Yes. E-waste is sorted at our yard and dropped at a Recycle My Electronics certified depot in the east end. There is no extra fee for standard household quantities — TVs, monitors, towers, printers, small appliances, cables, and batteries. Bulk commercial e-waste (50+ pieces) is quoted separately because the recycler charges by weight above that threshold. Bring it on the curb with the rest of the load and tell the crew lead it’s e-waste so we can keep it out of the landfill stream.

Yes, this is part of how we keep the diversion rate high. Couches, dressers, kitchen tables, baby gear, working appliances, dishes, and clean clothing get routed to Helping with Furniture, Matthew House, or the Ottawa Mission, depending on what’s accepted that day. We don’t charge extra for the donation drop-off. If you have specific items earmarked for a specific charity (a piano for a school, a desk for a relative), tell the crew lead before we load and we’ll set them aside.

The provincial hazardous-waste list is the rule we follow. We can’t haul: paint, motor oil, gasoline, propane tanks, asbestos, fluorescent tubes, prescription medications, or commercial chemical drums. We also won’t lift any single item over 700 lb (large hot tubs, industrial safes, full-size pianos with cast-iron frames) without a heavy-item add-on quoted in advance. Everything else — yes including BBQs with the propane removed, pool tables broken down, hot tubs drained, and IKEA furniture in pieces.

If you live in a downtown highrise or a managed Centretown / Westboro condo, the answer is almost always yes — same as a move. We email a 5,000,000 CAD COI naming the corporation as additional insured the same day you book; condo office turnaround is usually 24-48 hours, so book the elevator and the pickup at the same time. Buildings we get COIs for most often: Claridge Royale, Minto-managed mid-rises, and the Glebe waterfront set on Echo Drive.

Saturday rates match weekday. Sunday and statutory holidays carry a 15 percent dispatch fee because we run a smaller crew. We do book weekend pickups same-day for half-truck and quarter-truck loads in the urban core (Sandy Hill, Centretown, Glebe, Hintonburg). Suburb same-day on weekends (Kanata, Orleans, Stittsville) depends on whether a return trip already exists in the schedule — call the office and we’ll tell you in 30 seconds.

Yes, this is a regular call for us — usually triggered by a downsizing event, a family-member transition, or a landlord turnover. The crew arrives in unmarked uniforms, parks the truck so neighbours don’t see the loading, and we work room-by-room rather than dumping the whole house at once. We coordinate with social workers, hoarding-recovery counsellors, and family contacts when asked. Pricing is full-truck or double-truck tier with a sort-and-separate hourly rate on top, all quoted before we start.

For 80 percent of Ottawa pickups, three smartphone photos are enough: a wide shot of the pile, a close-up of the bulkiest item, and a shot of the access path (stairs, alley, elevator). We text back a fixed-price quote in under an hour during business hours. In-person visits are free for full-truck or double-truck loads, hoarding situations, and any pickup where access is unclear (rooftop deck, steep ravine yard, behind a locked gate). The in-person visit doesn’t lock you in — same-day cancellation is fine if the price doesn’t fit.

Same-day pickup is available almost every business day before 1pm if the pile is in the urban core and fits in a half-truck or smaller. Larger loads, suburb pickups, and post-1pm calls usually move to next-day. We hold two same-day slots per crew daily; on month-end Fridays they fill by 9am. The fastest path: text the photos plus your address to the dispatch line and ask for the next available slot.