First, check whether the city already covers it
Straight talk, because it saves people money: for one or two things you can get to the curb yourself, the City of Savannah may already handle it, and you shouldn't pay us for that.
The city collects bulk items — furniture, mattresses, box springs, appliances, and metal — on your regular trash day. Put them at the curb with your cart before 7:00 a.m., with no advance scheduling. Two rules worth knowing from the city's bulk item guidelines:
- Items that take crews more than five minutes get charged a fee under the city revenue ordinance
- Bulk items must never go in the street, a right of way, or a median — that's classed as illegal dumping, and it's a fine rather than a pickup
You can also haul it yourself to the City Landfill on Dean Forest Road or the Bacon Park Transfer Station on Skidaway Road, with proof of residency. Sanitation Customer Service can confirm your day and the current fees at 912-651-6579.
So when is hiring it out actually worth it?
When the pile is bigger than a couple of pieces, when it's inside and someone has to carry it out, when it has to be gone today rather than next Tuesday, or when it's the kind of job that would take a city crew a great deal more than five minutes. That's most of what we get called for:
- Whole-garage, attic, and shed clear-outs
- Storage units emptied to the walls — often the last step of a move we already did
- Estate and downsizing clear-outs, handled patiently — see senior moving
- Rental and vacation-rental turnovers, downtown and out on Tybee, where the next guest arrives Friday
- Moving-day leftovers — whatever isn't going to the new house disappears the same day
- Anything at the top of a staircase, which is the real reason most people call
Downtown, the question is where the truck goes
In the Historic District there's frequently no driveway and no off-street anything — just the lane behind the block, if there is one, and a row of parked cars in front. We work those addresses constantly, so it's a plan rather than a surprise: we'll sort the truck placement and do the carry, however long it turns out to be.
Coastal storage does its own damage
Furniture that's spent a few Savannah summers in a garage or an un-conditioned storage unit is often further gone than people expect — mattresses especially. If you open a unit and find the humidity got there first, that's an ordinary call for us, and it usually fills more of the truck than you'd guess.
Storm season
After a named storm, the city typically runs its own collection for yard and vegetative debris, so it's worth checking before you pay anyone to haul limbs. What we handle is the household side — the soaked furniture, the ruined mattress, the contents of a garage that took water.
The good stuff gets donated first
What still has life in it shouldn't go to a landfill just because it's leaving your house. Usable furniture and household goods go to stops like the Coastal Empire Habitat for Humanity ReStore, where the proceeds build houses here in Savannah, and Goodwill Southeast Georgia. Ask and we'll get you the donation receipts.
What we can't take
Hazardous materials — paint, chemicals, fuel, tires — and anything a landfill refuses. We'll point you to the right county drop-off instead of leaving you to work it out.
The cheapest haul-away is the one you never move
If a move is coming, do this first. Clearing the discard pile before move day means you pay to move only what you're actually keeping — and on a downsizing or estate move, that routinely pays for the haul-away by itself. Same crew, one visit: the keep pile goes to the new place and the rest disappears.
