Local Rules
Dearborn's Bulk Item Limits, and What To Do When You Hit Them
The weekly limit is generous. The annual one is where clear-outs run aground — twenty items does not go far in a full house.
The two limits that matter
Bulk items in Dearborn are collected on the same day as your trash, and there are two caps running at once:
Most people notice the weekly figure and miss the annual one. In practice it is the annual cap that decides whether the free route can carry your project.
Twenty a year is the real constraint
Five a week sounds generous, and for ordinary life it is. Twenty a year is a different proposition.
Consider an average three-bedroom house being cleared:
- Three mattresses and three bed frames — six
- A sofa and two armchairs — nine
- A dining table and four chairs — fourteen
- A wardrobe, a dresser and a bookcase — seventeen
- A washer and a dryer — nineteen
- One desk — twenty
That is the entire year's allowance, and the garage, the basement and the shed have not been touched. Nor has the second bedroom's furniture, the patio set, or anything from the loft.
Worse, you cannot front-load it. Five a week means the twenty is spread across four collections minimum, which is a month of furniture standing at the curb in a city that gets real winter weather.
For a downsize, an estate clearance or a rental turnover, this is where the free route stops being a route.
Carpet has its own cap
Carpet and padding are counted separately, and generously by comparison:
10 rolls per week, maximum 30 rolls per year.
Two practical notes. First, it has to be rolled — loose carpet dragged to the curb in sheets is not what the rule contemplates and is unlikely to be taken. Roll it and tie it.
Second, carpet from a whole house adds up faster than people expect once underlay is counted as well, and wet or old carpet is far heavier than it looks. If you are pulling carpet as part of a renovation rather than on its own, it usually belongs in the container with the rest of the job anyway.
What counts as a bulk item
Broadly, a household item too large for the cart: furniture, mattresses, appliances, and similar.
The City publishes its own list of approved bulk items and it is worth a look before you put anything out, because the definition is narrower than "anything big". In particular:
- Construction material is not a bulk item. A door, a run of cabinets, a bathroom vanity or a stack of drywall is construction debris, not furniture, regardless of size.
- Very large or unliftable items may be refused. Large tube televisions and furniture that cannot reasonably be lifted into the bulk truck's bucket get left, and the answer for those is the DPW Yard.
- Anything hazardous is excluded outright.
That first point is the one that trips up renovations. People reasonably assume that if the City takes a sofa it will take a vanity of similar size. It will not — the distinction is what the material is, not how big it is.
The $100 excessive pick-up
If you exceed the limits, additional pick-ups can be arranged for a minimum charge of $100.
That is a genuine option and for a small overage it may well be the right one. But run the arithmetic before assuming it is cheaper than a container.
A minimum charge is a floor, not a price. Two or three excessive pick-ups across a clear-out, each starting at $100, converges quickly on the cost of a container that would have taken the whole job in one go — and the container takes the construction debris too, which no number of bulk pick-ups will.
Our rule of thumb: one overage, pay the fee. Two or more, price a container.
What will not be collected at all
Regardless of limits, these do not go out at the curb:
- Construction and renovation material
- Hazardous materials, fuel and ammunition
- Tires, except on designated tire collection days
- Anything that cannot be lifted into the bulk truck
Household hazardous waste — paint, solvents, chemicals, batteries — goes to Wayne County, which runs collection events and a voucher program for residents. Check the county's current arrangements directly rather than relying on a remembered address.
When the limits stop working
Being honest about where each route belongs:
| Curbside bulk | Roll-off container | |
|---|---|---|
| Volume | 5 items a week, 20 a year | 10 to 30 yards at once |
| Construction debris | Not accepted | Yes |
| Timing | Weekly, spread over a month | Delivered when you want it |
| Cost for a few items | Free | Unnecessary |
| Cost for a full house | Repeated $100 minimums | One flat rate |
| Curb appearance | Furniture out for weeks | One container, then gone |
The crossover is roughly a weekend's serious work, or any job that includes construction material at all.
Doing it the cheap way
- Use the twenty a year deliberately. Spend it on the big, awkward, genuinely-furniture items.
- Save the third Saturday at the DPW Yard for what the curb will not take — rules here.
- Roll and tie carpet rather than dragging it out in sheets.
- Sell or donate first. Anything with life left in it does not need to count against either limit.
- Pull the scrap metal. Appliances and metal furniture have value and a separate route.
- Put the construction debris in a container from the start rather than discovering halfway that none of it is eligible.
- If you are over by two pick-ups or more, price a container against the repeated $100 minimums.
Limits, fees and schedules change. Everything above applies to the City of Dearborn at the time of writing. Neighboring cities have entirely separate arrangements. Confirm current details, and the City's approved bulk item list, on 313-943-2150.
Need a container in Dearborn?
Call and describe the job. Three minutes on the phone gets you a size recommendation, a flat rate and a delivery window — and we will tell you if a smaller, cheaper container is the right answer.
Call (734) 292-8396