Getting a Hot Tub, Swing Set, or Trampoline Out of a Midland Backyard
September 8, 2026
The swing set is on the City's free-pickup list by name. The trampoline isn't named, so you ask. The hot tub has no free route at all — it leaves in pieces, whoever cuts them. Three backyard heavyweights, three different exits.
Three Items, Three Very Different Exits
Midland backyards accumulate the same three heavyweights: the swing set the kids outgrew, the trampoline that has thrown its last rider, and the hot tub that stopped being relaxing the day it stopped working. They look like one problem — big, awkward, outdoors — but the City of Midland treats them completely differently: one is free by name, one is a definite maybe, and one is a small demolition project with no free exit.
Knowing which is which saves real money, because the honest answer isn't always hiring a junk hauler in Midland — for one of these three, the City has already volunteered.
The Swing Set: On the City's Free List by Name
The City's free large-item pickup for residential trash customers covers more than couches and refrigerators. The Solid Waste Division's own examples list includes swing sets, patio furniture, and BBQ grills. One call to 432-685-7278 gets it scheduled.
The rules that make it free are the same fine print covered in the City's furniture and appliance pickup:
- The set goes in the alley, in the city right-of-way, behind your home — not leaning against the shared container.
- City crews will not come onto private property, so the trip from the back corner of the yard to the alley is yours.
- The queue runs by date of call — a set scheduled today waits behind everyone who called first.
The Trampoline: Take It Apart, Then Ask
The City's part is free; the teardown and the carry are the actual job. A steel A-frame set unbolts into manageable pieces. A wooden playset with a clubhouse and slide is an afternoon of deck screws, and if the legs sit in concrete footings, you own the digging too.
Trampolines are a different wrinkle — they are conspicuously absent from the City's examples list. Patio furniture is named; the fourteen-foot ring of galvanized steel in the corner of the yard is not. The list does say most household furniture qualifies, so ask when you call. The answer for odd items comes from the person doing the scheduling, not from a webpage.
Either way, disassembly comes first, and the springs are the part that bites — use the spring tool that came in the box. Broken down, a trampoline is a bundle of poles and a rolled mat that fits in a pickup bed. City of Midland residents hauling their own items from their own single-family home can also use the free Citizens Collection Station at 4100 Smith Road or the Citizens Convenience Center at 6400 W. Highway 80 — Tuesday through Friday 10 to 6, Saturday 9 to 2, single-axle trailer loads only, load secured. The accepted list there leads with bulky household items — a folded trampoline rides that line, another ask-first case.
The Hot Tub: No Free Route Exists
Hot tubs are the hard case, and it is worth being plain about why. They are not on the free-pickup examples list. They cannot reach the alley in one piece — most will not fit through a gate, and the pickup rules stop City crews at the property line anyway. And once a spa is cut into sections, the pieces stop reading as household furniture and start reading as the things the free stations refuse: the not-accepted list at the Citizens Collection Station begins with construction material of any type, then adds fencing, concrete, dirt, and rock for good measure.
Before anything gets cut: the water drains somewhere it will not flood the alley, the breaker goes off, and if the spa is hardwired to a 240-volt circuit rather than plugged in, an electrician handles the disconnect. Then it is saw work: shell, cabinet, and frame come apart into sections two people can actually lift.
The do-it-yourself endgame is the City of Midland Landfill at 7901 E. Garden City Highway — open Monday through Friday 7:30 to 4:00 and Saturday 9 to 2, taking card, cash, or check. A vehicle without a Garbage Hauler's Permit pays a $25 access fee on top of the regular charges. The full gate procedure is in the landfill guide.
Renting Steel vs. Hiring Hands
If the spa leaves as part of a bigger backyard clear-out — the deck around it, a fence section, the shed — a container starts to make sense. The City itself provides 30-cubic-yard open-top construction containers to its customers on request, billed through the water bill, and private roll-offs come smaller; the dumpster size guide covers what fits in what. A container still leaves you the teardown, the cutting, and the loading.
Residential junk removal inverts that: the crew brings the saws and the trailer, handles the carry through the gate, and takes the landfill line, and the yard is flat by afternoon. A spa wrapped in built-in decking drifts toward construction debris and light demolition territory — worth saying when you book, so the right tools show up. Price follows access and volume more than the item itself; the cost guide breaks down how Midland quotes actually work.
Match the Item to the Route
The swing set is a phone call and a Saturday of unbolting. The trampoline is a disassembly job with a free finish for residents willing to haul their own. The hot tub is a teardown with a landfill gate at the end, whoever swings the saw. The only expensive mistake is treating all three the same — paying someone to haul what the City would have taken from the alley for free, or burning two weekends discovering the spa was never a two-person job.
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Quick Answers
Will the City of Midland pick up a hot tub for free?
The free large-item pickup names furniture and appliances — couches, bed frames, swing sets, refrigerators — and hot tubs are not on the list. Pickup also happens only from the alley right-of-way, and crews will not enter the yard, which rules out anything that cannot reach the alley in one piece. Call 432-685-7278 to ask about a specific item, but plan on the answer involving a saw.
Do I need an electrician before removing a hot tub?
If the spa is hardwired — as most 240-volt models are — have an electrician disconnect the circuit before anyone touches the cabinet. A plug-in model is simpler: kill the breaker, drain it, unplug it, and coil the cord. Water and live wiring get no second chances, so settle the power question before the first panel comes off.
Can I take a cut-up hot tub to the Citizens Collection Station?
Plan on no. The station's accepted list covers household furniture, mattresses, white goods, recyclables, and brush from City residents hauling out of their own single-family homes; the not-accepted list begins with construction material of any type. Sections of shell and framing read as the second list, not the first. The landfill on Garden City Highway takes them — expect the $25 access fee without a hauler's permit, plus the regular charges.