Junk Removal in Coto de Caza, CA — Pricing

Here is the Coto de Caza number up front, no runaround: a single-item haul runs $75–$175, a quarter-truck load is $200–$300, a half-truck is $300–$450, and a full truck runs $500–$700 — labor, loading, dump fees, and cleanup included. We are EA Junk Removal, the family-run Orange County crew Eric and I have operated since 2018, and we quote by volume, meaning how much of the truck your junk fills, not by the hour and not by the zip code. Coto de Caza is an unincorporated, guard-gated community in south Orange County, so there is no city hall behind your trash service. It runs through the county franchise instead. Call or text (949) 565-2609 and we will give you a flat number for your Coto de Caza address before we head out.

Who handles regular trash and bulky pickup in Coto de Caza?

Coto de Caza is not a city. It is an unincorporated community, which means the County of Orange sets up trash service through a franchise hauler rather than a city contract. For this part of south county the franchise hauler is CR&R. That is not us. We are who you call when the franchise program will not cover the job or when you do not want to wait for a scheduled pickup.

Because the terms come from a county franchise agreement and can change, I would confirm what your household gets before you rely on it. The county lists its unincorporated franchise areas and haulers at OC Waste & Recycling, and CR&R publishes the residential service details for its Orange County areas at CR&R Environmental Services. Most residential franchise plans include some amount of bulky-item pickup, but the count and the item limits are worth a quick call to CR&R before you assume it covers your load.

What the franchise program does not do is carry heavy pieces out of the house, break down a shed or a playset, or clear real volume in one visit. It grabs what you set out, within the limit. We do the lifting, the sorting, and the hauling, and we take the whole load at once.

What parts of Coto de Caza do we work in most?

Coto is a large community spread across roughly 5,000 acres of gated hillside, so a job on one end can be a real drive from the other. The patterns we see change by area:

• Los Ranchos Estates, the large custom equestrian properties on multi-acre lots. These have their own HOA behind the main gate, and barns, tack rooms, and outbuildings throw off their own kind of cleanout.
• The village and golf-course neighborhoods around the country club, where garage and furniture cleanouts are the usual call.
• The production and semi-custom tracts, where a two-story carry to a bulky piece in a back bedroom is common.
• The equestrian areas near the trails and the equestrian center, where we get everything from old fencing to yard debris.

None of that changes your price. It changes how we plan the carry and how much drive time we build into the window. A long estate driveway in Los Ranchos and a townhome near the golf course both come down to the same question: how much of the truck does your junk fill.

What does junk removal cost in Coto de Caza?

We price by volume. You pay for the space your stuff takes up in the truck, plus the labor to get it out. Here is the published range:

These are the same numbers we quote across Orange County. There is no gated-community surcharge and no fee for the extra drive out to Coto. You can see the full breakdown on our Orange County pricing index. Out here the jobs we get called for most are furniture removal, garage cleanouts, and appliance removal.

Where does everything go after we load it?

We do not drive it straight to the dump. First we pull whatever still has life left. Coto homes turn over good furniture, and plenty of it is in shape to donate.

For donations, Goodwill of Orange County runs donation centers across the county, and you can find the one closest to Coto and check what they accept at Goodwill of Orange County. If you are pulling cabinets, fixtures, or building materials out of a remodel, Habitat for Humanity of Orange County runs ReStore locations that take that kind of thing, though the nearest ones are a drive north. When it can be donated, we donate it, and it stays out of the landfill.

What is left goes to the county landfill. For Coto de Caza and the rest of south Orange County, that is the Prima Deshecha Landfill at 32250 Avenida La Pata in San Juan Capistrano, open to residents Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Confirm current hours and rates at OC Waste & Recycling. Prima Deshecha is the closest residential landfill to Coto, so that is where our loads out here end up.

What should you know before we arrive?

Coto is guard-gated at the main entrance, so that is the first thing to plan for. Add our crew and the truck to the guard list ahead of time, or plan to meet us at the gate to check in. The guard will not pass a junk truck without the resident clearing it, so get it on the list before your window.

If you are in Los Ranchos Estates or another sub-community with its own HOA, there may be a second layer of access or its own rules about work trucks and hours. Tell me on the phone what applies. We would rather work inside your HOA’s rules than get flagged partway through a load. On the estate lots, let us know where we can stage the truck, because a long carry from a back barn or a far garage changes our arrival window even though it does not change your price.

And if the whole job is one item, be straight with me. Sometimes waiting for your franchise bulky pickup is the smarter move for a single piece, and I will tell you that instead of booking a haul you do not need.

What can we take, and what do we have to leave?

We take almost anything you can carry and plenty you cannot. Furniture, mattresses, appliances, patio sets, old barn and tack-room gear, garage clutter, e-waste like TVs and monitors, fencing, and remodel debris are all everyday loads for us. If it is bulky and you want it gone, start by asking.

The short list of what we cannot legally throw on a truck is household hazardous waste. That means paint, motor oil, pool chemicals, solvents, car batteries, and propane tanks. Those have to go to a county household hazardous waste collection center, not a landfill, and the county keeps the drop-off list at OC Waste & Recycling. If you are not sure whether an item counts, tell me on the phone and I will give you a straight answer before we drive out. We would rather sort it right than surprise you at the gate.

How do you book a Coto de Caza pickup?

Call or text (949) 565-2609 with your address and a rough idea of what you have. A photo helps a lot, because Eric and I can usually quote a flat number off a picture. You can also reach us through our contact page. We will give you a window, clear the gate, load it, sweep up, and go. No hourly meter, no surprise fees at the end.

We have hauled out of Coto since 2018, from the estates in Los Ranchos to the tracts near the golf course. We know the drive, we know how the gate works, and we know where the county franchise program stops and where we start. When you need more than a curbside pickup, we are around.

— Alex Alquisira, EA Junk Removal