The move-out cleanout in San Francisco

Why San Francisco move-outs leave so much behind

This is a city people arrive in for a job and leave for another one. The relocation churn is real, and it produces a very particular pattern: three to six years of accumulation, much of it bought quickly and cheaply when the flat was first taken, and almost none of it worth the cost of shipping across the country.

Layer on the housing stock and it gets worse. Furniture in San Francisco is frequently bought for the room — a sofa sized to fit through a Victorian doorway, a bookcase built into an awkward alcove, a bed that only works in a room with a bay. That furniture does not transfer to a new flat somewhere else, and both you and the next tenant know it.

The result is a move-out where the moving company takes half the flat and the other half is still standing there on the last morning.

What actually gets left

The list is boringly consistent, which is useful because it makes the cost predictable:

• The sofa. Almost always the sofa.
• The mattress and box spring, because nobody ships a mattress.
• Flat-pack furniture that will not survive a second disassembly — bookcases, wardrobes, TV stands.
• The desk and chair from the home-working era, now surplus.
• A television, usually one size behind the current one.
• Whatever is in the garage or the storage locker downstairs that has not been opened since the move in.

What it costs

Flat published prices, disposal included, carry from any floor included:

• Sofa / Couch: $126  |  Loveseat: $119  |  Sofa (Oversize 90"+ / Cut-Apart): $185
• Mattress — Queen: $103  |  King: $114  |  Box Spring: $92  |  Mattress + Box Spring Set: $143
• Bed Frame (Standard / Metal / Platform): $68
• Bookcase — Particleboard / Flat-pack: $100  |  Wardrobe — Flat-pack: $143
• Desk (Standard): $83  |  Office Chair: $61
• TV (42" to 65"): $68  |  Entertainment Center / TV Stand: $96
• Dresser (Standard): $126  |  Nightstand: $57
• Dining Table (2-4 Seat): $103  |  Dining Chair: $45
• Moving Box: $31  |  Small Junk Pile: $82  |  Medium Junk Pile: $129

San Francisco's visit minimum is $95.

Three realistic move-out totals:

• Studio in the Tenderloin or SoMa. Queen mattress, metal frame and a small junk pile: $103 + $68 + $82 = $253.
• One-bedroom in Hayes Valley. Sofa, queen mattress and box spring set, flat-pack bookcase and a TV: $126 + $143 + $100 + $68 = $437.
• Two-bedroom flat in the Inner Sunset. Sofa, loveseat, two mattress sets, dresser, desk and office chair: $126 + $119 + $143 + $143 + $126 + $83 + $61 = $801. At that scale the truck ladder is usually the better instrument — a three-quarter truck is $587 and a full truck is $732.

That last line is the useful one. Past a certain point, stop itemizing and take the truck rate.

Sequencing it around the movers

The single most common mistake is booking the cleanout for the same day as the move. It does not work, for a reason specific to San Francisco: there is exactly one workable loading spot outside most of our buildings, and the removal truck is going to be in it.

The sequence that does work:

1. Decide early. Two weeks out, walk the flat and mark what is not going. Write the list.
2. Book the cleanout for the day after the movers. The flat is empty of everything that is leaving, the loading spot is free, and nothing is ambiguous.
3. Or, if you must, book it the day before — clear the dead furniture first so the movers have room to work. This is the better option if you are handing back keys immediately after the move.

What does not work is trying to do both at once on a one-way block in North Beach at four in the afternoon.

The stair is the whole job

Most San Francisco flats are upper flats. The front door is a half-flight above the pavement, the living floor is another flight up, and the stair is a straight narrow run with a turn onto a landing. There is no lift. This is why move-out cleanouts here cost more in labor than they look like they should — and why we build it into the published price rather than discovering it on the day.

Carry-out from any floor is included. There is no stair charge, no walk-up fee and no add-on for a tight turn. Where a sofa genuinely will not clear the landing, the crew cuts it apart on site; that is what the oversize sofa price at $185 exists for, and it is still a number you see before booking.

If your building has a lift — a SoMa or Mission Bay tower, a Rincon Hill high-rise — tell us at booking. Those buildings usually want a certificate of insurance on file and a booked service lift window, and we would rather have that sorted three days out than argue with a front desk on your last morning in the city.

What to try to rehome, and when to stop trying

Donation is genuinely worth a phone call for solid-wood furniture, working appliances and anything under a few years old and clean. Charities in this city are selective and most will not collect from an upper flat, so the honest test is: can you get it to the curb yourself, and will they commit to a date?

Stop trying when any of these are true — and in a move-out they usually become true around day three:

• It is flat-pack. It came apart once and will not come apart twice.
• It has been in a garage and smells of it.
• It is a mattress. Most charities will not take used mattresses at all.
• Your keys are due back on a fixed date. A maybe is not a plan.

There is one more San Francisco-specific rule: do not leave it on the pavement. Unarranged furniture on the curb is illegal dumping here and it is enforced against the address — which, when you are the departing tenant, means it lands on your former landlord and then on you. Check San Francisco's current bulky-item page if you want to use the city's collection, and book it in advance.

If you are leaving the state entirely

Full departures are their own category and the arithmetic changes. When the answer to "is this going?" is no for the whole flat, itemizing is a waste of your evening. Take the truck rate: a one-bedroom stripped to the walls is commonly a half truck at $431 to three-quarters at $587; a two-bedroom flat with a garage or storage locker behind it is a full truck at $732 and occasionally two loads.

Book it for after the shippers have taken what is going, give us the cross street and the street-cleaning window, and hand back an empty flat.

Frequently asked questions