Before anything is moved
The most common regret in a house clearance is speed. Things get bagged in a rush and something irreplaceable goes with them. If the clearance follows a bereavement, give yourself a pass on doing it quickly — a week of sorting saves a decade of wondering.
1. Check the legal position first
If the property is part of an estate, nothing substantial should be disposed of until the executor confirms it is in order. Where probate is required, valuations may be needed before items leave the house. Get that confirmed in writing, even informally, before a van is booked.
2. Tell the insurer
An unoccupied property is a different risk and most home policies restrict cover after a set number of days empty. One phone call.
3. Read the meters and note them
Photograph gas, electric and water meters with the date. It settles final bills without argument later.
The search, before the sort
Go through the house once looking only for these, and do it yourself rather than delegating it:
- Documents — deeds, wills, insurance policies, share certificates, premium bonds, pension papers, birth and marriage certificates, military records
- Cash and jewellery, and the places people hide them: coat pockets, biscuit tins, inside books, under drawer linings, taped behind furniture
- Photographs, letters, albums and anything with handwriting on it
- Keys, and what they open — sheds, garages, safes, storage units, a second property
- Digital things — phones, tablets, laptops, external drives, and any note with passwords on it
- Medication, which needs returning to a pharmacy rather than binning
Do this pass before you start sorting. Once the sorting starts, momentum takes over.
The four-pile method
Every item goes into exactly one of four categories, and you touch each item once:
- Keep — family takes it. Move it out of the house early so it stops being part of the decision.
- Sell — be honest about effort versus return. Ordinary furniture from the last thirty years is generally worth less than the petrol to deliver it. Jewellery, tools, vinyl, cameras, some mid-century furniture and anything unusual is worth a valuation.
- Donate — charity shops and reuse schemes across Cardiff and Newport take clothing, books, kitchenware, working small appliances and furniture with intact fire labels. Ring before you turn up; capacity varies.
- Clear — everything else, and it will be more than you expect.
Do the rooms in this order: bedrooms, living rooms, kitchen, bathroom, loft, garage, shed. Loft and garage last, because that is where morale goes to die and by then you will have a rhythm.
The things that need their own arrangements
| Item | Why it is different |
|---|---|
| Fridges and freezers | Regulated gases — specialist route, and one of only two things we do not take |
| Sofas, armchairs, mattresses | Soft furnishing rules — separated and incinerated, not landfilled |
| Paint, solvents, oils, chemicals | Hazardous waste, separate route |
| Gas bottles, car batteries, tyres | Each has its own disposal channel |
| Asbestos (garage roofs, old artex, water tanks) | Licensed specialist removal only — do not disturb it, and we do not take it either |
| Documents with personal data | Shred or confidentially destroy, do not bag |
What a clearance company should do
The clearance itself is the easy part if you have done the sorting. What you should expect from whoever you hire:
- A fixed price after seeing photos or the property, not an hourly meter
- Their waste carrier registration number, verifiable on the Natural Resources Wales register — ours is CBDU034669
- A waste transfer receipt afterwards, which is your legal protection
- Willingness to carry from upstairs and out of the garden, not just from the kerb
- Sorting for recycling and reuse rather than everything to one skip
- Leaving the property broom-clean
- Proper insurance, particularly if the property is being handed to an agent or a buyer
Order of the last day
Keep pile out first. Donations collected or dropped. Clearance van. Then final meter readings, a photo record of every room empty, and keys handed over. Cancel the utilities and redirect the post after the clearance, not before — you will want deliveries and letters reaching you while the work is going on.
If it is a bereavement
Say so when you book. It changes how we work: quieter, slower, checking before anything ambiguous goes on the van, and giving you the room when you need it. We have done a lot of these across Cardiff and Newport and none of them are just a job.
More detail on how we handle full clearances is on the house clearance page.