Bed frame disposal in Columbus

The short answer

Visit minimum $75. A queen mattress and box spring set plus a metal frame is $143 + $68 = $211. A king set-up of mattress ($114), box spring ($92) and a solid king frame ($152) is $114 + $92 + $152 = $358.

Breakdown is included. So is the carry down whatever stairs you have.

Why frames are harder than mattresses

A mattress is heavy and awkward but it bends. A bed frame does not.

Most solid, upholstered and storage frames are assembled in the bedroom. The side rails bolt to the headboard and footboard once the parts are in the room, and after that the assembled object is larger than the door it came through in pieces. Ten years and three house moves later, nobody has the hardware, the bolts have seized, and the Allen key went in a drawer in a different house.

In Columbus that meets a housing stock with narrow doors. Century doubles in Clintonville and the University District have bedroom doors that were sized for a different era of furniture, plus a landing turn on the stairs and often a low header over it. A king platform frame that assembled fine upstairs in 2016 is not coming down whole.

Breakdown is part of the flat price, and on this item it is usually the whole job.

The flat-pack problem

Particleboard and MDF frames disassemble once. After that the cam locks have chewed their seats and the screw holes have stripped, and the frame is structurally finished.

That matters for two reasons in this metro. First, it means donation is not realistic; charities will not take a flat-pack frame that has been apart, and they are right not to. Second, it means the frame you were planning to move to the new house in Powell is probably not making the trip, so it belongs in the cleanout you are already booking rather than on the moving truck you are paying by the item.

Flat-pack bookcases have the same story, at $100 each.

Bunk beds and student houses

Bunk beds are a specific Columbus category because of the campus-area rental stock. Four-bedroom doubles that sleep five, loft beds built to get a desk underneath, and bunk frames that have been reassembled by successive tenants with whatever hardware was in the kitchen drawer.

Prices: a standard bunk bed is $123, a solid wood or loft bunk is $148. In practice these come out in pieces, which is the only way they fit a University District stairwell.

If you are a landlord clearing after an August turnover, bunk beds are worth putting on the list explicitly rather than assuming they are part of a pile, because they are bulky, heavy and slow. In a full-house turnover, though, check the ladder first: half truckload $431, three-quarters $587, full $732.

Adjustable bases

A motorized adjustable base is $118, and it is one of the fastest-growing items on this list in the older Columbus suburbs. Upper Arlington, Worthington, Bexley and the established parts of Westerville have a lot of households aging in place, and adjustable bases go in for comfort and mobility.

They come out again on downsizing, on a move to assisted living, or during an estate clearance. Two things to know: they are heavy, with a motor and a steel frame rather than slats, and they plug in, so unplug it and free the cord before the day. The remote does not need to come with it.

Selling and donating a frame

Worth trying if the frame is solid wood, complete, and you still have the hardware. Central Ohio has a decent resale market for solid bedroom furniture, and the mid-August campus turnover is the one two weeks when a plain metal frame will genuinely go free in a day.

The Furniture Bank of Central Ohio takes household furniture and there are ReStore locations around the metro. Call first: they have condition standards, they may need the frame complete with hardware, and most pickups are curbside or ground-floor.

Not worth trying: flat-pack that has been apart, anything with bent rails or a cracked slat set, and anything that has spent a winter in an unheated garage.

Getting it to the curb yourself

If you do want to handle it free, check the city's refuse collection page for your street: whether the item qualifies, how many pieces you may put out, whether your block is collected from the tree lawn or the alley pad, and what the set-out window is. Those four answers are all address-specific and they do get revised.

Break it down first, stack it, and tie the rails. A disassembled frame with loose slats scattered across a tree lawn in Clintonville after a windy Ohio night is a mess you will end up picking up twice.

Booking it with the bedroom

Nobody removes a frame on its own, and the $75 visit minimum means you should not want to. Price the whole room in one go.

A common Columbus bedroom: mattress and box spring set $143, solid queen frame $126, standard dresser $126, nightstand $57. That is $143 + $126 + $126 + $57 = $452. A half truckload is $431, so on that list the half load is cheaper. Always check.

Carry-down from any floor is included, which is the point in a city where the bedrooms in question are usually on the second or third floor of a house built before the First World War.

Frequently asked questions