House & estate clearance
House and deceased estate clearance
Clearing a whole house, whether that is after a move, the end of a tenancy or a death in the family. Usually a bigger bin, sometimes a crew to load it, always to the timeframe you are working to.
A bin, a crew, or both
There are two ways to do this and the right one depends on how much lifting you want to be doing. A bin on the driveway is the cheaper option and it lets you work through the house at your own pace, room by room, over days rather than hours.
The other way is a crew and a truck, where the carrying is ours. That suits a house that has to be empty by a date, an executor who lives somewhere else, or anyone who would rather not be the one moving a wardrobe down a hallway.
Plenty of jobs end up as both: a bin on site for the volume, and a hand with the heavy furniture at the end.
The four versions of this job
A deceased estate
Usually the largest of these jobs, and the one with the least warning. The house has often been lived in for decades and every room is full.
The end of a tenancy
What the last tenant left, on a deadline set by the next one. Furniture, whitegoods and whatever is in the shed.
Downsizing or moving
The things that will not fit in the next place. Usually sorted in advance, which makes it the easiest version of this job.
A house being sold
Clearing before photos or before settlement, where the date is fixed and the volume is whatever is still in there.
Worth doing before the bin arrives
The one thing we cannot do is decide what matters. Everything below is the part that has to happen before anything gets loaded.
- Walk each room and pull out anything you want to keep, however small. Once a bin is being loaded it is gone.
- Set aside documents, photographs and anything with a name on it. These turn up in kitchen drawers and shed shelves more than anywhere else.
- Decide separately what is being donated or sold, and get it out first. We take away waste, not the good furniture.
- Note anything with gas in it: fridges, freezers and air conditioners need the refrigerant removed by a licensed technician before they can be scrapped.
- Check for fibro sheeting, old eaves or backing board if the house is pre-1990. Asbestos is licensed work and stops the job until it is dealt with properly.
- Tell us if access is tight, if there are stairs, or if the driveway will not take a truck.
On the timeframe
Executors and family are usually working to a date somebody else set. Tell us what it is when you enquire, along with the address and roughly how many rooms are still full, and we will tell you straight away whether it is workable rather than leaving you to find out later.
Clearing a house?
Tell us the address, roughly how much is still in there and the date you are working to. We will come back with the size and the approach, and there is no charge for asking.