The lorry went out to Budleigh Salterton on the first Friday of February 2019, five miles round the coast from Exmouth, and it came back twice. Two full loads off the one property in a single day — the whole contents of the house, plus an upright fridge freezer that had to be handled on its own. The people paying for it lived in West Sussex and never set foot in Devon while the work went on. Photographs of every room before, photographs of the empty rooms after, invoice by email. "We have recently settled the attached account via BACS and would be most grateful for a receipted invoice by email," one of them wrote once it was done.
That is a good half of the house clearance work we do around Exmouth and along this stretch of the EX postcodes. The house sits in East Devon. The person responsible for it is three or four counties away, sometimes further; and everything that matters gets settled by email and photograph before a loaded van ever sets off down the M5.
Exmouth and the towns either side of it
Exmouth is the biggest of the East Devon coast towns and the housing runs the full range, which matters to a clearance more than people expect. Tall Victorian and Edwardian places behind the seafront, split into flats decades ago, staircase and no lift. Post-war estates up at Withycombe Raleigh. Bungalows out towards Littleham, and newer flats round the marina. A bungalow with a drive is a different day's work from a second-floor Exmouth flat off the Strand where the nearest legal spot for a Luton is a loading bay two streets back.
EX8 is the town and most of what sits behind it. The centre and the seafront, Halsdon, Brixington, Withycombe Raleigh, Littleham and the ground out towards Sandy Bay, with Lympstone at the estuary end. We do house clearance in Exmouth across all of it, and the difference between one address and the next is nearly always access rather than contents. Brixington and Littleham usually give you a drive, or a verge the van can sit on without blocking anybody. The older frontages near the seafront give you double yellows, a shared front hall and a staircase that turns twice, so the same quantity of furniture takes half a day longer. If you tell us which of those you have got before we come, the team turns up with the right number of men.
We clear across the branch: Budleigh Salterton in EX9, Sidmouth and the Sid valley in EX10, Ottery St Mary in EX11, Seaton in EX12, Axminster in EX13, Honiton in EX14, and Colyton over in EX24. Closer in it is Lympstone, Woodbury, Exton and Topsham, all strung along the Exe. The train from Exmouth station runs the Avocet Line up the estuary through Lympstone Village, Lympstone Commando and Topsham into Exeter Central. If you are an executor coming down for the day that is usually easier than parking. East Devon District Council covers the lot for household waste and recycling, though a full clearance is trade waste and never goes through the household route — different rules, different paperwork.
Several of those towns have pages of their own, so if the property is not actually in Exmouth, start there instead. house clearance in Exeter at the top of the estuary, house clearance in Sidmouth along the coast the other way, and house clearance in Honiton up on the A30. Same lorry, same crew, different page — and if your lane sits between two of them, ring and we will say which team is nearer on the day.
The Sidmouth house that had to be done through the garage
A job in EX10 on a Friday morning in March came with better instructions than most. The carpets in the house had already been cleaned ready for the sale, so we were asked to keep off them. "There is no direct access to the garden from outside," the customer wrote. "Access is via the front door or, preferably via the internal garage, through the kitchen and utility. Please use the route through the garage, kitchen & utility to avoid dirtying the clean carpets." So that is what the lads did — everything from the back of the house came out through the integral garage rather than tramping the hallway, and the front drive took the van, which saved a good hour of barrowing.
The white goods were split, as they often are. The tumble dryer in the utility came out and had to be disconnected first. The washing machine beside it stayed, and so did the dishwasher, cooker, fridge and freezer — all listed for the buyer. It sounds a small thing. It is not: a team that takes the wrong appliance costs somebody a replacement, so we want the keep-list in writing before the day.
Another Sidmouth one, an October flat clearance, was instructed from Western Australia. One load, and three mattresses out of it. The owner could not view anything and could not sign anything in person, so the whole thing ran on photographs from one side of the world to the other.
Two loads in a day: a house clearance we handled in December
Not every job is a story about parking. On a Wednesday in the second week of December 2020 a whole house went out, and it took two loads on the day to finish it. The first away by late morning, the second loaded and gone before the light went.
The kitchen end was the awkward part. An under-counter freezer, two under-counter fridges sat beneath the worktops, and a small fridge freezer besides: four cold appliances in one house. Every one of them has to travel upright, come off the van at a site permitted to take them. Be degassed before anything else happens to it, because the refrigerant is regulated and a fridge is not allowed to go in with general household waste. Pulling three of them out from under fitted worktops without taking the units with them is slower than people imagine. It is worth knowing before you book that the kitchen, not the loft, is often the part that decides whether a house finishes in one day.
A mattress came out with the rest and travelled on its own stream for the same sort of reason. Everything else was ordinary house clearance — cupboards emptied, drawers emptied, the lot away, and the disposal recorded properly at the far end.
What we got back afterwards was two lines: "I have made full payment from my bank. Please advise when monies received." Short and businesslike, which is how a good number of them are, and it was confirmed the same afternoon.
Probate house clearance in Exmouth, and executors miles away
Probate is the reason for most of what we do here. A house clearance in Exmouth booked by a son in Yorkshire, a daughter in Kent, or a solicitor who has never seen the property is the ordinary case, not the exception. And the whole job has to work without anybody local holding a key.
So it does. Keys can come down by tracked post, wrapped and signed for a couple of days before the booking, or be collected from an agent or a neighbour on the morning and posted back afterwards. The team leader walks each room and photographs it before a thing is touched, then photographs the empty rooms at the end, and both sets go over by email the same day. Probate itself takes as long as it takes; a date can be held and moved if the grant is slow.
We invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly. Nobody has to pay it out of their own pocket in Devon and then claim it back from Yorkshire; payment can come from the estate, and there is no deposit. The invoice follows the work rather than the other way round. Say at the booking who the paperwork should be addressed to and it goes to them.
Paperwork is the part executors worry about most, and rightly. Letters, wills, bank statements, deeds, photograph albums, jewellery and anything that looks like it matters are put aside for the family rather than binned. The team leader rings if something turns up that we are not sure about. A probate house clearance in Exmouth normally includes the loft, the garage, the shed and the garden, and it is better to say at the outset if any of those are not to be touched.
Garage and loft clearance in Exmouth is very often the bulk of the day, whatever the rooms look like. A loft above a Withycombe Raleigh semi holds suitcases, a lagged tank, boxes of paperwork and forty years of Christmas decorations. A garage out towards Littleham may not have had the door up in a decade and has a lawnmower, a workbench and half a shed's worth of tins in it. Both come out as part of the same clearance unless you tell us to leave them.
What cannot go on the van from an Exmouth house clearance
Some things cannot go onto an ordinary load. Tins of paint, Calor and other gas cylinders, solvents and asbestos sheeting each need their own consignment route, and each is dealt with separately rather than tipped in with the rest. Appliances wired or plumbed straight into the mains are the other regular one: a hardwired cooker, or a washing machine on taps that will not shut off, stays until an electrician or plumber has been.
Upholstery goes its own way too. Since January 2023 the Environment Agency's guidance on persistent organic pollutants has meant that sofas, armchairs, dining chairs with padded seats, padded headboards and office chairs are kept apart from the load and sent for incineration rather than landfill or general recycling. Mattresses are weighed and handled on their own stream at a permitted site as well. We are not allowed to bury any of it in with the general waste, and in a full house it is a fair share of what comes out of the front door.
Where the contents go
Furniture and household goods still fit for use are offered on locally. A reuse project or one of the charity shops in town will take a sound wardrobe or a working freezer more readily than people assume. What cannot be reused is sorted and tipped at a permitted transfer station, weighed in, tickets kept. Abacus has been working since 2007, is registered with the Environment Agency as an upper-tier waste carrier, licence CBDU419679, and the team is fully insured. Search house clearance Exmouth and you will find no shortage of vans; the licence number is the thing worth checking, and ours is on every page of this site.
Full houses, and getting a price
Heavily overfilled properties are not a problem and not a conversation we make awkward. Hoarder house clearance is what it usually gets called, and it is ordinary work for us rather than a special case. Some Exmouth houses hold forty years of belongings and a path worn between the rooms; we plan those in days rather than hours and get on with it. Paperwork, jewellery, photographs and documents are put aside for the family rather than binned, and the team leader rings if something looks like it matters.
Phone the office on 0800 046 5555, or use the form on this page to send photographs of each room plus the loft, garage, shed and garden, and say what you want left behind. You will get a written estimate for your house clearance in Exmouth, Budleigh Salterton, Sidmouth or anywhere else in East Devon — and nobody standing in your hall doing sums at you.
Questions we get asked about house clearance in Exmouth
Can you invoice the solicitor, or can it be paid from the estate? Yes to both. On probate work the invoice goes to the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly, payment can come from the estate, and there is no deposit — we do the work first and bill afterwards.
Do I have to be in Exmouth on the day? No, and most of the time nobody is. Keys come by tracked post or from an agent or neighbour, the rooms are photographed before and after, and the whole thing is settled by email. We have run Exmouth clearances for people in Sussex, in Yorkshire and on the other side of the world.
Do I need to empty the cupboards first? No. Emptying drawers, cupboards and the loft is the job, not something you have to do before we arrive. What we do want in writing is the list of anything that stays — carpets, curtains, a particular appliance, the shed contents — because a team that removes the wrong thing has to replace it.
Can you clear a flat near the seafront where there is nowhere to park? Usually yes, with more men and a bit of planning. Tell us the floor, whether there is a lift, and what the road is like outside, and we will bring the right crew rather than discovering it at nine in the morning. It is the reason two Exmouth house clearance jobs of the same size can take very different amounts of time.
How long does a house clearance in Exmouth take? Most are one day. A house with a full garage and loft can run to a second load the same day, and a heavily filled property runs to two or three days. We say which we think it is before we start, not halfway through.
What if the sale falls through and the date has to move? Then it moves. Probate dates slip, buyers slip, and a booking can be held or shifted — ring the office on 0800 046 5555 and we will find another day.
