Can you leave furniture on the curb in Colorado Springs?

The short answer

In most of Colorado Springs you cannot just set a sofa at the curb and expect it to go. Residential trash here runs on private subscription — you pick a hauler and sign a service agreement — rather than on a city truck that sweeps bulky items on a published schedule. So there is usually no "bulk week" to put it out for.

Whether a given item disappears comes down to three things, in this order: what your hauler's agreement says about bulky items, what your jurisdiction says about things sitting in the public right-of-way, and what your HOA covenants say if you are in a newer subdivision. None of those are the same document, and only one of them is a law.

If the answer turns out to be no, removal is flat and published: a sofa is $126, a loveseat is $119, a recliner is $98, an armchair is $77.

Layer one: your hauler's agreement

This is the layer that decides it in practice, and almost nobody has read theirs. Subscription plans in the Springs vary enormously on bulky items — some include a small number of large-item pickups per year, some require you to call ahead and book a specific date, some exclude upholstered furniture and mattresses outright because of how the receiving facility handles them.

What you should do before you move anything: find your current service terms or call the company, and ask two questions. Does my plan include bulky-item pickup, and if so how much notice do you need. That five-minute call is the difference between a couch that leaves on Tuesday and a couch that becomes a fixture.

We are not going to print anyone's terms here. They differ by company and by plan, and they change.

Layer two: what your jurisdiction says about the right-of-way

Municipal and county codes on the Front Range generally converge on the same principles: items may be set out in connection with a scheduled collection rather than indefinitely, and nothing may obstruct a sidewalk, alley, drive lane or drainage. A sofa sitting in a Patty Jewett alley for two weeks stops being a trash question and becomes an obstruction and nuisance question, and it attaches to the property it sits in front of.

Which rulebook applies depends on where you actually live, and this catches people constantly here. Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs, Fountain, Monument and Palmer Lake are separate jurisdictions with separate codes. Cimarron Hills, Security-Widefield, Black Forest and much of the Falcon area are unincorporated El Paso County — a different rulebook, even though the mailing address says Colorado Springs.

Look up the current bulky-item or solid-waste page for the jurisdiction that actually governs your parcel. That is the only version that is current, and it is the only one that applies.

Layer three: the HOA, which is usually the strictest

If you are in Wolf Ranch, Banning Lewis Ranch, Lorson Ranch, Flying Horse, Cordera or any of the newer north and east subdivisions, your covenants almost certainly say something about visible storage, items at the curb, and how long anything may sit in view of the street. HOA enforcement is generally faster than municipal enforcement, because it runs on a neighbor with a phone rather than a complaint queue.

The older parts of town flip the problem. Old Colorado City, the Westside and Patty Jewett have alleys and detached garages, so there is somewhere out of sight to put things — which is exactly why so many of our garage cleanout calls in those neighborhoods start with furniture that has been "temporarily" in the alley-side garage since a previous owner.

The Front Range problem nobody warns you about

Even where you are allowed to set something out, the weather here does not cooperate. Two things happen to curbside furniture in this city.

• Wind. Downslope wind events off the range will move a sofa cushion across three lawns and tip a dining table into the street. What you set out neatly on Sunday is scattered by Monday, and cleaning it up is on you.
• Hail. Through late spring and summer, a single storm turns upholstered furniture into a soaked mass and cracks any glass in the piece. Wet foam at this altitude takes a very long time to dry, and a hauler who might have taken a dry couch will not take a saturated one.

There is also the sun. Ultraviolet exposure at six thousand feet degrades fabric and vinyl quickly. A piece that was donatable on Friday can be unsaleable by the following weekend just from sitting out.

What removal costs instead

A living room going out — sofa, loveseat and a recliner — is $126 + $119 + $98 = $343. The minimum for a visit is $75. Disposal is included in every one of those numbers, and nothing is added at the door.

Why we come to the piece instead of the curb

The whole point of a curb attempt is to avoid carrying something. We do the carrying, and it does not change the price. Up from a walkout basement on a sloping Rockrimmon or Mountain Shadows lot, down from an upstairs bonus room, out of a detached garage at the end of a long unpaved drive in Black Forest or Falcon — same number as if it were already at the curb.

No stair charge. No walk-up fee. No same-day surcharge. You get the price in writing before we come, item by item, from the same published list our crews quote from. If you are clearing enough that volume pricing is cheaper, we tell you that instead: a quarter truck is $241, a half is $431, a full truck is $732.

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