Drive through almost any Miami neighborhood early in the morning and you’ll spot one: a bare mattress leaning against a light pole or lying on the swale, slowly soaking up the humidity. Mattress disposal in Miami looks like the easiest chore in the world — drag it to the curb, walk away — and it’s actually one of the easier ways to earn a code violation. Here are the actual rules, your four legal options, and the easiest way out.
Can You Put a Mattress on the Curb in Miami?
Not whenever you feel like it. If your home gets Miami-Dade County waste service, each household is entitled to two bulky waste pickups per calendar year of up to 25 cubic yards each — but you have to schedule the pickup first, through 311 or the county website. And the timing matters: put your pile out more than 3 days before your appointment and you’re subject to enforcement, which ranges from a warning notice to a civil citation.
Live inside a city instead? Miami, Hialeah, Coral Gables, and most other municipalities run their own bulky trash programs with their own scheduling rules. The one constant across all of them: an unscheduled mattress on the curb counts as illegal dumping. That means fines — and for larger dumps, Florida law allows criminal charges. A $200 mattress is not worth a court date.
Your Four Legal Options
- The county or city bulky pickup. Free if you have curbside service, but it costs you time: you schedule it, you wait for the appointment window, and you only get two per year — most people save those for the big stuff. Renters in condos and apartment buildings usually don’t qualify at all, since multi-family buildings aren’t on residential curbside service.
- Donation. Only works for mattresses that are genuinely clean — no stains, no rips, no odors. In practice, most charities decline most used mattresses for hygiene reasons. Worth one phone call if yours is nearly new; not worth loading it in the car on a hope.
- Retailer haul-away. Buying a new mattress? Many retailers will take the old one when they deliver — sometimes free, sometimes for a small fee. Ask before delivery day, because the crew won’t take it if it’s not on the order.
- Professional pickup. We come to the bedroom, carry the mattress (and box spring, and frame) out ourselves, and it’s gone the same day in most cases. No scheduling windows, no curb, no citation risk.
What Mattress Removal Costs
A single-item pickup runs $75 to $175 in most of Miami, and a mattress plus its box spring typically rides in that same range — they go on the truck together. Adding a bed frame, dresser, or a second mattress moves you into quarter-truck pricing. You can see the complete breakdown on our pricing page or in our 2026 Miami pricing guide, and every job starts with a firm quote, not an estimate that grows.
Old mattresses we collect don’t just get dumped, either — steel springs are recyclable, and we sort what we haul. That’s part of how mattress and box spring removal works at 1866 Junk Be Gone.
Condos and Apartments: The Curb Was Never an Option
If you live in a high-rise or apartment complex, this whole question changes. Valet trash won’t touch a mattress. Leaving one in the trash room or next to the dumpster usually triggers a fine from the association — and it’s the unit owner who pays it. Buildings expect bulky items to leave through a scheduled vendor, and that’s a service we run constantly across Miami’s condo corridors as part of our residential junk removal work.
The Easy Way: We Come Get It
1866 Junk Be Gone has been hauling Miami’s mattresses for 22 years. We’re a licensed Miami-Dade waste hauler (license #17079), fully insured, and we carry the mattress from wherever it is — bedroom, garage, balcony — straight to the truck. Same-day service is usually available.
Call (305) 634-2749 for a free quote, or book your pickup online. Available 7am–7pm, 7 days a week.