Do you just take antiques and valuable stuff, and leave the rest?

No, we don’t cherry pick. 

We can and do take everything from general waste to items of significant value (the main exception being hazardous waste). Unless otherwise agreed, we will take anything that isn’t screwed down or fixed in place, generally leaving only the carpets, curtains and light fittings. 

What do you do with everything once you’ve cleared a house? 

Plan A: re-sell items or re-home them for free e.g. clothes banks and free libraries.

Plan B: recycle materials e.g. scrap metal and wood. 

Plan C: store things until we have more time for Plan A or Plan B. 

Plan D: take them to a certified Waste Transfer Station (tip) where they will go to landfill. 

What are the costs involved with a house clearance? 

The main cost, specific to our industry, is waste disposal. 

Labour and transport also play a big part, but certain items and materials are now very expensive to dispose of on. We also have to pay an entry fee to get into the Waste Transfer Station and use the weighbridge.

Why can’t you just use the council household tips?

Household tips do not let us use their facilities. 

The waste that we generate from a house clearance is classed as commercial waste, that we must pay to dispose of. Different categories of waste e.g. wood, garden, general waste carry different charges per tonne, which is why it is beneficial for us to sort materials when doing a clearance. 

What are the most expensive things to dispose of?

General (mixed / unsorted) waste carries one of the most expensive rates per tonne. 

However specific items such as fridge freezers, upholstered furniture, mattresses, TV’s / monitors and fluorescent tubes are often charged per unit and are also very expensive. In contrast, wood/timber is relatively inexpensive to dispose of and scrap metal can actually be sold for a modest amount at scrap yards. 

What’s the issue with fridge freezers and upholstered furniture?

Both contain chemicals or materials that cannot be sent to landfill. 

The refrigerant in fridge freezers much be carefully removed, and there are a relatively small number of companies in the UK that currently do this. Due to recent heatwaves there is a bottleneck of broken fridge freezers at these centres. Soft furnishings are classified as POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants) which must be incinerated rather than sent to landfill. 

How do you put a value on items for resale?

We are not experts in everything, and often rely on internet research. 

In most cases, we do not get the full pre-owned value of items. For speed, we often sell to intermediaries who specialise in certain fields e.g. media, tools, white goods, ceramics, but this means that we only receive a fraction of the full value. When we do sell direct to end users, it is often at car boot sales where most items have a ceiling price e.g. a mid-range working vacuum cleaner will often sell for a maximum of £5-£10. In some cases, we store items of value and spend more time achieving a better sale price. 

What is your process when clearing a house? 

No two clearances are the same, but many follow a similar pattern.

First, we would clear the spaces around the doors and stairways that we will be using. Then we would remove small, loose items such as lamps, clocks, ornaments etc before removing the large items – namely sofas, beds, tables, wardrobes, desks etc. Once we have more space to work in, we will start to sort materials (for recycling) and organise items (for resale). The waste for landfill is then removed before a final sweep and hoover throughout. 

How many clearances do you do each week?

We generally only do one clearance per week. 

Your job will be our priority, rather than one of several. We are purposely cautious with the number of jobs we take on, because of the amount of time that it takes post-clearance to sell, re-home and responsible dispose of the items. The only way that we could currently take on several jobs back-to-back each week would be to dispose of everything at the end of each day – which is not the way we want to work. 

How should I prepare for my house clearance? 

You shouldn’t need to do much, but here’s a couple of suggestions. 

You’re likely still paying council tax, so continue to use your household bins each week for things like food waste, garden waste and dry recycling. 

Create a pile/shelf/drawer/cupboard/room of things that you want to keep, so that we know not to touch them. 

Where possible, don’t bag things up randomly before we arrive – we will nearly always need to re-sort through the bags anyway. 

Last but not least, if we are to remove appliances which are hard-wired or connected to mains gas – the obvious one being an oven – then these appliances would need to be professionally disconnected by an electrician and/or plumber. Often people leave these items as part of the fixtures and fittings. We are happy to disconnect washing machines so long as there is a working isolation valve and stop tap. 

Should I just do it myself, rather than pay for a house clearance?

Often a combination of the two is the best solution. 

Here are a few of the benefits of a professional house clearance, compared to common DIY alternatives: 

• Vs Skips: we do all the manual work and you don’t have to arrange the delivery and collection of several skips.
• Vs Charites: charities sometimes offer clearances but have to be quite picky about what they do and don’t take. 
• Vs eBay & Vinted: selling online is a great way to raise funds to contribute towards a house clearance, but it does take time.
• Vs Car Boot Sales: again, a great way to raise funds but it would take countless car boot sales and early mornings to fully clear a property. 
• Vs Freecycle & Marketplace: buyers and recipients are often unreliable and transport / delivery of items can be a problem. 

House clearances are often most effective once you and your family have had the opportunity to take any important, valuable or sentimental items. In most cases, it’s just not practical to take everything, and you get to the point where you just need to draw a line under it and prepare the property for sale or rent. 

At Circular House Clearances we never lose sight of the reasons for the clearance, or the value that the belongings once had, and still do. We will act on your behalf to ensure that more items are re-homed or recycled, and fewer items reach landfill.