dry, under five years old, and you have a driveway to show it from: list it, price it to move, give it ten days.

Everything else — mildew, a flood line on the legs, an apartment with no lift, a lease ending Friday, a sectional that will not fit back through the door it came in by — book the pickup. You will see the price before anyone drives out.

Frequently asked questions

How much does couch removal cost in Houston?

$126 for a standard sofa, $119 for a loveseat, $149 for a sleeper sofa and $185 for anything over 90 inches or needing to be cut apart. Sectionals run $141 for two pieces up to $271 for five or six.

Will you take a couch down from a third-floor apartment?

Yes, and there is no stair charge. Walk-up carries are normal work in the apartment belt around the Medical Center and through Gulfton and Sharpstown.

My sofa will not fit back through the door. What happens?

The crew takes the legs off and, if it is still too big, splits the frame and carries it out in pieces. That is the $185 oversize and cut-apart price, quoted upfront.

Can I donate a used couch in Houston?

Only if it is genuinely clean, dry and undamaged. Humidity here leaves an odour in upholstery that most charities decline, and anything that has been in floodwater is refused everywhere.

Can I leave it at the curb instead?

It depends which jurisdiction serves your address and what its current rules say. Check your own city's bulky-item page, and note that unincorporated Harris County addresses often have no municipal bulky collection at all.