Bought a Bed – What Happens Next? Delivery, Assembly, Disposal, Payment

At Imperial Interiors, our own team delivers and assembles throughout Switzerland – items in stock usually within 48 hours. That's a company figure, not an industry standard: there's no "usual" delivery time in furniture retail. Provider websites rarely quote blanket deadlines and instead point to product-specific information – how quickly it happens depends on the retailer and the product, and made-to-order items naturally take longer than stock items.

It's also worth checking costs closely before buying: in Swiss furniture retail, home delivery is usually billed separately – some houses charge a flat CHF 149.– per delivery, for example (market observation, as of August 2026). Three questions belong in every sales conversation, then: what does delivery cost? Is assembly included? And who takes the old bed away? With us, delivery and assembly by our own team go together – and we take your old bed away free of charge at delivery and dispose of it properly.

A mattress counts as bulky waste in the City of Zurich – and bringing bulky waste to the recycling centre has carried a fee since May 2025. According to the City of Zurich (ERZ), mattresses can be disposed of at the recycling centre or the mobile recycling centre; ERZ also offers a paid pickup service. The rates according to the official press release of 5 September 2024: at the recycling centre, bulky waste costs CHF 22.70 for the first 100 kilograms and CHF 19.45 for each further 100 kilograms (incl. VAT) – a single mattress stays under 100 kilograms, so it's just CHF 22.70. Pickup by ERZ costs CHF 86.50 per quarter-hour of loading time, including transport and disposal.

Important for anyone who still remembers the old rules: the city's former free disposal coupons have been abolished; the 2024 coupons kept their validity until the end of April 2025. The city reserves the right to change prices – the current information on stadt-zuerich.ch is authoritative.

It's still possible to avoid the fee entirely if you transport the old bed yourself. According to the City of Zurich, the neighbourhood-based services remain free: the cargo and E-tram, the mobile recycling centre and the hazardous-waste mobile stop regularly in the city's neighbourhoods. The limit per item: a maximum of 40 kilograms and 2.5 metres in length (sofas a maximum of 2 metres). A mattress can be disposed of free this way – a disassembled bed frame too, as long as each piece stays within the limits; only the transport is your responsibility.

The ERZ bulky-waste collection, in turn, needs to be organised: it's booked by phone – recommended around three working days in advance – and the material must be placed clearly visible in front of the property or on the pavement before 7 am on collection day, at the earliest from the evening before. The same limits of 40 kilograms and 2.5 metres per item apply here too. If you're planning a bed swap, factor in this lead time and the placing – or simply give the old bed to the delivery team.

Taking away the old bed is usually a paid add-on service in furniture retail, tied to delivery. Market observation, as of August 2026: some retailers charge, for example, CHF 50.– per mattress with simultaneous delivery, others an amount from CHF 60.– per piece of furniture or a flat CHF 90.– from the delivery address. Common conditions: disposal can only be booked together with the delivery service, and the old furniture must be disassembled and ready for transport, or match the delivered product in type and size. That's legitimate – return transport and proper disposal cost the retailers real money. But you should know it before buying, not on delivery day. Here's an overview of the routes for the old bed:

At Imperial Interiors, you pay in two steps: a deposit when you order, the balance before delivery – items in stock you pay for directly. This part-payment model has a practical reason: with made-to-order items, time passes between order and delivery, and in that span the full amount doesn't need to flow all at once. Payment steps and the delivery date are agreed together at purchase – so that on delivery day, only one thing happens: the new bed is assembled, the old one taken away.

The simplest place to clarify the process is where you choose the bed: the showroom. At Nüschelerstrasse 30 in Zurich – five minutes' walk from the main station – you can try lying down without an appointment; the initial consultation is free. Everything concrete gets settled in one place there: which model, stock or made-to-order, when it's delivered, what the part payment looks like, and that the old bed goes with the delivery team right away. We're open Monday to Friday from 10:00–19:00, Saturday from 10:00–18:00. So the question "Bought a bed – what happens next?" is answered before you sign.