What happens to items after a house clearance?

Once items leave a house they follow one of five paths: they stay with the family, they are sold, they are donated, they are recycled, or they are disposed of at a permitted site. A credible company will talk in those terms, not in a single invented percentage.

Keep

Anything you have labelled stays. If we find documents or valuables during the job, they go to the named contact.

Value or sell

Some furniture and collectables have a market. We do not run an auction house and we do not claim valuation expertise. If you think something should be sold, take it out of the clearance or arrange a valuer first.

Donate

Charities and reuse organisations can use clean, complete furniture, kitchenware, books and clothing. They cannot use broken, stained or incomplete pieces. See donating items.

Recycle

Metal, clean wood, cardboard and many electrical items can go into recycling streams. The exact route depends on the material and the site receiving it. We do not publish a house-by-house recycling rate because we would be guessing.

Dispose

What remains should go to a permitted waste site, not to a verge or an unlicensed yard. In England, occupiers of a domestic property should take reasonable steps to pass household waste only to an authorised person. That is set out in the waste duty of care code of practice.

How you can check

Ask for the waste carrier registration and look it up on the public register. Ask where the load is going. Keep the quote and any receipt. How to check a waste carrier walks through the steps.

The responsible clearance page is the longer version of this hierarchy.