Junk removal in Happy Valley, OR

Bulky pickup here is a paid county service, built for one item

Happy Valley has designated Clackamas County as its garbage authority, so the rules on your street are the county’s. One of three franchised haulers serves you, Waste Management, Hoodview or Recology Clackamas, depending on where you sit on the city’s hauling map, and all three collect bulky items by appointment.

It is not free. The county sets a $5 minimum and a $40 maximum base fee, then adds for weight and special handling. If the item is not easy to reach, the hauler bills by the hour. A fridge, freezer or air conditioner carries a $30 coolant fee on top, even if the refrigerant is already out.

For one couch at the curb on a week you can wait, use it. Where it stops is where most of our Happy Valley calls start: a garage that has not seen a car since move-in, a parent’s house up the hill, a hot tub that will not fit through a door. We price that by how much of the truck it fills, and we do the carrying.

City, former Damascus or county: the pickup rules do not change

Happy Valley has been an incorporated city since 1965. Damascus incorporated in 2004, voted to disincorporate in 2016 and finished the process in 2020, so it is unincorporated Clackamas County now. More than 1,000 acres of it, mostly on the western side, have annexed into Happy Valley, and the city’s annexation program is open to the rest.

Elsewhere that line can decide whether you get a free pickup. Here it does not. The county runs garbage for Happy Valley and the unincorporated area alike, so the same paid bulky service applies whether your address is inside the city, annexed recently or still county. Annexation changes police coverage, code enforcement and your tax bill, not what happens to your old washer.

What Happy Valley homes hand us

The city grew from about 4,500 people in 2000 to over 28,000 by 2023, so most of the housing is new, and the junk shows it.

Scouters Mountain, Rock Creek and the newer subdivisions off Sunnyside Road. Three-level homes on small lots, often with the garage a level below the living space and a steep driveway. Move-in leftovers: packing, builder-grade fixtures swapped out in year one, the sectional that did not fit. Many of these streets have HOAs with rules about what sits at the curb, so we confirm parking before the window and load straight from the garage.

Mount Scott and the older northwest streets. Split-levels and ranches from the 1970s and 1980s on bigger, treed lots. The junk here is a generation deep: shop tools, a second fridge, the first owner’s furniture, usually one flight of stairs from the truck.

East toward Damascus. Lots get bigger and the outbuildings start. Shops, barns and sheds with decades of accumulation, old fencing, a tractor tire or two. Usually full-truck days.

Pleasant Valley and the town center. New attached homes and townhouses, some with shared drives and no street frontage. Tell us where the truck can stop.

Hills run through everything. Happy Valley climbs to 1,050 feet on Mount Scott, and a lot of homes are built on grade. Stairs past the first flight and carries past 100 feet are flat add-ons on the price list, so you know the number before we arrive.

Where the load goes

Anything usable is offered for donation first. Metro’s stations take up to four mattresses per customer per day and seven electronics per person per day at no charge, and we pass that on, so no surcharge for a TV or a bed. What is left goes to Metro South Station in Oregon City, where garbage runs $176.70 a ton with a minimum charge of up to $51. That fee is already inside your price. What we take and decline is listed at /what-we-take/.

What it costs

A single item already on the porch, driveway or curb is $99 booked online. A quarter truck is $189, a half is $369, three quarters is $549 and a full 16 cubic yard truck is $739. Every price is $20 less online than by phone, and it is the same number in Happy Valley as in Milwaukie or Oregon City. See the full ladder at /pricing/.

Happy Valley questions

Can my regular hauler take a refrigerator? Yes, by appointment, with the $30 coolant fee on top of the bulky charge. We take them too, at $129 with the coolant fee included.

I’m in an HOA. Can the truck stop on the street? Usually, but we confirm the rule for your street before the window so nobody gets a letter.

Do you go past the city limits into former Damascus? Yes. Same price, same truck, no travel fee.

Can you come today? Often. The booking page shows the next open 2-hour window, and if today has one you can take it. Or call (360) 702-7327.