Mattresses, box springs, foundations, adjustable bases, bunk beds and futons taken out of Pasadena bungalows, hillside houses and apartment buildings, wrapped in the room and routed into California's mattress recycling program.
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Pasadena refuse customers get two free bulky pickups a year, but the city collects only from the parkway, cannot enter private property and refuses anything heavier than two people can lift. Mattress removal by Los Angeles Junk Removal & Hauling starts in the bedroom instead, quoted free.
Pasadena has its own refuse operation and its own rules, and for a bed they read as a single sentence: the city will take it, from the strip of grass in front of your house, in about a fortnight, if you carried it there yourself. Bulky item pick-up is offered only to City of Pasadena refuse customers, who may schedule two free pickups per calendar year on 626-744-7311. The city asks for the request at least two weeks before your regular trash day, requires a list of the items at booking so the right equipment and crew are sent, collects from the parkway between the sidewalk and the street because staff cannot go onto private property, caps a set-out at a three cubic yard bin measuring four feet by five feet by four feet, and states that nothing should be bigger or heavier than two people can safely lift. Everything from the bedroom to that strip of grass is yours. That is the part we do.
Most Pasadena mattress calls start the same way. Somebody has already looked up the city's free bulky pickup, already read that they get two a year, and already worked out that the sticking point is not the city's willingness but the sixteen stairs, the turn at the half-landing and the fact that the bed is a king. The program is genuinely good and we will tell you to use it when it fits. It simply was not designed for the object you are holding.
So this page covers the program precisely, then the part it leaves to you: what an itemized list has to say about a bed, what the two-person test means for a foundation that will not bend, why putting the mattress out early is a citation rather than a head start, and where the material goes once it is on a vehicle. The wider local picture is on junk removal in Pasadena, and our county-wide service is on mattress removal.
Pasadena collects its own refuse. LA Sanitation does not operate here and neither does the county, so nothing you read about Los Angeles city bulky pickup applies to a Pasadena address. Bulky item pick-up is offered only to City of Pasadena refuse customers, and a customer may schedule two free bulky item pickups per year by calling 626-744-7311, with the city noting that bulky items are subject to scheduling availability. Requests also go through the City Service Center, whose call center runs Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and through the Pasadena CSC app.
The notice is longer than people expect. Residents are advised to schedule the pick up at least two weeks in advance of their regular trash pickup day, and the city adds an instruction that matters for a bed specifically: do not place any item on the parkway before the pickup has been scheduled. That single line kills the most common plan in the city, which is to drag the mattress out on a Sunday and phone about it on Monday.
At booking you are required to provide the list of the items you will place on the parkway, and the city explains why in operational terms: the list is what allows staff to schedule the equipment and manpower needed to complete the pickup. For a bed, that list is not one line. A mattress is one item. A box spring or foundation is a second. A frame, a headboard and a bedside cabinet are three more. The city also states that if more items are placed on the parkway than are listed on the service order, the resident may be charged, so under-declaring a bedroom is a worse outcome than declaring all of it.
Then the geography of the collection, which is the whole subject of this page. Bulky items are picked up from the parkway in front of the house — the area between the sidewalk and the street — and it is the resident's responsibility to place the items there. The city is explicit that staff cannot go onto private property to move bulky items to the parkway. There is no version of this program in which a crew comes up your drive, through your gate, into your house or up your stairs. Whatever distance separates the bed from the grass strip is a distance somebody in your household has to cover carrying a mattress and a rigid foundation.
The two limits then decide whether it is even worth trying. Residents can put out as many items as would fill a three cubic yard bin, which the city describes as four feet wide, five feet long and four feet high. And items should be no bigger or heavier than what two people can safely lift. That second test is honest and useful, and it is exactly the test a queen or king set fails on a wet morning, because a mattress that has been rained on overnight is a different object from the one you carried out. The preparation rules that sit alongside it are equally practical: wood, pipe or branches must be no longer than three feet and tied into easy-to-handle bundles, and glass and mirrors should be visible to the crew for proper handling, which is worth remembering if a mirrored wardrobe door is leaving with the bed.
The timing rules have teeth. Bulky items should be placed on the parkway no more than 24 hours before the scheduled pickup day, otherwise a citation may be issued by Code Enforcement. Everything must be out by 7:00 a.m., collection runs between 7:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and bulky items are not scheduled on holidays even when the regular trash pickup is running normally. So a mattress cannot sit on a Pasadena parkway over a weekend waiting for a Tuesday collection. It is a citation risk from the second day, and a soaked object by the third.
Three more boundaries complete the picture. Once the two free pickups for the calendar year have been used, additional pickups carry a charge that depends on the quantity and size of the items, which the city publishes in its solid waste rates and asks residents to confirm on 626-744-7311. Residents whose trash collection is provided by a private hauler, such as those living in an apartment building, are not city refuse customers at all and must contact their own hauler to schedule a bulky pickup — Pasadena's Pay-As-You-Throw residential system is tailored to single family residences and multi-family units of four or less. And the program has a seasonal gap: the city suspended bulky item collection from December 19, 2025 to February 2, 2026 to accommodate Rose Parade activities, so anyone clearing a property over new year should confirm the current dates before relying on a free pickup. A bed is also one of the few large household items the program does take, which is worth stating, because refrigerators, air conditioning units, e-waste, construction and roofing material, household hazardous materials and landscaping debris are all refused outright.
Source: City of Pasadena Public Works, Bulky Item Procedure. Cited in full below.
| Who collects | City of Pasadena, for its own refuse customers only |
|---|---|
| Free allowance | Two bulky item pickups per calendar year, subject to scheduling availability |
| Booking | 626-744-7311, the City Service Center or the Pasadena CSC app |
| Notice | Schedule at least two weeks before your regular trash pickup day |
| Itemized list | Required at booking so the city can schedule equipment and manpower |
| Where items go | The parkway between sidewalk and street; staff cannot enter private property |
| Volume cap | As many items as fill a 3 cubic yard bin, 4 ft wide by 5 ft long by 4 ft high |
| Weight test | No item bigger or heavier than two people can safely lift |
| Set-out window | Out by 7 a.m. on collection day and no more than 24 hours early |
| Early set-out | A citation may be issued by Code Enforcement |
| Private-hauler addresses | Apartment residents served by a private hauler must book through that hauler |
Sources: City of Pasadena Public Works, Residential Refuse Service & Recycling — Bulky Item Procedure; City of Pasadena, Bulky Item Pick up.
Pasadena's housing stock is the reason a mattress here is harder than the flat street grid suggests. The Craftsman bungalow belt on the east and north-east of the city — Bungalow Heaven, Historic Highlands and the streets around them — is made up of houses built between roughly 1900 and 1930, and the upstairs bedrooms in that stock sit under a sloping roof reached by a stair that was built narrow and turns on a small landing. A queen mattress will flex around that turn. A queen foundation is a rigid rectangle and frequently will not, which is why split foundations exist and why the first question we ask is whether your base is one piece or two.
The second Pasadena pattern is the rear drive. A great many houses here have a long single-width driveway running past the side of the property to a detached garage at the back, often with a side gate, a step and a change of surface partway along. The parkway in front of the house may be eighty or a hundred feet from the bedroom door in a straight line and a good deal further by the route a bed can actually take. That distance is not a detail of the job; on most Pasadena addresses it is the job, and it is the exact distance the city's program declines to cover when it says staff cannot enter private property.
West of the Arroyo Seco the ground changes. Linda Vista and the San Rafael hills have gradient, curves, narrow carriageways and very little legal parking outside a given house, and the private driveways are often steeper than a loaded dolly is comfortable with. A full-size truck is sometimes the wrong vehicle for those streets and a smaller one making two runs is the right one. Tell us the street when you call and we will decide that before the crew leaves rather than after.
The fourth pattern is the apartment city, along the East Colorado corridor, around the Playhouse District and in the older courtyard blocks. If your trash is collected by a private hauler rather than by the city, the two-free-pickups rule is not yours to use at all, and a bed leaving that building is a building problem: a service entrance, an elevator whose diagonal decides whether a king mattress can stand up inside it, a manager who wants a certificate of insurance on file, and a window that does not collide with somebody else's move-in. We arrange that in advance as a matter of routine.
There is also a parkway problem specific to Pasadena, which is that the parkway is planted. The city's street trees stand in exactly the strip the program uses, and on many blocks the usable frontage between a tree well and a driveway apron is short. A mattress, a foundation and a frame will fill it. Add a parked car in front of the house and the space a crew can actually work in shrinks again. When we quote we look at where a truck can legally stand and how far it is from the door, because that is what sets the crew size and the time, not the number of beds.
Finally, the timing. Because the city's window is 24 hours and the penalty for beating it is a Code Enforcement citation, there is no safe way to stage a bedroom on a Pasadena parkway. That matters most in the situations mattresses usually arrive with: an escrow date, a tenant turnover, a family member moving into care, a delivery slot for the new bed that does not line up with the old one leaving. In all of those the constraint is a day rather than a fortnight, and the free program cannot bend to it. We wrap in the room, carry down, load and go, so nothing sits outside overnight. If the bedroom is part of a whole-property clearance, see estate cleanouts in Pasadena; if a wardrobe and a sofa are going too, see furniture removal in Pasadena; and if a window air conditioning unit is coming out of the same bedroom, note that the city refuses those entirely — see appliance removal in Pasadena.
Upstairs bedroom, back house or a whole floor of beds. Describe the stairs and we will quote it free.
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Our own crews on Los Angeles County jobs. The mattress removal we run in Pasadena looks like this too: side yards, narrow walkways and the back of the property is where the work actually is.
A mattress is one of the few things in a junk load with a dedicated statewide recovery system behind it, and Pasadena residents have already funded theirs. California's program is run by the Mattress Recycling Council under CalRecycle oversight and paid for by a fee collected at the point of sale. That fee rose from $16.00 to $18.00 per unit for units sold on or after April 1, 2026, applies per unit regardless of size or type across mattresses, futons and foundations, is not subject to sales tax, and has to appear as a separate line item on the receipt. Units collected under the program are dismantled so that the steel, foam, fabric and wood can be separated and sold into manufacturing, which is why a bed ought to be one of the cheapest things in a load rather than one of the dearest.
The program's definitions are worth knowing before you plan a bedroom clearance, because they do not match the everyday meaning of the words. A mattress may be all foam or a mixture of foam, springs and other materials. A foundation, which most people call a box spring, is a platform or base that supports the mattress, is covered in fabric, and either stays fixed or adjusts. In California, and only in California among the four state programs, a futon mattress that separates from its frame or base counts as a mattress. Outside that boundary sit bed frames, futon frames and bases, sofa beds, mattress toppers and pads, pillows, loose bedding, sleeping bags, cushions, roll-away beds, car beds, juvenile products including crib and bassinet mattresses, mattresses already stripped of their padding, and air beds or water beds with no upholstery material in them. A sleeper sofa contains a mattress and is still, for these purposes, a sofa.
Two practical points follow from that for a Pasadena job. The first is that a typical bedroom produces a mixed load rather than a single-category one: two program units, one bed frame that is not a program unit, a topper and a set of pillows that are not either, and quite often a headboard. Sorting that at your address rather than at a gate is what keeps the disposed fraction small. The second is that condition is not the obstacle people expect. In California the program accepts mattresses and box springs regardless of their condition or when they were purchased; the soiled, wet and infested caveats that circulate online apply to the Connecticut and Rhode Island programs. Individual sites still set their own terms, though, and the program is explicit that unit limits may apply and an appointment may be required.
Which brings up the awkward local fact. There is no participating drop-off location in Pasadena. The Council's own facility finder lists nothing inside the city, and the nearest no-cost sites are in the next towns east: Nu-Way Roll Off Service at 145 West Duarte Road in Monrovia, listed as free drop-off for residents and businesses with a ten-unit maximum, open Monday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., and R5 Recycling at 739 North Georgia Avenue in Azusa, listed as free drop-off for residents and businesses with a five-unit maximum for residents and an incentive payment for qualifying drop-offs, open Monday to Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Both are perfectly usable if you own a pickup and a free weekday morning. Neither is a plan for a household with a queen set, a car and a job.
The route almost nobody uses is the retailer. California law requires a retailer delivering a new mattress to offer to take back your old one at no additional cost. The retailer has up to 30 days to do it, delivery or set-up fees for the new product can still apply, and the retailer is allowed to refuse a unit that is contaminated and poses a risk to personnel, new products or equipment, a judgment they make on their own. The recycling fee is not refunded if they decline. If they do decline, the program's own advice is to contact your public works department or waste hauler, which in this city means 626-744-7311 and, on a mattress they have refused as contaminated, a conversation that will not end with a free parkway collection. Ask about take-back when you order, not when the delivery crew is on the doorstep.
On bed bugs, we work to what Los Angeles County Public Health publishes rather than to folklore. The county's pest bulletin puts the harborage sites on the bed itself: along the edge ribbing and beneath the buttons of the mattress, between the mattress and the box spring, in the folds of the dust ruffle, along the support frame and behind the headboard, with the rest of the room — baseboards, the carpet edge at the wall junction, night stand drawers, upholstered furniture, wall hangings — in play as well. The insects survive 80 to 140 days without feeding and commonly arrive in second-hand furniture or in mattresses bought from thrift shops or private parties, which is the single best argument against taking a free bed off a Pasadena curb. Treatment is a job for an experienced pest management professional, and the county notes that liquid household pesticides should not be applied to the mattress. Our part is narrow and we keep it narrow: tell us in advance, we seal the unit in the room before it moves, we do not offer it for donation, and we do not claim that removing it has treated anything.
The rest of a bedroom clearance sorts the way any other load does. Sound bed frames, headboards and furniture go to reuse where the condition genuinely justifies it. Metal frames and bases go to scrap. Textiles that fall outside the mattress program are handled as textiles. And the two categories the city's own bulky route refuses — e-waste and household hazardous materials — are separated at your address and routed properly rather than buried inside a mixed load, because Pasadena's program will not take them and neither will a landfill gate without consequences.
Sources: Mattress Recycling Council, 2026 California Mattress Recycling Fee Adjustment; CalRecycle, Mattress Product Management; Bye Bye Mattress, What’s Accepted / Unaccepted in California; Bye Bye Mattress, program frequently asked questions; Bye Bye Mattress, Mattress Disposal in California and retailer take-back; Bye Bye Mattress, find a collection site or recycling facility; Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Bed Bugs in Los Angeles County pest bulletin (PDF); Los Angeles County Public Health, Environmental Health — Bed Bugs; City of Pasadena Public Works, Residential Refuse Service & Recycling — Bulky Item Procedure.
Same rule in Pasadena as anywhere else in Los Angeles County. The local part is the program above, not the disposal law. Full detail on mattress removal.
This page is mattress removal in Pasadena specifically. The wider service is on mattress removal across Los Angeles, and everything we haul in this city is on junk removal in Pasadena. Same crew, different job: Appliance removal in Pasadena, Estate cleanouts in Pasadena, Furniture removal in Pasadena, Garage cleanouts in Pasadena, Same-day junk removal in Pasadena. Pricing works the same way everywhere: how our pricing works, and the full map is on areas we serve.
We are already next door most days. The whole list is on areas we serve.
Frame, wardrobe, box room and garage, cleared in the same visit on one agreed number.
Couches, sectionals, mattresses in the same trip, beds, desks and wardrobes carried down rather than dragged.
A full property cleared with care, on probate or move-out timelines.
Fridges, washers and AC units. Refrigerant units are handled as universal waste.
The whole garage in one visit. We sort, donate what is usable and sweep the slab.
TVs, CRT monitors and computers. Banned from the trash in California.
Booked and cleared the same day, most days, across LA County.
The two free pickups, the parkway rule, the two-person test and the citation for going early.
If you are a City of Pasadena refuse customer, yes, within limits. You get two free bulky item pickups per calendar year, booked on 626-744-7311 or through the Pasadena CSC app, scheduled about two weeks ahead, with a list of the items given at booking. The catch is where it starts: collection is from the parkway between the sidewalk and the street, and city staff cannot come onto private property to move anything there. If you can get the mattress and the base to the grass yourself and you can wait a fortnight, use the program and we will say so on the phone.
No, and it is the most expensive mistake people make here. Bulky items may be placed on the parkway no more than 24 hours before the scheduled pickup day, and putting them out sooner means a citation may be issued by Code Enforcement. Everything has to be out by 7:00 a.m. on the day, and crews work 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday to Friday with no bulky collections on holidays. A bed on a parkway from Saturday to Tuesday is a citation risk and a soaked mattress, in that order.
That is the standard Pasadena call, particularly in the Craftsman stock where the upstairs bedroom sits under a sloping roof and the stair turns on a small landing. Mattresses flex; foundations do not. We bring the set down with two people, take the frame apart at the rails where the turn demands it, protect the jambs and the banister, and load from wherever the truck can legally stand. Tell us on the phone whether the base is one piece or split and how many stairs there are, because those two answers set the crew size.
Not in Pasadena. The Mattress Recycling Council's facility finder lists no participating site inside the city. The nearest no-cost locations are Nu-Way Roll Off Service on West Duarte Road in Monrovia, listed with a ten-unit maximum and open Monday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., and R5 Recycling on North Georgia Avenue in Azusa, listed with a five-unit maximum for residents and open Monday to Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Both are real options if you have a truck and a weekday morning. Call the site first, because the program notes that unit limits apply and an appointment may be required.
It should at least be offered. California law requires a retailer delivering a new mattress to offer to take back your old one at no additional cost, with up to 30 days to collect it, although delivery and set-up fees for the new product can still apply and the retailer may refuse a unit that is contaminated and poses a risk to personnel, new products or equipment. The recycling fee you paid is not refunded if they refuse. Ask how their take-back works when you order rather than on delivery day, and call us for the beds it will not cover.
We charge for the space the load occupies in the truck. Labor, transport and disposal are all inside that one figure, it is given to you before we start and confirmed on site, and there is no charge or obligation attached to asking. In Pasadena the figure is driven by the carry rather than the count: a ground-floor bedroom beside a driveway is quick, an upstairs bungalow bedroom at the end of a hundred-foot rear drive, or a hillside address off Linda Vista with nowhere legal to stand a truck, is not. We point that out while quoting rather than afterwards.
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Collection rules, transfer stations and permit counters change at the city line, so each of these is written for that city rather than for Pasadena. A job that straddles two of them is still one visit and one number.
Everything we haul in the cities next door: South Pasadena, Alhambra, Echo Park. The whole list is on areas we serve.
Send a photo, get a flat number back. Free, no obligation, no pressure and no call-out fee — and if your city will haul it free instead, we will tell you that too. Most requests are answered within the hour during working hours.
