Junk & Debris
Handis junk and debris removal covers the five real loads that show up around a Seattle home — construction debris after a remodel or demo, the garage or basement that has been a storage unit for a decade, yard waste from a brambles pull or a leaf-drop, an appliance or furniture run, and a full estate cleanout coordinated with executors and agents. From $250 for a single appliance or furniture run on a one-bedroom load up to $6,000 for a multi-day estate cleanout on a four-bedroom home. Every load sorted at the truck — metal to scrap, drywall and gypsum to the landfill, yard waste to the compost stream, E-waste to a certified recycler, mattresses to the King County mattress recycling line, donation-ready items to the donation drop. We hold a Washington L&I handyman registration; we do not transport hazardous waste (paint, solvents, pesticides, asbestos, lead-containing debris) and we tell you upfront which items need to route to a King County Hazardous Waste facility instead.
Services
What Handis Junk & Debris Removal Covers
Junk and debris removal is the haul-and-dispose half of the home — the loads that pile up after a remodel, a move, a season of yard work, or the years a basement quietly filled itself. Handis runs five focused services across the family, from $250 for the smallest pickup up to $6,000 for the largest estate cleanout. Every load sorted at the truck, every stream delivered to the right licensed Puget Sound transfer station, and a written manifest of what went where on every job. Hazardous waste (paint, solvents, pesticides, asbestos, lead paint chips, anything labeled flammable or corrosive) is outside the handyman scope by Washington L&I rules — we name it on arrival and route it to a King County Hazardous Waste facility instead.
Construction Debris Haul-Off
Drywall scrap and gypsum offcuts, dimensional lumber, plywood, tile chunks and broken concrete, vinyl siding, old kitchen cabinets, demolished decks, post-remodel staging piles — every load sorted at the truck for metal recycling (HVAC duct, copper, conduit), wood-waste recycling where the transfer station accepts it, gypsum stream where it goes separately, and the rest to construction-and-demolition landfill. Most loads run a half-day with a two-person crew. From $400 per truckload on a single-pickup job.
Garage & Basement Cleanout
The garage that has not parked a car since 2018, the basement that filled itself across two ownership transitions, the storage unit you finally cancelled and need emptied in one Saturday. We walk the space with you first, sort into keep / donate / haul piles on the floor, deliver donation-ready items to a Northwest Center or Goodwill drop, recycle E-waste at a certified recycler (King County Solid Waste rules require it), recycle mattresses through the King County mattress recycling line, and haul the rest to the transfer station. Most full cleanouts run a single eight-hour day with a two-person crew. From $500 for a single-bay garage up to $2,000 for a full basement reset.
Yard Waste Removal
Branch piles from a wind event, bigleaf maple leaf drop after the first November storm, sod removed for a new patio, an ivy pull off a fence line, blackberry brambles cleared for a deck install, stump grindings, English ivy clumps, and the regulated noxious-weed cases — knotweed in particular, which Washington's noxious-weed rules treat differently from regular yard waste and which we keep segregated in a separate contractor bag so the transfer station can route it to the deep-landfill stream and not the compost stream. From $300 for a half-truck of leaves and small branches up to $1,200 for a full day of brambles and ivy clearing.
Appliance & Furniture Removal
Refrigerators, freezers, window AC units, dehumidifiers, washers and dryers, dishwashers, ranges, water heaters; sofas and sectionals, mattresses and box springs, dining sets, exercise equipment, mid-century cabinets too large for a single person to move. Every refrigeration appliance (fridge, freezer, window AC, dehumidifier) gets its refrigerant recovered by an EPA Section 608-certified tech before the unit leaves the property — this is federal law under 40 CFR 82, not an upcharge. Mattresses route to the King County mattress recycling line where the foam, springs, and ticking are recycled separately. From $250 for a single-appliance pickup up to $900 for a multi-item load.
Estate Cleanout
The full house cleanout coordinated with an executor, a probate attorney, or the listing agent on a sale. We arrive with the keep / donate / sell / haul process in hand, document every room with date-stamped photos before anything moves, sort against the executor's instructions, coordinate with the estate-sale company if one is engaged, deliver donation-ready items with a tax-receipt request, recycle E-waste and mattresses, and haul the rest in two to four truckloads across two to four days. The work is paced — slow on the rooms with personal effects, fast on the garage and the storage spaces. From $1,500 for a small condo up to $6,000 for a four-bedroom home with a finished basement and a detached garage.
Junk & Debris Pricing
Final pricing depends on truckload count, distance to the nearest licensed transfer station, refrigerant recovery if appliances are in the load, and whether the job includes stair carry-out from a basement or upper floor. Each child page lists detailed pricing for that service. Request a free estimate for an accurate quote.
Tell us the load and the property — we will quote the truckloads, the disposal, and the day.
Why Seattle Homeowners Book Handis for Junk & Debris
Junk and debris removal looks like a one-truck job from the driveway. The reality is closer to a sort-and-route logistics problem — every load splits into four or five disposal streams the moment it leaves the property, every Puget Sound transfer station charges by stream and by weight, and the wrong sort on a fridge (refrigerant not recovered) or a yard-waste load (knotweed mixed into the compost stream) creates a real downstream problem for someone else. A few hundred Seattle-area junk runs in, the patterns repeat — the loads worth doing right are sorted at the truck, manifested by stream, and paid for once at the right station, not refused twice at the wrong one.
Sort at the truck, not at the station
Every load sorted into streams as it goes onto the truck — metal one corner, gypsum one corner, wood-waste one corner, E-waste in a dedicated bin, mattresses kept clean for the King County mattress recycling line, yard waste segregated from construction debris, knotweed in its own contractor bag. Sorting at the station is a refused-load risk and a long line in the rain; sorting at the truck means the manifest is ready when we pull up to the scale.
Licensed Puget Sound transfer stations only
We deliver to King County, Snohomish County, or Pierce County licensed transfer stations depending on the job address — Houghton, Bow Lake, Factoria, Shoreline Recycling and Transfer, Algona, North Recycling and Transfer in Snohomish County, the South County stations in Pierce. Tipping fees pass through at the station rate with the dated scale ticket attached to the invoice. No private dumping, no roadside disposal, no unlicensed haulers downstream of our truck.
EPA Section 608 refrigerant recovery on every refrigeration appliance
Every fridge, freezer, window AC, and dehumidifier that comes off a Handis truck has had its refrigerant recovered by an EPA Section 608-certified technician before the unit reaches the scrap-metal stream. This is federal law under 40 CFR Part 82 Subpart F — it is not an add-on charge, it is the only legal way to scrap a refrigeration appliance. The recovery is documented on the disposal manifest with the tech's certification number.
Hazardous waste is outside our scope — we name it on arrival
Paint cans (latex over-and-above usable, oil-based regardless of state), solvents, pesticides, herbicides, automotive fluids, fluorescent tubes, mercury thermostats, asbestos-suspect siding or insulation, lead-painted debris from a pre-1978 home — these are hazardous-waste streams that route to a King County Hazardous Waste facility (Auburn, Factoria, Argo Recycling, North Seattle WastemobIle events) and not to a junk hauler's truck. We name these items on arrival, separate them on the floor, and tell you which facility takes which stream. We do not load hazardous waste onto our truck under any circumstance.
Insured, background-checked, written manifest on every job
Every Handis crew member carries liability insurance and has cleared a background screening before the first job — particularly load-bearing on estate cleanouts and unattended garage cleanouts where the crew is alone with the property. Every job ends with a written disposal manifest — what stream each portion went to, which transfer station took it, the scale-ticket weight, and the donation drop receipts for the donation-ready portion. Nothing leaves your driveway without a paper trail.
Estimate
Tell us what you need hauled (construction debris, garage cleanout, yard waste, appliances and furniture, or a full estate), the rough volume in truckloads or rooms, whether there are stairs to carry out, any refrigeration appliances in the load, and any items you suspect are hazardous waste. We send a clear estimate with the disposal streams broken out.
What Our Customers Say
Recent junk and debris removal reviews from verified Seattle-area customers.
We finished a kitchen remodel and had a pile of cabinet carcasses, drywall offcuts, and broken tile in the side yard for two weeks. Handis came in with a single truck, sorted the metal hardware off the cabinets for scrap, kept the gypsum drywall separate from the wood, and had the whole pile gone by lunch. Manifest with the scale ticket emailed by the end of the day.
Inherited my dad's house in West Seattle — three-bedroom rambler, full garage, basement workshop, sixty years of stuff. The crew worked four days across two weeks, paced the rooms with personal effects slowly while we made decisions, and ran the garage and the basement hard. Donation drops with tax receipts, E-waste to a certified recycler, the rest to Bow Lake. Documented every room before they touched it.
Brambles and ivy had been winning along the back fence for three years. We had a guy clear it; the pile sat in the yard another six weeks because nobody would haul it. Handis took the whole pile in one trip, kept the knotweed clump separated in a contractor bag (the tech actually identified it for me — I would not have known), and the back yard is usable for the first time since we bought the house.
Old chest freezer in the basement, dead for who knows how long. The tech showed me his EPA certification card on arrival, recovered the refrigerant on the floor next to the unit with what looked like a proper recovery machine, and then the two of them carried it up the basement stairs to the truck. Disposal manifest with the recovery documented. Did not feel like a junk run; felt like the appliance was actually handled correctly.
Single-bay garage that had become a storage unit. Two guys spent half a day, walked through every shelf with me first, sorted into four piles on the floor (keep, donate, E-waste, haul), drove the donation pile to Northwest Center and brought back the receipt, then took the rest to Houghton. Both of us could walk in the garage again by 3 PM.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about Handis junk and debris removal — pricing, disposal streams, what we cannot haul, refrigerant recovery, and how we handle estate and sensitive cleanouts.