Minneapolis Large Item Pickup: The Complete Guide for Minneapolis & St. Paul Residents

Every April in Minneapolis, the same weekend arrives. The snow is finally gone, the garage door goes up for the first time since October, and everything that went into storage in November is still exactly where you left it. Two winters ago it was a broken treadmill. Last year, a mattress nobody got around to hauling away. This spring it might be both.

Minneapolis picks up large items weekly with no scheduling required. Two per week, free, as part of your regular garbage service. The catch: electronics, appliances, refrigerators, and mattresses have a different pickup day than standard furniture, and skipping the prep requirements means the crew leaves them behind.

St. Paul runs a completely separate program that changed in July 2026, so if your address is in St. Paul, the rules are different, and the newer program is actually much easier to navigate.

Here’s how both programs work, what the spring cleanout window looks like in Minnesota, and when hiring a private hauler makes more sense.

The City of Minneapolis picks up large items weekly as part of your standard garbage service, with no scheduling and no phone call required. Just set items out on your regular pickup day.

• Up to 2 large items per week at no extra charge
• Items must be at your curb or alley line by 6 AM on pickup day
• Attach a note to each item that says “For Solid Waste.” Unmarked items may be skipped
• Service is for City garbage customers only. If your carts say “Property of the City of Minneapolis,” you have City service
• Do not disassemble furniture. Broken-down pieces get tagged as building materials, which the crew won’t take

Missed pickup? Call 612-673-2917 the next business day. You have a two-day window to report it, and after that the crew may not be able to come back.

Use the Collection Day Lookup tool at minneapolismn.gov to find your pickup day and recycling week (more on why your recycling week matters below).

This is where Minneapolis gets specific. Some large items can go out any week; others can only go out on your recycling week. Get this wrong and your item sits until the next cycle comes around.

Garbage day items (any week)

Recycling week items (your recycling week only)

Your recycling week is either ABE or CD. Find yours with the Collection Day Lookup tool at minneapolismn.gov. Items in this category go out on your recycling day, and the pickup is a two-step process: crews tag them with a “We’ll be back” sticker on recycling day and return the next business day to collect them. Leave the item in place with the sign and sticker until it’s picked up.

When you need items gone before your next recycling week, or when you have more than two large items, City garbage customers can use the South Transfer Station as a self-haul drop-off.

Address: 2850 20th Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55407
Hours: Tuesday through Friday, 12:30 to 7:30 PM; Saturday, 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM

City garbage customers receive 6 cleanup vouchers per year, each valid for up to 2 large recyclable items. To use them, call 612-673-2917 during office hours (Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 4:30 PM) to request a voucher before your visit. The office is closed on Saturdays, so plan ahead.

The full fee schedule is available at minneapolismn.gov. If you go over your voucher limit, extra appliances, electronics, mattresses, and box springs cost $25 each. Construction and demolition debris is billed by weight. Not accepted at all: asbestos, auto parts, dirt, hazardous materials, paint, railroad ties, and yard waste.

If you have more than two items at the curb and can’t make multiple trips to the transfer station, the City offers a scheduled Special Cleanup service. A City crew comes to your address for a dedicated collection on top of your normal pickup.

The fee gets billed directly to your utility account. Rates are subject to change, so call 612-673-2917 or email SWRcustomer@minneapolismn.gov for current pricing before scheduling. For items that don’t qualify for any of the above programs, the Hennepin County Green Disposal Guide lists drop-off options for electronics, hazardous materials, and other specialty items.

A few things to know: debris must be at the curb or alley line by 6 AM the business day before your scheduled cleanup date and again by 6 AM on the cleanup day itself. City crews will not collect debris from inside your home or garage.

St. Paul changed its bulky item collection program on July 1, 2026. If you last checked before that, what you know is outdated.

The most significant change: no scheduling is required anymore. Just place items at your regular collection spot by 6 AM on your pickup day and the crew handles it. Up to 12 bulky item pickups per garbage cart per calendar year, at no extra charge. The 12-item total applies retroactively from January 1, 2026, so anything collected earlier in 2026 already counts toward your annual total.

Construction debris and tires are not accepted as bulky items in St. Paul. Apartments with five or more units are not covered by this program; contact your hauler or landlord for options. For questions or to report issues, call (651) 266-6101 or visit stpaul.gov.

St. Paul mattresses: Second Chance Recycling

Mattresses, box springs, and metal bed frames in St. Paul go through a separate program, not the standard bulky item pickup. The City partners with Second Chance Recycling to collect and recycle these items for free. It’s unlimited. Each mattress pickup doesn’t count toward your 12-item annual total.

• Phone: 612-230-7524
• Email: citycurbside@emerge-mn.org
• Schedule online: secondchancerecyclingmn.com/curbside-collection-program
• Limit of 4 items per request
• Place outside by 6 AM with a sign attached; do not place next to your garbage or recycling carts on collection day
• More information at stpaul.gov/mattressrecycling

For private hauling in St. Paul, LoadUp offers junk removal in St. Paul with same-day and next-day availability.

Minneapolis yard waste season begins in mid-April, the city’s unofficial signal that winter is over. The first warm weekends, when garage doors go up for the first time since October, typically land in late April or early May. That’s when the spring cleanout impulse kicks in, and Minneapolis’s free weekly pickup makes it easy to act on.

The Scandinavians who settled the Twin Cities brought the concept of döstädning (Swedish death cleaning), the practice of sorting through possessions while you’re still here to do it, so your family doesn’t have to later. Every spring it shows up in Minnesota households: the clearout of inherited furniture, a parent’s old things, and everything that piled up in the basement over a long winter. Both programs can handle a lot of this, two items at a time.

The two things spring makes harder

Minnesota springs come with rain and late snowmelt, which is hard on mattresses. A mattress that got damp in a garage over winter, or that sat outside for a few days before recycling week, may be too waterlogged for the crew to collect. Protect mattresses from moisture before setout. Once saturated, your options shift to the South Transfer Station or a private hauler.

Spring also means the University of Minnesota’s academic year is wrapping up. U of M’s spring semester ends in early May, and move-out season hits the surrounding neighborhoods all at once: Dinkytown, Como, Marcy-Holmes, Stadium Village. The 2-per-week curbside limit and the city’s explicit “no large cleanup or move-out pickups” rule mean the city program won’t cover a full apartment clearout. For students and landlords turning over units on a two-week timeline, the city program moves too slowly.

For garage cleanouts and basement cleanouts that exceed what two items per week can handle, LoadUp serves Minneapolis with same-day and next-day availability.

The Minneapolis program is generous week over week. It runs into limits when the volume is high, the timing is tight, or the items are inside your house.

Booking junk removal with a private hauler might be a better fit if:

• Items need to come out from inside your garage, basement, or upper floor
• You have more than two large items and can’t spread the cleanout across multiple weeks
• Your 6 South Transfer Station vouchers are used up and you have more recyclable items to go
• You have construction or renovation debris: not accepted curbside or through the South Transfer Station voucher without additional fees
• A mattress got waterlogged or frozen and can’t go through the standard curbside program
• You’re a U of M student or landlord turning over a unit in May with a short timeline
• You’re in St. Paul and want items cleared faster than the next collection day allows

When the city program doesn’t fit, LoadUp provides junk removal and bulk item pickup across Minneapolis and the Twin Cities metro with same-day and next-day availability. No item limits, no recycling week restrictions, no requirement that items be at the curb first. Loaders handle the carrying from inside your home, whether it’s a basement full of inherited furniture, a garage that’s been accumulating for years, or a move-out situation with a hard deadline.

LoadUp runs 20-30% below what most junk removal companies charge for comparable work in the Twin Cities, and offers a price match guarantee for any written quote for the same service.