How to get rid of a mattress in McHenry, IL.

Companies that come to your home and carry the mattress out, so you need no vehicle. The prices below are starting prices unless stated — stairs, box springs and extra items add to them.

Most charities will not take a used mattress. These are the ones we checked, including the ones that say no.

• The Salvation Army (satruck.org): accepted-items list includes 'Mattresses' and beds; also says local ordinances and need vary by location and to call 1-800-SA-TRUCK to confirm what a local center accepts. Source
• Doesn’t take mattresses. Habitat for Humanity national ReStore guide: 'Mattresses and box springs are not accepted.' Source

Policies vary by branch. Call before you carry one over — we asked each of the big three directly: Goodwill, the Salvation Army and Habitat for Humanity.

What we established about this city in particular — including where it runs nothing of its own and residents have to look elsewhere.

• McHenry's code sets the set-out window and the dumping prohibitions, and leaves mattresses entirely to the Flood Brothers contract. Title 5, Chapter 1 of the City Code defines REFUSE as "All putrescible and nonputrescible solids (except body wastes), including garbage, rubbish, ashes and dead animals", which is what a mattress falls under. Sec. 5-1-4(A) provides that "No person shall place any refuse in any street, alley or other public place, or other public or private property, whether owned by such person or not, within the City except it be in proper containers for collection or under express approval granted by the Director of Public Works"; 5-1-4(B) declares "Any unauthorized accumulation of refuse on any premises" a nuisance; 5-1-4(C) forbids depositing refuse so that "it may be carried or deposited by the elements upon any street, sidewalk, alley, sewer, parkway or other public place"; and 5-1-4(D) provides that "No person shall place or deposit any refuse or yard waste materials in any dumpster or in any trash, refuse or garbage receptacle or container, belonging to the City or to another person, unless the owner, lessee or custodian of such dumpster, receptacle or container has given express permission" - which is what closes off using an apartment or business dumpster for a mattress. The set-out window is Sec. 5-1-8: "No person shall place any garbage and refuse container adjacent to any street, alley or other public place more than twenty four (24) hours prior to the regular and customary collection schedule established by such person's scavenger, nor shall any person permit such garbage and refuse containers to remain adjacent to any street, alley or other public place more than twenty four (24) hours after the aforesaid regular and customary collection schedule. At all other times such garbage and refuse containers shall not be located between the street and the principal structure." Sec. 5-1-9 makes storage of garbage for more than two weeks a public nuisance, and Sec. 5-1-5(A) requires residential refuse to be collected "at least once each week". The code imposes no wrapping or covering requirement on a mattress; the bagging rule for the spring cleanup and the 50-pound limit are contract terms, not ordinance. Source Not confirmed: The penalty for a Title 5 Chapter 1 violation is not stated in the chapter and the general penalty section of the McHenry code was not read, so no fine amount is established. Not confirmed: The code says nothing about apartment or HOA restrictions on bulky items.
• McHenry has a Habitat ReStore inside the city limits, which makes it the obvious first thought for a mattress and the most useful place to be told no. Lake-McHenry Habitat for Humanity runs the "McHenry ReStore, 903 Front St McHenry, IL 60050, Phone: 815-331-8153, donations@habitatlmc.org" with "DONATION HOURS: 9am-4pm", the store open Tuesday through Saturday 9am-5pm and closed Monday and Sunday; its sister store is the "Woodstock ReStore, 133 S Eastwood Dr Woodstock, IL 60098, Phone: 815-334-0500" on the same hours. The charity's donation position is stated generally: "We happily accept furniture, appliances, home improvement materials, and building supplies that are in great condition. All donations must be approved by our ReStore staff. Items must be clean, in working condition, and come from pet- and smoke-free homes." Habitat will also collect - "Did you know Habitat will come and pick up your donations? Schedule a pick up or contact our donations coordinator, donations@habitatlmc.org | 815-286-4953" - with ReSupply Priority, HaulBuddy Priority and Standard Pick Up options offered. The organization's west office is at 907 Front St., McHenry, next door to the store. Source Not confirmed: The store pages publish no price for any of the three pickup options, and no wait time for a standard pickup. Not confirmed: The item-level accept and refuse lists are in a separate donation guidelines document rather than on the store page.
• The ReStore in McHenry itself refuses mattresses in writing, which saves a wasted trip down Front Street. Lake-McHenry Habitat for Humanity's published Donation Guidelines list "Mattresses/Box springs/Sofa beds" among what the ReStores cannot accept, in the same column as glass shower doors, hot tubs and jacuzzis, "Items with rips, stains, smoke or pet hair", pianos and organs, propane tanks, siding and roofing materials, swing sets, and treadmills or ellipticals. The refusal is absolute across both routes, so neither dropping a mattress at the McHenry or Woodstock store nor booking a Habitat pickup will work. The same guidelines carry the charity's own referral line for the item: under "Mattresses" it lists "Verlo Mattress", "1-800-GOT-JUNK", "College Hunks: 815-374-7512" and "Call your recycling pick up" - a retailer, two paid haulers, and the resident's own curbside bulk item, which in McHenry is the one free weekly Flood Brothers item. Source Not confirmed: The guidelines do not distinguish a new or unopened mattress from a used one. Not confirmed: No price is published in the guidelines for any of the four mattress referrals.
• The City runs no drop-off of its own, and the one transfer station in McHenry County - about eight miles south in Crystal Lake - publishes no gate rate. WM's Virginia Road Transfer Station, 1400 S Virginia Road, Crystal Lake, IL 60014, is listed by WM as accepting "Construction & Demolition Debris" and "Municipal Solid Waste", and "This facility does not accept hazardous waste". Hours are 5:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, closed Saturday and Sunday; closed New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas, open Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents Day, Good Friday and Veterans Day. Payment is "Credit or Debit Cards" or a credit account. Entry carries a condition a household visitor would not anticipate: "Site requires all customers to have a High Visibility Vest and Hard Hat to utilize site. Both High Visibility Vests and Hard Hats are available at the site for purchase." WM's own disclaimer on the listing reads "Please contact the receiving facility for acceptable material types and receiving hours." The City's own refuse pages offer no municipal yard or residents' drop-off day; the only City drop-off facilities published are a November pumpkin dumpster at Public Works, 1415 Industrial Drive, and holiday-lights bins in the lobbies at City Hall and Public Works. Source Not confirmed: No tipping fee, minimum charge or per-item mattress price is published for the Virginia Road Transfer Station. Not confirmed: The listing does not state whether household self-haul customers are accepted as distinct from commercial haulers.

• Residential body says Saturday 8–2; same-page footer says 9–1. Both show weekdays 8–4. No Saturday schedule selected. Source
• Locator retains Landfill 33 Saturday 7 a.m.–11 p.m. exactly as printed; implausible closing time requires confirmation. Two Columbus District Office cards are distinct OH and IN addresses, not duplicates. Source
• Illinois EPA recycling page offers a 'Beyond The Bin' ArcGIS map of recycling locations, an Earth911 ZIP locator and the Recycle Coach app (statewide partnership since 2025). No mattress stewardship program mentioned. No statewide mattress stewardship program or landfill ban found on Illinois EPA pages as of 2026-09-22; mattress disposal is handled by local governments. Source
• There is no state mattress recycling program in Illinois, and the absence is worth stating plainly because the four states that have one give residents free drop-off. The Mattress Recycling Council, which runs the Bye Bye Mattress collection network, lists its programs on its own Programs page as operating in California, Connecticut, Oregon and Rhode Island. Illinois is not among them. Three things follow for an Illinois resident: no recycling fee is charged on an Illinois mattress sale, there is no MRC-funded free drop-off anywhere in the state, and nothing obliges a retailer, hauler or municipality to recycle a mattress rather than landfill it. Recycling in Illinois is therefore a private arrangement wherever it exists at all — the drop-offs and recyclers listed on this page are businesses and charities choosing to do it, not a program a resident is entitled to. Source