How to get rid of a couch in Pittsburgh

The short answer

Inside the City of Pittsburgh, a sofa can go out with your regular trash as one of your two bulk items for the week, set out after 6 p.m. the night before and before 6 a.m. on collection day. If it is in good shape, the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Swissvale accepts furniture and offers free donation pickup. If you just want it gone today from wherever it sits, JunkRabbit takes a standard sofa for $126, a loveseat for $119 and a sleeper sofa for $149.

Option one: the City curb

Sofas are on the City's list of accepted bulk items, so the free route exists and it works. You get two bulk items a week. A sofa is one; a matching loveseat is the second. A sectional is the tricky case, because each piece can be argued to be its own item, so a three-piece sectional may stretch into a second week. The set-out window runs from 6 p.m. the night before your trash day until 6 a.m. that morning, and putting a couch out a day early on a narrow City street is a reliable way to annoy the neighbors. Cover it if rain is forecast; a soaked cushion doubles in weight. In the suburbs the rules are different, because each of Allegheny County's 130 municipalities runs its own hauler contract. Mt. Lebanon's contractor accepts furniture curbside, for example, while other boroughs publish their own limits. Either way, the curb only helps once the couch is already outside.

Option two: donate it

A clean, sturdy couch with no tears, stains, smells or pet damage has a real chance of being reused. The Habitat for Humanity ReStore at the Swissvale Shopping Center lists furniture among the things it accepts, and it offers free pickup for donations. Schedule well ahead, because donation pickups run on the organization's calendar, not yours. They decide what they accept when they see it, so expect to send photos and answer questions about condition. Sleeper sofas are heavy, and some reuse stores are cautious about them because of the mechanism and the mattress inside. A couch that has lived in a damp basement or a smoker's house is unlikely to be accepted anywhere. If you have a buyer or a friend lined up instead, remember they still face the same stairs you do. When JunkRabbit takes a couch, we try to donate usable items when local charities accept them, and we recycle whatever we can.

Getting it out of a Pittsburgh house

This is where most couch plans fall apart. The City's median home dates to 1942, and much of the older stock is rowhouses and doubles with narrow staircases, tight landings and front doors that open straight onto the sidewalk. A couch that came in through a Lawrenceville rowhouse door twenty years ago may only have fit because the legs came off. In Shadyside and Squirrel Hill, many apartments are walk-ups with turning stairwells. On the South Side Slopes, Mt. Washington, Troy Hill and Polish Hill, the house can sit above or below the street on public steps, and the City has 800 sets of them. Carrying a sofa down a stairway like that takes at least two people, gloves, and a plan for the landing. In winter, add ice. If the couch will not clear a turn, it may need to come apart, and an oversized or cut-apart sofa has its own flat price of $185.

Flat couch prices

A sofa and loveseat set is $126 + $119 = $245. A sofa plus a recliner is $126 + $98 = $224. A sofa, an armchair and a coffee table at $67 come to $126 + $77 + $67 = $270. Every price includes carrying it out from any floor, loading and disposal, with no stairs fee.

What to do before anyone arrives

A little prep makes the job faster no matter who carries it. Pull the cushions and check the crevices for keys, remotes and change. Take the legs off if they unscrew, because two inches can decide whether a couch clears a rowhouse doorframe. Clear a path from the couch to the front door, including shoes on the stairs and anything hanging in the hall. If the street outside is permit parking or a narrow two-way with one parked lane, think about where a truck can stop for a few minutes. In winter, salt the outside steps before the arrival window. For a JunkRabbit quote, take one photo of the couch and, if there are outside steps, one photo of those too. You see the flat price before you book, and it only changes if you approve the change.

When to book

Couches leave Pittsburgh homes in waves. Late summer and May bring student and resident turnover in Oakland, Shadyside, the South Side and Bloomfield. Spring is redd-up season in the post-war suburbs, when Brookline, Baldwin and Bethel Park basements and family rooms get cleared. Estate and downsizing cleanouts run all year in places like Squirrel Hill, Penn Hills and Mt. Lebanon. Whenever yours is, JunkRabbit works 7 days a week from 8am to midnight, and same-day pickup is available when you book by 4 PM. You choose a 2-hour arrival window, so you are not waiting around all day. The same flat price applies in the City and across the suburbs, from the North Hills to the Mon Valley.

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