Junk removal costs in Tampa

In Tampa, the city picks your cleanout date, and it lands on a Sunday. Through its S.W.E.E.P. program, homes and buildings of four units or fewer with a city trash account get one prescheduled collection every year. Look up your address to find your Sunday. If you live in New Tampa, none of this applies, since Hillsborough County Solid Waste serves you instead.

The window around your Sunday is short and firm. Your pile can go out no earlier than five days before, and the deadline is 8 p.m. that same Sunday night. Miss it, and you're booking a special pickup with a fee. Once crews clear your area, they won't come back later in the week.

Keep the pile in front of your own home. The city treats a pile in front of a vacant house or lot as illegal dumping, and Code Enforcement looks into it.

The pile limit is 10 cubic yards, and the city's yardstick is that one cubic yard is about the size of an oven. Furniture, mattresses, appliances, grills, toilets, carpet and up to four car tires all go. Building materials don't: no drywall, tile, doors, windows, fencing or roofing. Electronics, paint and solvents go to select Hillsborough County facilities instead. Tape or wrap mirrors and window glass before they go on the pile.