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What is House Clearance?
If you have never done house clearance before, you must be thinking about what actual house clearance is or what it includes. It can be taken as a full clearance, and it is more than that – besides cleaning, it includes removing all the unwanted items at your home.
With time, we accumulate a lot of things, losing track, which becomes an issue when we try to organise them for disposal, resale or charity.
But how would you know you need house clearance? Where to start and how to remove all the rubbish?
When Do You Need House Clearance?
A house clearance is usually needed when moving to a new property. You may also need house clearance to declutter sheds, lofts, basements or garages.
Things included in house clearance includes:
- Bulky and heavy furniture
- Mattresses, beds and cots, regardless of their size
- Kitchen units, dining table and chairs
- Brown goods – audio-visual equipment, TVs and computers
- White goods – washing machines, ovens, fridges, freezers or dishwashers
- Personal belongings such as clothing and footwear
- Curtains, rugs and other flooring materials
- Gardening machinery, tools and equipment
How Do You Plan a House Clearance?
The last thing you would want is to start clearing your house without having a proper plan. Planning before clearing your house will make the task less taxing and more manageable.
Here is how you can do it:
Keep it, Donate it or Bin It
- You start by separating all the items and belongings into 3 piles – KEEP, DONATE and BIN.
- You must review each item while deciding what to keep, throw in the trash, or donate.
- Another way to do this is to use a traffic light system – green for the bin, orange for donate and red for keep.
- Try to be as heartless as possible and only keep the necessary things.
- Separate each room’s items into three piles, making them easy to collect.
Arrange for Collections
- Besides everything you are keeping, box everything so the clearance company can easily take away other items.
- Call charitable shops or check online for the items you want to donate.
- You can donate clothing, furniture, electrical appliances etc.
- Another easier way to do this is to leave those items outside your property for collection by a charity.
- Lastly, you need to handle all the rubbish.
- Instead of hiring a skip or taking it to the local tip, hire a professional waste collection service; they are experienced and trained in lifting bulky items and disposing of any rubbish carefully.
Estimate How Much Has Got to Go
- As mentioned earlier, the easiest and simplest way to remove unwanted items is to hire a clearance company.
- Arranging a company for the collection of your belongings is the safest and most convenient way to get rid of bulky items, kitchen appliances or electronics.
Man and Van
- Hiring a man with a van service is a convenient, quick and affordable removal service.
- One can easily move white goods, brown goods, and furniture.
Skip Hire
- If you have a huge rubbish piling up in your house and clearance service will at least take 2-3 days; in such a situation hiring a skip is the best option.
- A standard or small domestic skip can hold approximately 50 black bags.
How to Choose the Right Clearance Company
- Finding the right house clearance company is a challenging and arduous task.
- When looking for a clearance company, you must find someone reputable and trustworthy.
- You can ask your family and friends for suggestions and recommendations.
- Once you have jotted down some companies, read online reviews and recommendations about these companies on Google.
- Try to avoid small-scale companies because they will burn a hole in your pocket;
- They have less experience in the field; hence, there is a higher chance that your items will get broken or damaged.
- Before hiring one, ask the companies if they are licensed and insured.
