The short answer
You have four routes. Put it out under your city's bulky-item rules, if you are inside a city that runs one and the timing works. Donate it, if it is genuinely dry and clean, which in Houston is a bigger if than people expect. Haul it yourself in a borrowed truck. Or book a pickup at a flat price.
Flat prices: $82 twin, $94 full, $103 queen, $114 king. Box spring $92. Mattress and box spring together $143. Minimum $75 on any visit.
Route one: the curb
Free, if it applies to you. Whether it applies depends on which of this metro's many jurisdictions actually serves your address — the City of Houston, Bellaire, West University Place, Pearland, Sugar Land, Missouri City, a Katy-area city, or nobody at all if you are in unincorporated Harris County behind a drainage ditch with a MUD-contracted hauler.
Read your own city's current bulky-item page. Note the collection window, the placement instructions, and whether wrapping is required. Then look at the forecast, because a mattress that goes out ahead of three days of Gulf rain is a sponge by the time the truck arrives, and a sponge is heavier than you think and considerably worse to move if it gets skipped.
Route two: donation, and why it usually fails here
Charities in Houston decline used mattresses more often than in almost any other market, and the reason is the air. Relative humidity here does not drop enough overnight for foam and quilted ticking to dry out. A mattress that spent a summer in a garage in Spring Branch or an attic off Loop 610 comes out smelling of mildew whether or not anything was ever spilled on it.
Call before you load anything. Ask specifically whether they take mattresses at all, not whether they take furniture. And if the mattress has been in floodwater — any floodwater, at any depth, at any point — the answer is no everywhere, and it should be. Bayou water is not clean water.
Route three: hauling it yourself
People underestimate this one every time. A queen mattress does not fit in a crossover, it does not fit in a five-foot truck bed without hanging out, and an unsecured mattress on the Katy Freeway is genuinely dangerous. You will want ratchet straps, not bungee cords, and a second person.
Then there is the drive. Transfer stations and landfills in this metro are not centrally located, hours are limited, and gate rates change — check the current rate before you commit. Add fuel, add the truck rental if you do not own one, add an hour of your Saturday spent in a queue in August heat, and the math stops looking like a saving somewhere around the second trip.
Route four: book it
One price on screen before anyone drives out, carried from wherever it is, disposal included. No stair charge, no walk-up fee, no same-day surcharge.
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Mattress — Twin | $82 |
| Mattress — Full / Double | $94 |
| Mattress — Queen | $103 |
| Mattress — King / Cal King | $114 |
| Box Spring (any size) | $92 |
| Mattress + Box Spring Set | $143 |
| Bed Frame (Standard / Metal / Platform) | $68 |
| Adjustable Bed Base (Motorized) | $118 |
The Medical Center churn
Two or three times a year the apartment belt around the Texas Medical Center empties and refills — residents matching in, fellows rotating out, travel nurses on thirteen-week contracts. Furnished-ish apartments get stripped, and the mattress is always the last thing standing in an empty bedroom at ten at night with a lease ending on Friday.
The same pattern runs through the Energy Corridor on a different clock, driven by project cycles rather than academic ones. In both cases the sensible move is to book the mattress out a few days before the walkthrough rather than after, because once the keys are gone you are paying to be let back into the building.
Clearing a whole bedroom
It is just addition. A queen set on a metal frame with two nightstands: $143 + $68 + $57 + $57 = $325. A guest room with a full mattress, a box spring and a standard dresser: $94 + $92 + $126 = $312. A kid's room with a twin mattress and a bunk bed: $82 + $123 = $205.
If the room is genuinely full — mattress, frame, dresser, boxes, bags, the lot — a truck-fill tier is usually the cheaper way to buy it. A quarter truck is $241, a half is $431, a full truck is $732, and volume is volume regardless of what is in it.
What we would do
Dry mattress, house inside a city with a collection window in the next week, somewhere to stage it out of the ditch: put it out, read the page first, watch the forecast.
Anything else — apartment, townhouse, unincorporated address, wet mattress, lease ending, a walkthrough on the calendar — book it. The wait is the part that costs you.
Frequently asked questions
How much does mattress removal cost in Houston?
$82 for a twin, $94 for a full, $103 for a queen and $114 for a king. A box spring on its own is $92; a mattress and box spring taken together are $143. Flat prices, disposal included, $75 minimum per visit.
Can I put a mattress at the curb?
Only if the city that serves your address runs a bulky collection and you are inside its rules for timing and placement. This metro has many separate jurisdictions and large unincorporated areas with no municipal collection at all, so check your own city's current bulky-item page.
Will a charity take my old mattress?
Rarely, in this climate. Humidity leaves mildew in foam and ticking after a single summer in a garage, and most local charities decline mattresses outright. Anything that has been in floodwater is never accepted.
Do you take the box spring and frame too?
Yes. Box spring $92, standard metal or platform frame $68, motorised adjustable base $118. A solid or upholstered frame in twin, full or queen is $126, king is $152.
Can you come the same day?
Often, yes, and there is no same-day surcharge. Same-day slots go quickly in this market during lease-end weeks around the Medical Center, so book early in the day if you can.