Self-Haul or Pay to Have It Gone
Nashville Bulk Trash:
Self-Haul or Pay to Have It Gone
Most Nashville residents are surprised the first time they set an old couch out front and it just sits there. Metro has no free curbside bulk pickup — the free route is to load it into a truck and drive it to a convenience center yourself. Here's the honest trade-off between doing that and a flat photo-quoted pickup from $75 where we carry it out of the house.
The Nashville reality: there is no bulk-trash day
In a lot of big cities you drag a mattress to the curb on the right night and it's gone by morning. Not here. Metro Nashville Waste Services collects your weekly garbage and recycling and runs a quarterly brush collection (limbs only — up to 4 inches thick and 12 feet long, scheduled through Correctional Services at 615-880-3897 or 311). What it does not do is pick up furniture, mattresses, or appliances at the curb, on any schedule, for free. Leave a sofa on the tree lawn and you've just created a code-enforcement problem for yourself.
So every Nashvillian getting rid of something big lands on the same fork in the road: haul it yourself to a Metro convenience center, or pay someone to take it. Both are legitimate. Which one is right depends entirely on what you're moving, what you drive, and how much of your Saturday you want back. Let's price out both honestly.
Option 1 — Self-haul to a Metro convenience center (free, with strings)
Metro runs four convenience centers where Davidson County residents can drop off bulky waste. The deal is genuinely good on paper: one bulk item plus one cubic yard of extra trash, free per visit, with fees only on anything past that. The two most people use are Anderson Lane (939A Anderson Ln, Madison) and Omohundro (1019 Omohundro Pl). They're open Tuesday through Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and closed on Metro holidays.
The "free" part is real. The catch is everything the word "self-haul" quietly contains:
- You need a vehicle it fits in. A couch, a dresser, a full mattress set, or a fridge does not go in a sedan or a crossover. If you don't own a pickup or a van, you're renting one — that's a truck fee plus fuel and a mileage rate before you've moved anything.
- You need a second person. A sleeper sofa or a refrigerator is a two-person carry down the stairs, into the truck, and back out at the drop-off. Doing it alone is how backs and door frames get hurt.
- You're on their clock, not yours. Tuesday to Saturday, closing at 4:30, closed on holidays — so it's a weekday-daytime errand for most working people, or a crowded Saturday.
- One free item per visit. Clearing a whole room or a garage? That's several trips, or fees on the overflow. The free tier is built for a single item, not a cleanout.
If you're one strong person short of a truck, or the item is upstairs, in a walk-up, or down a bungalow's back steps, the "free" option quietly turns into a rental-truck-plus-a-favor-owed afternoon.
Option 2 — Flat-price full-service pickup (we do the hauling)
The paid version removes every one of those strings. You send a photo, get an exact flat price back in seconds, and pick a window — often same-day. A vetted, insured hauler shows up with the truck and the muscle, carries the item out of the house — off the third-floor Midtown walk-up, down the East Nashville bungalow steps, out of the Gulch high-rise on a booked freight elevator — and hauls it away. You lift nothing, rent nothing, and drive nowhere.
The number already covers the labor, the truck, the fuel, the drive out to Brentwood or Franklin, and the disposal. There's no hourly meter and no day-of upcharge, and because Tennessee doesn't tax stand-alone junk-removal service, there's no sales-tax line either — the photo price is the all-in price.
| What you're moving | Flat price |
|---|---|
| Sofa / couch | $126 |
| Queen mattress | $103 |
| Refrigerator | $164 |
| Washer or dryer | $128–$133 |
| Dresser (large) | $148 |
| Treadmill | $115 |
| Cleanout — quarter truck | $241 |
| Cleanout — half truck | $431 |
| Cleanout — three-quarter truck | $587 |
| Cleanout — full truck | $732 |
$75 minimum. Disposal included; photo-priced before the truck rolls. No Tennessee sales tax on the service.
Side by side
| Convenience-center self-haul | JunkRabbit pickup | |
|---|---|---|
| Cash cost | Free (first bulk item + 1 cu yd) | Flat from $75, photo-quoted |
| Who lifts it | You + a second person | Our insured crew |
| Vehicle | Your truck or a rental | Ours — nothing needed |
| Hours | Tue–Sat 8:30–4:30, closed holidays | Your window, often same-day |
| Volume | One free item per trip | One item to a full truck, one price |
| Stairs / walk-up / high-rise | All on you | Carried out, COI & freight elevator handled |
| Best for | One item, you own a truck, time to spare | Heavy, upstairs, multiple items, or no truck |
So which one should you actually pick?
We'll be straight about it, because pretending self-haul never makes sense would be silly. Self-haul wins when you already own a pickup, you've got a willing second person, it's a single item on the ground floor, and a weekday trip to Madison doesn't cost you anything you value. For a lone patio chair or a small end table, driving it to Anderson Lane is genuinely the cheapest move.
Paid pickup wins the moment any of those pieces is missing — and for most jobs, one is. The item is a heavy sleeper sofa or a fridge. It's on the second floor or in a Gulch tower. There's no truck in the driveway. Or it's not one item at all but a garage, an attic, or a whole downsizing. That's where a flat price and a crew that carries it out beats a free drop-off you can't physically do alone. You're not paying for disposal so much as buying back the truck rental, the favor, the injury risk, and the Saturday.
Common questions
Does Metro Nashville pick up bulk trash at the curb?
No. There's weekly garbage and recycling and a quarterly brush collection for limbs, but no free curbside pickup for furniture, mattresses, or appliances. Set one out and it stays there. See does Nashville pick up bulk trash? for the full program details.
What's free at a convenience center, exactly?
One bulk item plus one cubic yard of extra trash per visit for Davidson County residents, with fees beyond that. Open Tuesday through Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., closed on Metro holidays. Anderson Lane in Madison and Omohundro Place are the closest for most of the county.
What if I have a whole room or garage, not one item?
That's squarely the paid lane. The free tier covers a single item; a cleanout means multiple trips and overflow fees at the center. We price the whole load as a truck-fill from one photo — quarter $241, half $431, three-quarter $587, full $732.
Is there sales tax on paid pickup?
No. Tennessee treats stand-alone junk-removal service as non-taxable, so there's no separate sales-tax line — your flat photo quote is all-in. (A dumpster rental, by contrast, is taxable here — see junk removal vs dumpster rental.)
Can you come same-day?
Usually, when a crew and truck slot are open. Send a photo for the soonest real window. See same-day junk removal in Nashville.
Do you take appliances with freon?
Yes — refrigerators, freezers, and window units. Refrigerant is recovered by an EPA-certified process before disposal, and it's included in the flat price. See appliance removal.
Popular Nashville pickups
Ready to Get It Gone?
Send a photo and get one flat price back in seconds — carry-out, hauling and disposal are all in it.
Upload Photos & Get Your QuotePrefer texting? 💬 Text (615) 729-6789 — send a photo, get the price.