House Clearance - how much does it cost?

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Just that really.

In the process of selling my parents home after my last remaining parent (Dad) passed away earlier this year and we have now secured a sale.

My Brother and I intend to go through the house and keep anything either of us would like to keep, and then the rest will need to be got rid of. We are going to hire a skip, I think, and just chuck a lot of stuff that neither of us wants, onto the skip. But we have no way of getting rid of the furniture and white goods.

It is a 3 bed semi so there is not loads and loads of stuff but too much really for us to be trying to get rid of.

We were thinking a house clearance company to come and fetch the furniture?

Has anyone used one recently? If so can you tell me how much we are possibly looking at, cost wise, to get the furniture cleared?

They should pay you! They will sell your stuff on at a profit. Can you not advertise it?
Perhaps contact a charity, eg Sue Ryder who might take it off you. There are plenty of people getting a house or flat for the first time and don’t have enough money for furniture. Contact your council or social services.

I was quoted anything from around 650-1k for a large house in NW England last year. That included an awful lot of white goods, which they have to pay to dispose of. Some had tip licences and mentioned it, others just kept quiet about where everything would end up.

In the end I found a bloke who did it for £250 but as a lot of our stuff was so new and in great condition, on the actual day he said 'I can make a really good profit off this stuff, so you don't have to pay me if you don't want to - I know you've had a tough time - it's your choice.' He actually had a shop in which he sold this stuff.

FWIW, your local council should do this really cheaply, but you need to give them notice, and you can't always pick a date. So, something like £21 for the first 3 items (bulky items) then £7 per each additional piece of furniture. A bed, headboard and mattress would be counted as 3. But a welsh dresser would cost the same as a tiny bedside table. And a fridge freezer would cost the same as either of them.

When I realised the council had booked me a date for AFTER I was due to leave (they quoted 3 weeks then booked it for 4.5 weeks), I called and pleaded with for help, and they gave me a number of their licenced bloke who wanted £780 and then just couldn't really be arsed responding to anything when I told him our list had changed. That's how I ended up with £250 bloke (and yes, I did pay him anyway).

Charity shops will want photos of everything and reject a lot of things these days that they think they can't sell. I gave a sofa set away mid 2024 and the blokes who turned up almost refused to take it because they thought it was stained and/or faded and unsellable. It was actually the pattern that looked different in different types of light. But, it was very hit and miss, and the charity warned me 'if our contractors don't think it's sellable on the day of collection, they won't take the set.' They arrived, said 'we can't take that'. NB: the charity had already had photographs in advance. It was the chaps collecting who almost refused.

I forgot to add, I had some really low quotes and I was convinced they were just going to fly tip the lot - so I didn't even respond to those (after a cursory look at their FB history and not feeling reassured).

Not a house clearance but there’s a British Heart Foundation furniture shop which came and collected lots they took, sofa, beds, drawers, table and chairs and a Welsh dresser. We were leaving washing machine deliberately but they also take white goods and PAT test them in store.

Thank you. I never thought of that. I would actually love it if the furniture could go to someone who needs it. My parents would love that idea.

I have also had a look at my local Severn Hospice. We have a special place in our hearts for them as they nursed both my Grandad and my Nan through end of days and were remarkable. They actually do a furniture collection service for furniture in good saleable condition, which it is. They collect for free. We have white goods, in good condition also which we could maybe see if the local council could take and leave out for someone to take and use if they need it.

Thank you for this. Its been most helpful.

Thank you for your replies. Lots to look at and to think about and work out which option is going to work best for us.

I know where I live there are small local clearance companies (man with a van types) who do this kind of thing relatively cheaply but not sure if I could find one near where my parents lived but its certainly worth a look. I guess there probably would be.

When my Mum died British Heart Foundation came and collected furniture and so much linen and toaster etc. Once the big items are removed the task is less daunting.

Sorry for your loss.

I've just had to do this this morning! I had cleaned out the majority of furniture and bits and bobs via a Gumtree "garage sale" (only one day to collect stuff, as I couldn't keep travelling to and from the house) before putting the house on the market, and the rest had gone to the British Heart Foundation who collect from the house (household stuff, books, good quality wood furniture and soft furniture with fire labels and so on) . However, there was enough left in the house to stage it for sale ( sofa and chairs, 4 mattresses, office desk/ chair, dining table and the bits of furniture the BHF wouldn't take) and garage/ cupboard junk. The buyers want the white goods but there was a random broken fridge/ microwave in the garage, plus bulky workbenches and cobwebby shelving units etc as all garages have. I probably could have tried to sell a bit more but I have run out of energy for it all, frankly.

I had quotes from "£500 per van plus disposal costs" which was not helpful, up to just over £1800. The higher quotes were "proper" removals/ clearance companies who assumed all mattresses soft furnishings etc would need to be landfilled (which is ££££) and the lower ones worked with charities to give things to people setting up home, so avoiding landfill. They are less "picky" than the big name charities who didn't want unfashionable brown wood furniture and so on. I checked they were properly registered and wouldn't flytip anything like the broken fridge and mattresses beyond redemption which will cost them to get rid of. Two companies came out to see and they both said it would be 2 vans worth. I ended up paying £1000 😖but I had made some money selling earlier stuff, so more or less broke even. And there is now an entirely empty and sad looking house...

We boxed up all the kitchen items, crockery etc and any ornaments that were not wanted by anyone and took it to a small local charity shop who were so grateful, it nearly filled their stockroom but when I went in a few weeks later it had all been sold.

Furniture and white goods there was a second hand furniture warehouse local and they came and took everything that was not wanted and paid us - not a great deal but we were just happy it was gone.

Scrap metal we contacted a scrap metal merchant and they came and got the lot.

Clothes we gave to charity or put it in the collection boxes in tescos car park, also if a collection bag was put through the door whilst we were there we put a few bags out for collection.

We got a skip for everything that was not worth saving or donating.

We got the council to collect mattresses as they cannot go in a skip - small charge for this, you just book it and put them where they collect the bins from.

We also took the half full tins of paint to the council dump as they couldn't go in the skip.

The family had gone through and taken anything they had wanted before we did the above.

Clothes and linens were the first things to go.

We've recently done this for my MIL. The family took what they wanted and we paid about £1K I think for a company to come in, who cleared the entire house in a day (South London).

They sorted it into three groups - auction, charity and (last straw) dump. Anything auctioned, we received the money and they took a small percentage.

Was worth paying as there's too much emotion involved going through it all on your own. It would take forever.

After getting rid of the crap stuff, we boxed everything re-usable and put it on freecycle. It was like inviting vultures. The place was clear in a couple of days. All for free, and lots of grateful people!

We didn't pay anything. They cleared the house, took what they could to auction, sent us a breakdown of what they had sold and took off their fees then sent us some of the profit.

Second hand furniture is sadly worth next to nothing normally, unless it is really high quality or antique.

In my task the good stuff that was wanted and that could be easily taken by anyone that wanted it was.

I disassembled the flat pack stuff, hauled it outside and put it in a skip.

You will probably find a lot of people won't want most furniture, even if it is in pretty good shape.

Sorry about your dad's passing. I had a company to do one big room for a relative (hoarded to the ceiling; they had alcohol issues) - it filled a whole van and they charged £199. They were efficient and professional, totally non-judgemental.

I echo the pp who suggested the British Heart Foundation: House Clearance - a charity service to sell or recycle your goods - BHF. There's also a service around here called Emmaus - they collect things and serviceable items are either sold for their charity or made available to vulnerable people on lower incomes who need some support with housing.

One word of caution though - if you find a local "man with a van" service that seems very reasonable, do check out whether or not they are a licenced waste carrier - Waste Carriers, Brokers and Dealers. If they remove your stuff and subsequently fly-tip any of it (even if you had no clue that's what would happen), and it's traced back to you, you can be prosecuted for the tipping alongside them.

Best of luck with it. x

That sounds an ideal solution. What is the name of the company, please?

BHF do a house clearance service

https://www.bhf.org.uk/shop/donating-goods/house-clearance?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=16750333808&gbraid=0AAAAAD6mX57Hl0GSTYSnmC1YtQLMZfX1p&gclid=Cj0KCQjw0qTCBhCmARIsAAj8C4bJs1-X7HdPRq57Fo42WJZvsr6zk5EIaZBb7WzSkkQuonBwkicV7TAaAiLtEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

We found the charities offering to collect furniture were a pain in the butt, wanting photos, rejecting some items, being fussy about dates. It wasn't worth the hassle.
We ended up paying a clearance company £800, much simpler.

The company we used cleared the house, took the sellable items to auction, did a couple of charity shop runs, did a tip run, moved our Mum's electric riser/recliner chair to the care home for her, and cleaned the house (which was pretty clean anyway). It cost £1500. The auctioned items were separate to this and we were paid what they sold for after the auction. This was for a relatively clutter free 2 bed bungalow, garage and shed.

BHF weren't interested in my mum's house. We paid around £1400 for clearance once we'd taken what we wanted (3-bed, loft, garden shed, garage). It just needed doing.

If you do book in BHF or similar, leave plenty of time afterwards for a clearance firm for the rest, because BHF may tunr up and not take anything if they don't think it will sell.

But it's only worth them collecting it if it will sell, so not unreasonable to want pictures, reject items etc.

I can't remember but it was a little local family business recommended by the estate agent.

Heartily recommend Freecycle, Gumtree, Trash nothing etc.

Plus the likes of SVDP and other charities that are trying to get people back on their feet.

Admittedly some time & effort on your part but better that than spending 1.5K on house clearers.

I paid c£1400 last year a full 3 bed house. I initially enquired with a local furniture donation charity but they wouldn't take most of the furniture - things like dark brown display cabinets are difficult for them to sell on, and the beds didn't have fire labels etc,

The clearance guy was at it for 3 full days , he did show me the waste transfer notes. He had recycled what he could, like the wood etc. He did keep a fair bit of bric n brac to sell on , but only car boot kind of stuff.

I think I could have easily spent that £1400 on skips and having to do it all myself, so to me it was value having the clearance guy do it all.

Admittedly some time & effort on your part but better that than spending 1.5K on house clearers.

Depends how someone values their time, how nearby they live for things like freecycle pick ups (and non pick ups when people don't show etc).

The house clearers will sell on what they can as well, so doesn't mean everything goes to the tip