You may have any number of reasons to clear out a house.
Perhaps you’re moving abroad and wish to start anew in your new home. Perhaps a
loved one has died and you are left to manage their estate. Whatever the
reason, this guide will help you get through the process as efficiently and
painlessly as possible.
It’s quite helpful to have multiple people helping you with
the process, particularly if there’s a lot to clear. The extra sets of hands
will aid you in moving furniture and getting through large amounts of rubbish
and clutter. It may also be useful to have someone there as comfort, if you are
clearing out a loved one’s home, as this can be quite emotional.
House Clearing Step by Step
Before you even begin to clear a house,
you should have a plan in mind. It will take much longer if you wander from
room to room, doing a little here and a little there. A clear plan will help
you move purposefully through the flat and deal with each space on its own.
You’ll also want to plan your time. While every house is
different, you can estimate half a day per room with two people working on it.
This will give you a good time estimate and will prevent frustration when
things go slower than you like.
Step One: Gather
Supplies
You shall require a few supplies in order to get through the
house clearing efficiently. These include:
· Boxes
· Garbage bags
· Tape
· Coloured dot stickers
· Labels and/or permanent markers
· Newspaper or bubble wrap for delicate items
· Pen and paper
With these items, you’ll be ready to start going through
everything. Plan to have enough time to get through the entire house and start
either at the top or the bottom of the house, with one room at a time.
Step Two: Sort the
Good from the Bad
You’ll be working in each room to separate the rubbish from
the items that are still worth something. There will essentially be four
categories, keep, sell, donate, and rubbish. You want to stick to these four
simple ideas, so you can get through all the items in the home as rapidly as
possible. Even if you’re feeling emotional, it can be helpful to reduce
everything to fitting into one of those categories.
To make it simple, you can use dot stickers to colour code
everything. Red can be for rubbish, yellow for sell, blue for donate, and green
to keep. Just go through the room quickly and place stickers on all the items
that are obvious. You can then take out the things inside drawers and cupboards
to sort through those.
With smaller items, you should have boxes available that are
labelled for selling, donation, and keeping. Use rubbish bags for the junk that
no longer is useful to anyone. Work your way steadily around the room, taking
out anything that has items inside, such as bins and baskets. Quickly sort
through everything in these and move on.
The trick here is not to stop and start letting nostalgia
take over. Pick each item up, decide yes or no for keeping it and then
determine if it’s something you want to take the time to sell or not. By moving
quickly, you will be more efficient and will also make decisions faster.
There’s no time to slow down and start thinking about it, which is what will
cause you to lose momentum.
Step Three: Remove
the Rubbish
Once you have categorised everything in the house, you can
go through and take out anything that is rubbish. Depending on how much you
have, it may be worth it to hire a skip to come to the house so you can
eliminate everything at once.
Getting the rubbish out will make you feel like you’ve
accomplished something and it can also free up a lot of space in the house. You
can then begin to work on the remaining belongings. These are things that do
not belong in the skip, but you may not wish to keep them all, either. In fact,
depending on the situation, you may just want to keep a handful or particularly
meaningful items and sell the remainder.
Step Four: Gather
Like with Like
Now you can start moving items that are being donated into
one area of the house and the things to sell in another. Finally, the items you
plan to keep should be gathered together, as well.
For smaller items, pack them up
in a box
and label it clearly. Be sure to use bubble wrap or newspaper to securely wrap
anything that is delicate or fragile. These items should also be placed in
smaller boxes to avoid crushing anything with the weight of the other items. If
there are softer belongings such as quilts that you wish to keep, you might use
them to wrap larger fragile items, but be sure to label the box so no one
accidentally pulls a quilt out fast and knocks the delicate items onto the
floor.
With everything sorted and packed up, you may stack the
boxes with any furniture in each category. You’re now ready for the movers to
come and get things out of the house.
Step Five: Clear the
House
Once the movers have removed everything in the house, you
should spend a minute going back through to ensure you haven’t missed anything.
Sometimes, items will be revealed when furniture is moved or when pictures are
taken down. Go through closets and other built in drawers, etc. to ensure you
have left nothing behind.
This also allows you to go through and say goodbye. Closure
may be necessary, depending on the circumstances that you’re clearing the house
out.
Step Six: Donate and
Sell
You may need to hire furniture movers to donate certain
items, but you can often sell directly from the home. You may invite people to
join you for an open house and simple set it up as an estate sale, or you can
take photos of each item and list it online.
Another option is to turn the entire estate over to an
estate sale agency. They will appraise everything, then take over the sale.
You’ll pay a percentage of the sales to the agency, but they will do all the
work, so you can just relax.
Booking Furniture Movers
You may have some furniture from the house that you would
like to keep, or perhaps donate. It can be a big job to move large pieces of
furniture around, particularly if they are antique and solid. Not only will you
need help shifting the items, you’ll also need a lorry that is big enough to
handle everything you need to move.
It’s usually simplest to hire furniture movers and have them
do the heavy work for you. Moving companies can easily take the furniture
wherever you want it. If you plan to donate, you should check to see if the
donation centre can pick the items up or if they must be taken in.
Hiring a House Clearance Service
It can be very difficult to clear out a house on your own.
Some are more difficult than others. If you’re still mourning the passing of a
parent, for example, it can be very painful to go through their things. If you
are clearing out a hoarding situation, it may become completely overwhelming at
times. These are household clearance situations where you may want to have some
extra help.
A clearance company can work with you to get through the
house and sort everything out as quickly as possible. They may even have a take
away service, where they will recycle or haul any rubbish away for you. Get
moving quotes for moving everything out and for just eliminating the rubbish.
Having experts working alongside you in a friendly and
professional manner can make house clearing much easier. They do this on a
regular basis, so are familiar with the emotional aspects of conducting this
sort of job. You’ll find it simpler to work with a team that checks in with you
on each thing before separating it. This is where it can be useful to have the
dot stickers so you can simply move through the house and mark everything and
the removal team will come after you and sort it all out for you.
House clearing may be fairly simple if you’re clearing out
the home of a minimalist, but in most cases, you’ll have quite a bit of clutter
to remove. There will be many decisions to be made, so make sure you are
mentally prepared and keep a comforting friend nearby.
Are you facing a difficult house clearing? If you’d like to
include some professionals, contact T.A. Perryman for more information.
