The short answer

Two ways to price it, and you pick whichever is lower for your situation.

By volume. A quarter truck is $241, three eighths is $338, half is $431, five eighths is $513, three quarters is $587, seven eighths is $661, and a full truck is $732.

By item. Sofa $126, queen mattress $103, box spring $92, dresser $126, desk $83, office chair $61, TV between 42 and 65 inches $68, bookshelf $72.

The visit minimum is $75. Carry-out from any floor and disposal are included in both models.

Baltimore apartments are four different buildings

The phrase covers wildly different jobs in this city, and the building type drives everything except the price.

The rowhouse conversion. Most common in Charles Village, Mount Vernon, Bolton Hill, Remington and Upper Fells Point. A three-story rowhome chopped into two or three units. Narrow interior stairs, a shared vestibule, no elevator, and frequently a top-floor unit reached by a staircase that was never meant to carry furniture. This is the hardest version and it costs the same as the others.

The mid-rise on the water. Harbor East, Locust Point, HarborView, parts of Canton. Elevators, loading docks, and a building manager who wants a certificate of insurance and a reserved freight window. Easy carry, more paperwork.

The garden apartment. Towson, Pikesville, Catonsville, Dundalk. Two or three stories, exterior stairs, parking right there. The straightforward one.

The converted mill or warehouse loft. Hampden, Woodberry, Station North, Clipper Mill. Big freight elevators when they work, and enormous single-room units that generate more volume than the square footage suggests.

Real numbers for real apartments

Studio near Mount Vernon. Futon $111, twin mattress $82, bookshelf $72, TV under 42 inches $62. That is 111 + 82 + 72 + 62 = $327.

One-bedroom rowhouse conversion in Charles Village. Sofa $126, queen mattress and box spring set $143, dresser $126, desk $83. 126 + 143 + 126 + 83 = $478. At that point the half-truck tier at $431 is usually the better call if there are also boxes and bags.

Two-bedroom in a Towson garden building. Typically a half to three-quarter truck, so $431 to $587.

Loft in Hampden. Volume-heavy by nature. Often five eighths at $513 or more.

The building rules nobody warns you about

If you are in a managed building, especially downtown or on the water, check three things before you book a window:

  • Freight elevator reservation. Many Harbor East and Locust Point buildings require one, and they hand out fixed slots. Your removal window has to sit inside it.
  • Certificate of insurance. Standard request from property management. Ask your building what they need in advance rather than on the day.
  • Loading dock access hours. Some downtown buildings restrict dock use to business hours, which rules out an early-evening window.

In a rowhouse conversion none of that applies, and the constraint is simply whether the stairwell is wide enough to turn a sofa, which is a question we answer by taking the door off its hinges.

The end-of-lease version

If the goal is getting a deposit back, the cleanout is not really about volume, it is about what the landlord's list says. The usual leftovers, priced:

  • Bag of clothes: $35
  • Box of books: $45
  • Box of electronics: $77
  • Area rug, large: $68
  • Small junk pile: $82
  • Medium junk pile: $129
  • Large junk pile: $208
  • 10 bags of debris: $132
  • 20 bags of debris: $259

The "junk pile" and "bags of debris" lines are what most end-of-lease jobs actually are: not furniture, just everything that did not fit in the car.

When Baltimore apartments turn over

Late May is the crunch. Leases around the Homewood campus, MICA, UMB and Towson all end within about a ten-day band, and Charles Village, Waverly, Remington, Mount Vernon and Station North all empty at once. Late August is the mirror image, when the same units fill and everything the last tenant abandoned has to go before the new one arrives.

Outside of students, the usual Baltimore rhythm is a spring and early-summer move season, with a second smaller wave before the holidays. Book a few days out in May and August. The rest of the year, same-day and next-day windows are normal.

Item pricing vs volume pricing: how to choose

Count your big items. If you have four or fewer and not much else, price them individually and you will usually come out ahead. If you have loose material, bags, boxes, and a closet you have not opened since you moved in, the truck-fill ladder is both cheaper and easier to estimate.

The ladder has seven rungs on purpose. If you filled a bit over half the truck, you are at $513, not rounded up to a full $732.

Booking

Select items or a volume tier, see the total, pick a window. Tell us the floor, whether there is an elevator, and whether your block has a spot a truck can legally stop in. In Canton and Fells Point that last one is the difference between a fast job and a crew walking an extra hundred feet each way.

Frequently asked questions

How much does an apartment cleanout cost in Baltimore?

Most one-bedrooms land between a quarter truck at $241 and a half truck at $431. Two-bedrooms commonly run $431 to $587. The visit minimum is $75.

Do you carry everything down, or do I put it outside?

The crew carries it out. That is included in the price, including from a top-floor unit in a rowhouse conversion with no elevator.

Is there a surcharge for a fourth-floor walk-up?

No. There is no stair fee or walk-up fee in our pricing.

My building wants a certificate of insurance. Is that a problem?

No, it is a routine request in Harbor East and Locust Point buildings. Ask your management what they need before your window so the paperwork is done in advance.

What if it is mostly bags and boxes, not furniture?

Use the debris and pile lines. Ten bags of debris is $132, twenty is $259, and a large junk pile is $208.

When should I book around student move-out?

Late May and late August fill up first in Charles Village, Remington, Waverly and Mount Vernon. Book several days ahead in those two windows.