Junk removal costs in Allentown

Allentown picks up trash twice a week, but bulk only rides on the second night. That's Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, depending on your zone, and the limit is one bulk item. That one item might be a sofa, a dresser, a toilet, or a mattress and box spring as a matching set, wrapped in plastic. Everything goes out between 5 and 10 p.m. on your night.

So a full basement cleanout in the city is a slow drip of one piece a week. The other choice is 40 pounds of construction material in place of the bulk item. Bundle and tie lumber, drywall and tile, or bag them, but never box them. Carpet counts too, up to one room's worth, cut into 4-foot strips and rolled. Paint goes out dried, lids off, up to three gallon cans.

Metal never goes to the curb. Call the Bureau of Recycling and Solid Waste to book an appointment for an appliance or other metal pickup. Electronics are by appointment too, as drop-offs. The city won't take tires, car parts, concrete, brick, hot tubs, pianos or bowling balls at the curb either, and its hauler rejects anything over the limits.

And if an old vinyl window is your bulk item for the week, tape a big X across the glass before you set it out.