How to get rid of a mattress in San Jose

The short answer

San José gives you more free options than most cities: the City's Junk Pickup takes a mattress at the curb at no cost, California retailers have to offer to take your old one back when they deliver a new one, and Bye Bye Mattress sites accept drop-offs for free. If you need it carried out of the bedroom, or gone today, a flat pickup is $82 for a twin, $103 for a queen and $114 for a king or Cal king. A mattress and box spring set is $143.

Route 1: the City of San José Junk Pickup

The City's Environmental Services Department runs a program it simply calls Junk Pickup. It is free for single-family homes and for multi-family complexes, and both owners and renters can use it. Each request covers up to 12 items, and mattresses are on the accepted list.

The catch is the logistics. You request a pickup through 311, the City confirms within two business days, and the collection happens on your regular garbage and recycling day. You can put the mattress out no more than 24 hours before the appointment. It has to sit by the curb on the street, not in a red zone, not beside a fire hydrant and not wedged next to a parked car.

For a ranch house in Cambrian or Blossom Valley with a driveway and a flexible week, this is a genuinely good deal. It costs nothing and the mattress counts as just one of your 12 items, so it is worth bundling with anything else heading out.

Route 2: retailer take-back when you buy a new one

If the old mattress is leaving because a new one is arriving, start here. Under California's mattress recycling program, retailers must offer to take back your old mattress at no additional cost when they deliver a new one.

Ask about it at checkout, not on delivery day. Confirm that the delivery crew will actually carry the old one out, and ask whether they take the box spring too. Some deliveries are curbside or front-door only, which matters a great deal if you live on the third floor of a garden apartment in North San José with no elevator.

Have the old mattress stripped and ready by the door so the crew is not waiting on you. If you ordered a boxed mattress online that ships by parcel, there is no delivery crew to hand anything to. In that case, one of the other routes on this page is your answer.

Route 3: drop it at a Bye Bye Mattress site

Bye Bye Mattress is the consumer-facing name of the industry-funded program run by the Mattress Recycling Council. Participating sites accept mattresses and box springs for free, and the materials are broken down for recycling: steel springs, foam and fiber.

Check the participating site list before you load anything, because sites and their limits change. The real cost of this route is the vehicle. A queen will not fold into a sedan, and a box spring does not bend at all, so you need a pickup, a cargo van or a friend with one.

Tie it down properly before you get on 101, 280 or 87. A mattress catches wind like a sail at freeway speed. Bag it first if it has been in storage, and plan the trip for a weekday morning when the drive is shorter. Add up the borrowed truck, the gas and the half-day before deciding this is the cheapest option.

When the curb is not an option

A lot of San José housing does not have a curb you control. Downtown high-rises, the mid-rise apartment blocks around the North San José tech campuses and the student rentals in Japantown, where barely a quarter of homes are owner-occupied, all come with building rules about what can be left outside and where.

Leaving a mattress beside the complex dumpster is not disposal. Most management companies charge for it, and that charge usually comes out of a deposit. In towers you may also need a reserved elevator and a certificate of insurance before anyone can move a mattress through the lobby.

HOA neighborhoods are their own case. Many subdivisions in Evergreen, Silver Creek and Almaden Valley frown on anything staged at the curb, even for one night. If any of this describes your building, the practical route is a pickup that goes straight from the bedroom to the truck without a stop on the sidewalk.

Flat prices for mattresses and beds

A queen mattress and box spring priced separately would be $103 + $92 = $195, so book them as the $143 set. A whole bed, meaning the set plus a metal frame, is $143 + $68 = $211.

The order minimum is $100, so a twin on its own bills at $100. Add a nightstand and you are past it: $82 + $57 = $139. Every price includes carrying it out from any floor, loading and disposal. There is no stairs fee and no same-day surcharge.

Getting it out of the house without damage

Most San José homes are single-story slab houses, which sounds easy until you meet the hallway. Post-war tract homes often have one narrow turn between the bedrooms and the front door, and a king mattress does not like it.

Strip the bedding and bag the mattress in the bedroom before it travels anywhere. Plastic mattress bags are cheap at any hardware store and they keep dust, pet hair and anything worse off your walls. If you suspect bed bugs, sealing it in the room is not optional, and in an apartment building it protects your neighbors too.

Eichler owners have a specific problem: walls of glass. Clear a path, take down anything hanging in the hallway and prop the doors. Adjustable bases are heavy and have motors and cords, so unplug them a day ahead. If it is a pickup, all of that is the crew's job, but a clear path still makes it faster.

Which route should you pick?

• Buying a new mattress with delivery: retailer take-back. Confirm it in writing at checkout.
• House with a curb and a flexible week: the City's free Junk Pickup. Bundle up to 12 items in the same request.
• You have a truck and a free morning: a Bye Bye Mattress drop-off site.
• Apartment, tower, HOA or no time: a flat pickup from inside the home. Queen $103, set $143.

Whatever you pick, line up the dates so the mattress never spends a night outside. A mattress sitting on the sidewalk past its appointment stops being a collection item and starts being a code enforcement problem. Book by 4 PM and JunkRabbit can usually take it the same day, in a two-hour window you choose, seven days a week from 8am to midnight. Get the price first on the instant quote page.

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