House clearances pick up through August. School holidays give families the time to work through a parent’s home, prep a property for sale, or handle a probate house. If you have one on the list this summer, a bit of planning ahead saves a lot of stress.
We do house clearances every week across Worthing, Brighton, Hove, Lancing, Shoreham and the rest of Sussex. Here is how we usually talk customers through it.
Start with a walk through
Before you order anything, walk through the whole house with a notebook. Every room, plus the loft, garage, shed and garden. Note anything that needs sorting into: keep, donate, sell, skip. That last pile is what you’re sizing the skip for.
You almost always end up with more in the skip pile than you thought, especially once you factor in old furniture, mattresses, and the contents of drawers no one has opened in a decade.
Pick the right size first time
A midi 4 yard skip suits a small terraced house with mostly boxed contents.
A builder 6 yard skip is the most common pick for a two or three bed semi. Fits a full clear including old wardrobes, sofas and garden waste.
A maxi 8 yard suits a bigger property, or one with lots of bulky items but light waste.
Bigger than that, you’re looking at a RoRo container. We hire 12, 16 and 40 yard RoRos out of the Lancing yard, and they suit larger house clearances or probate estates where you don’t want to swap skips two or three times.
Watch for POPs
Sofas, armchairs, cushions, upholstered headboards and office seating manufactured before 2019 contain Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). By law, these have to be handled separately from general waste.
If your clearance includes any of the above, flag it when you book as we can still collect them but we do need to pass on an additional charge for safe disposal – our office will be able to advise you on this.
Permits and access
If the skip goes on the drive, no permit needed. If it has to sit on the road, we sort the permit for you when you book. Most councils in Sussex take up to five working days, so build that into the timeline.
A RoRo container needs 3 metres of access width and a firm level surface to sit on. Not one for tight streets or grass verges.
What we can and can’t take
Almost everything from a standard house clear can go in the skip: furniture (excluding POPs items), general waste, wood, metal, mixed household.
Fridges, freezers, mattresses, tyres and paint tins have to be handled separately by law. If you’re not sure, flag it when you book and we’ll advise.
Booking
Most house clearances can be booked online for next working day delivery. If it’s a bigger job or involves a RoRo, please give our lovely team in the office a call and they’ll be able to book this in for you.
Rabbit has been hiring skips across Sussex since 1988. Behind every booking is a lot of work back at the yard.
Book online at rabbitskips.co.uk/book-a-skip
