The short answer
Most Denver apartment cleanouts land in one of two shapes. Either you can name the pieces — sofa, mattress, dresser, desk — and per-item pricing is cheaper, or it is a heap of boxes and bags and the truck-fill ladder is cheaper.
Named items: a Sofa / Couch is $126, a Mattress — Queen is $103, a Dresser (Standard) is $126, a Desk (Standard) is $83, a TV (42" to 65") is $68. By volume: a quarter truck is $241, a half truck is $431, a full truck is $732. The visit minimum is $75, and there is no walk-up fee no matter how many flights.
Denver's apartment stock comes in three flavours
The price is the same everywhere, but the job is not, and knowing which building you are in tells you how the morning will go.
- The pre-war brick walk-up. Capitol Hill, Cheesman Park, Uptown, the edges of Baker. Three stories, no elevator, a switchback stair with a tight landing, and a front vestibule door narrower than the sofa that somehow got in there. This is the classic Denver apartment and the classic Denver carry.
- The garden complex. Aurora along Havana and Mississippi, Lakewood along Alameda, Westminster, Thornton. Two or three stories around a parking court, exterior stairs, a shared dumpster corral that is emphatically not for furniture. Access is easier, the distance from door to truck is longer.
- The new mid-rise. RiNo, LoHi, Five Points, Golden Triangle, Cherry Creek North. A freight elevator, a loading dock you have to reserve, and a management office that wants a certificate of insurance from your hauler before anyone touches the door. We carry insurance and can supply the certificate.
What each size actually costs
| Typical job | Price |
|---|---|
| A few leftover items (minimum visit) | $75 |
| Studio odds and ends — 1/4 truck | $241 |
| One-bedroom, mostly furniture — 3/8 truck | $338 |
| Two-bedroom — 1/2 truck | $431 |
| Two-bedroom, fully furnished — 5/8 truck | $513 |
| Three-bedroom or a very full unit — 3/4 truck | $587 |
| Everything, floor to ceiling — full truck | $732 |
Named-item examples from real Denver units: a one-bedroom in Uptown stripped to bare floor is a sofa, a queen mattress and a standard dresser at $126 + $103 + $126 = $355. A Capitol Hill studio is often just a sofa and a mattress at $126 + $103 = $229. A home-office corner in a RiNo one-bedroom is a standard desk and an office chair at $83 + $61 = $144.
The transplant furniture cycle
Denver has a specific version of this job. People arrive for the mountains, furnish a first apartment fast and cheap because every dollar is going toward a season pass and a used 4Runner, and then three years later either buy a place in Arvada or leave for a mountain town. The furniture does not make either trip.
Flat-pack does badly here for a physical reason on top of the usual one. At 5,280 feet with humidity in single digits for weeks at a stretch, particleboard and the glue in cheap joints dry out and lose their grip. A bookcase that survived the drive from the Midwest starts racking after two Denver winters. By move-out it will not survive being carried down a flight of stairs, which is why so much of it ends up on our truck rather than on a classifieds listing.
Priced honestly: a Bookcase — Particleboard / Flat-pack is $100, a Wardrobe — Flat-pack / Particleboard is $143, a Futon is $111.
Lease timing runs the calendar
Denver's apartment turnover is not evenly spread. Leases near the University of Denver, and around Auraria for CU Denver, MSU Denver and CCD students, cluster at the end of summer. General market leases cluster in the warm months too, because nobody wants to carry a mattress across an icy parking court in Aurora in January.
The consequence is that the last two weeks of a summer month are the hardest slots to get, and a weekday in the middle of a month is the easiest. Same price either way — there is no peak rate and no same-day surcharge — but if you have a hand-back deadline and a security deposit riding on an empty unit, book the awkward week early.
What the dumpster corral will not take
Nearly every Denver complex has the same sign and nearly everybody ignores it. Shared dumpsters and alley enclosures are for bagged household trash. A mattress leaned against one, a sofa pushed behind one, a TV stacked on top — these stay yours. In managed buildings, management bills the removal back to the unit, and in Denver's alley neighborhoods the complaint goes to the nearest address.
The items that reliably cause this: mattresses and box springs, TVs and monitors, anything with a refrigerant loop, paint, and tires. All of them have published prices with us. A Box Spring (Any Size) is $92, a Computer Monitor is $58, a Mini Fridge is $115, Paint (1-Gallon Can) is $30.
Booking it so the unit is actually empty
Three things make a move-out cleanout go clean.
- Book for after the movers, not before. What you thought you would keep changes the moment it is in the hallway.
- Sort out building access first. If it is a mid-rise, reserve the freight elevator and tell us — we will send the certificate of insurance to management. If it is a Capitol Hill walk-up, tell us there is no elevator so the crew is sized for it. It does not change the price.
- List what you know. Named items usually price lower than a truck fraction. It takes two minutes to list a sofa, a mattress, a dresser and a TV and see the number before you commit.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to clear out a one-bedroom apartment in Denver?
If it is mostly furniture, a three-eighths truck at $338 is typical. If you can name the pieces it is often less — a sofa, a queen mattress and a standard dresser is $126 + $103 + $126 = $355. The minimum for a visit is $75.
Do you charge extra for a third-floor walk-up in Capitol Hill?
No. There is no walk-up fee and no stair charge. Pre-war brick walk-ups with a switchback stair are the normal case in Capitol Hill, Cheesman Park and Uptown, and the item price already covers carrying it down.
My building needs a certificate of insurance. Can you provide one?
Yes. RiNo, LoHi, Golden Triangle and Cherry Creek North mid-rises generally require a COI before releasing the loading dock or freight elevator. Tell us the building's requirements when you book and we will get the certificate to management.
Can I just leave furniture by the complex dumpster?
No. Shared dumpsters and alley enclosures are for bagged household trash, and the furniture stays your responsibility. Managed complexes bill the removal back to the unit, which usually costs more than booking the pickup would have.
When is the hardest time to book a Denver apartment cleanout?
The last two weeks of any summer month, when general leases and student leases near DU and Auraria turn over at once. The price does not change, but the calendar does — book those slots well ahead, or take a mid-month weekday instead.