House clearance in Sidmouth is mostly a question of getting to the door. The town sits in a bowl with the River Sid running through it, and most of the housing outside the flat centre is on a hill. Which is why, on a Sidmouth house clearance, the access route gets worked out on the phone before anyone books a van. We have been doing this work since 2007, we are a registered waste carrier, and the office number is 0800 046 5555.
The instruction we got twice on a job up above the town, in EX10, wasn't about what to take out. It was about the carpets we were walking over. "Please use the route through the garage, kitchen & utility to avoid dirtying the clean carpets," the email said, and that was fair enough — the house was going on the market and the floors had been done. There was no way into the garden from outside at all, so everything had to come back through the internal garage. Front drive had room for the van, which in this town counts as a small miracle. The tumble dryer in the utility was to go, disconnected first.
The washing machine next to it stayed. So did the dishwasher, cooker, fridge and freezer in the kitchen — all marked in red on the list that came back to us, because the customer had been to the property again between emails and changed her mind on a few things. That happens more often than people expect and it costs nothing to amend. We met her at nine on the Friday morning as arranged. Afterwards: "Thank you for your service today. The invoice below has been paid."
That's a typical job here, really — a tidy Regency-ish house, a careful owner, and an access route worked out before anyone lifted a thing.
A house cleared in a single day, five mattresses and all
The second clearance worth telling ran the other way: no careful list, no red pen, just a lot of stuff and one day to do it in. It was a full house, and it came out as a first load, then a second load the same day rather than the team coming back on another morning. And five mattresses, which is nearly always the sign of a family home that has had children, then grandchildren, then spare beds nobody ever took to the tip. Mattresses are their own small problem: they don't compress, they don't stack neatly, and five of them will eat the back of a van before the wardrobes are anywhere near it. So they went on last, on top of the second load, and that was the day.
Nothing about it was dramatic. Two loads out of one building, mattresses on top, sorted as the rooms emptied. But it is the shape of a great many of the jobs we do. The whole contents gone between breakfast and the light going, with a second run rather than a second day, because a second day means locking up, re-parking and starting the carry all over again.
The customer's own summing-up of what they wanted was the sort of thing we like to get in writing before we set off. It saves an argument nobody wants to have on a landing at half past three.
Working for people who can't be here
Sidmouth has a lot of properties owned by people who live somewhere else — grown-up children in London, executors in the Midlands, a family member on the other side of the world. Quite a few of our Sidmouth house clearance jobs are run entirely by email and photograph, with the customer never setting foot in the place again.
That works, as long as we are told the things a photograph doesn't show: which key opens the side door, whether the garage is on the same key, whether a neighbour holds a spare. We photograph the walk-round on arrival and again once the rooms are empty, so whoever is responsible can see exactly what state the property was left in without driving down the A3052 to look.
Getting a van to your door
Anyone who lives here knows the problem. Almost everything outside the flat centre is on a slope — Peak Hill one side, Salcombe Hill the other, Bickwell and Woolbrook climbing away behind. Terraces near the Esplanade have steps up from the pavement and nowhere legal to leave a three-and-a-half-tonner for six hours. The retirement flats, of which there are plenty, usually have a lift and a bin store but a shared car park where the residents' spaces are spoken for.
None of it stops the job; it just changes how the day is planned. Tell us on the phone whether there's a drive, a loading bay, a lane behind, or nothing at all, and we'll bring the right vehicle and the right number of lads. A long carry adds time, and time we'd rather know about in advance than discover at ten past nine.
The kinds of house clearance Sidmouth asks us for
Probate house clearance in Sidmouth
A fair share of our work in this part of Devon is probate work, and it's rarely just lifting. On one clearance the executor lived over the county line in Somerset and posted the keys to us by Special Delivery so the team could let themselves in — signed for on the Wednesday, cleared on the Monday, keys posted straight back afterwards. He also asked whether the lads could take the meter readings while they were there, to save him a long drive for nothing: "It would save me a long journey just for that purpose if they could." They read both, gas and electric, and emailed the figures over with the completion photographs.
On probate house clearance we invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly — whichever you tell us — and the bill can be settled from the estate account, which is the usual arrangement here. There is no deposit and nothing is asked for up front; the invoice comes after the work is done. If probate hasn't been granted yet and you simply need the property emptied so it can be marketed, that's fine too. Say so on the phone and we'll date the paperwork to suit the estate.
Flat clearance in EX10
A flat clearance is a different day from a house. Stairs instead of a drive, a communal door somebody has to hold, a lift with a weight limit and a mirror in it that everybody is frightened of scratching. The retirement and sheltered schemes around the town are the commonest flat clearance we do here: one bedroom, a lounge, a small kitchen, a storage cupboard that turns out to hold more than the bedroom did. We bring blankets for the lift and we take the doors off their hinges rather than force a wardrobe through a frame, if it comes to that.
End of tenancy clearance
Landlords and managing agents ring us for end of tenancy work, usually with a date they cannot move because the next tenant is booked in. An end of tenancy clearance is generally lighter than a probate one — what's left is what the outgoing tenant didn't want — but it comes with a deadline and often a checkout report waiting on it. Tell us the day the keys have to be back and we'll work to it.
Garage and loft clearance
The garage and loft are where the volume hides. People send photographs of the rooms and forget the two spaces that will actually decide the size of the job. A garage with a mower, a workbench, six tins of hardened paint and a bike nobody has ridden since the nineties, and a loft with the boxes that went up when the last person moved in. Send us pictures of the garage and loft along with the rooms. It saves everyone a surprise on the morning.
Hoarded and heavily filled houses
Some houses aren't tidy, and we'd rather you didn't apologise for it. Bedrooms packed shoulder-height, a hallway you turn sideways to get down, a kitchen that's been shut off — we've walked into all of it in East Devon and the job simply takes more loads and more days. Nobody comments, and if there's cash, jewellery or documents likely to be buried in there, say so and the team will set anything they find aside for you rather than bag it.
What happens to the contents
Sorting happens as the rooms empty, not afterwards. Furniture that's sound, working white goods, books, tools, unopened household bits — those get offered on to charity shops and reuse schemes rather than tipped, and East Devon is not short of either. What genuinely can't be used goes to a permitted transfer station for separation, and we keep the paperwork for every load, because we're a registered waste carrier — licence CBDU419679 — and that duty of care follows the rubbish, not the van. Devon County Council runs the household recycling centres; the district council handles your kerbside bins. Neither is set up for six tonnes out of a three-bed, which is where we come in.
Two things we have to be told about beforehand. Sofas, armchairs and other upholstered seating are treated as separate regulated items now because of the fire-retardant chemicals in the foam, so they're handled apart from the general load. And solvents, paint tins, gas canisters, asbestos sheeting from an old shed roof — those need a specialist collection, not our lorry.
The scale of an ordinary house
People underestimate what's in a normal home. One list a customer sent us, room by room, ran to: sofa, armchair, coffee table, television, two dressers and a gas fire in the living room. Dining table with four chairs, another armchair, a chest freezer and a glass TV stand next door. A fridge from the kitchen. Washing machine and dryer out of the shower room. A metal stool, a plastic stool, a towel rack and a small storage unit from the bathroom. A double bed with mattress, two wardrobes, four chests of drawers, an old TV stand and a suitcase in the first bedroom. A small bed, a chest of drawers, two suitcases and an artificial Christmas tree in the second. Wardrobe, drawers, lamp, office chair, suitcase and a large rucksack in the third. A garden table with four chairs, step ladders and old tools from the shed; and in the garage, broken wooden furniture, another mattress, a metal bed frame and a stack of plastic flower pots.
Carpets stayed. That's a modest bungalow, not a mansion.
Precise instructions like that make our life easier and the day shorter. Room by room, with what stays marked as clearly as what goes — that's the best email we get.
Where we work from here
Sidmouth, Sidford, Sidbury and Newton Poppleford in EX10, then out along the coast to Budleigh Salterton in EX9 and Exmouth in EX8, inland to Ottery St Mary in EX11, and east to Seaton and Colyton in EX12 and EX24, Honiton in EX14 and Axminster in EX13. The town's own branch line closed back in the sixties, so crews and relatives alike come in via Honiton or Feniton station on the Waterloo line, or Exmouth if they're coming round the estuary.
Neighbouring towns have their own pages: house clearance in Exmouth round the estuary, house clearance in Honiton up on the A30, house clearance in Axminster further east, and house clearance in Teignmouth along the coast the other way.
Questions we get asked about house clearance in Sidmouth
Can you invoice the solicitor or the executor rather than me? Yes. On probate work we invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly, and payment can come from the estate account. There is no deposit — the invoice follows the work, not the other way round.
How do I find out what a house clearance in Sidmouth will come to? Ring the office on 0800 046 5555, or send photographs of each room through the form on this page. The garage, loft and shed as well — and we'll come back to you with a figure and a date. The estimate is free and commits you to nothing.
Do I have to be there on the day? No. Plenty of our Sidmouth house clearance jobs are run for people who live hundreds or thousands of miles away. We can work from posted keys or a key held by an agent or neighbour, and we send photographs of the empty rooms afterwards.
Do things have to be cleared out or sorted before you arrive? No. Emptying drawers and cupboards is part of the job. If anything is to stay — carpets, curtains, light fittings, a particular chest of drawers — tell us in writing beforehand and the team will work to that list.
What won't you take? Paint, solvents, gas bottles, chemicals and anything with asbestos in it need a specialist collection rather than our van. Upholstered seating and fridges are handled separately under the rules that cover them. Everything else in a normal house, we take.
How long does a house clearance take? Most take one day. A house with a full garage and loft can run to a second load the same day, and a heavily filled property can run to two or three days. We'll tell you which we think it is before we start, not halfway through.
Ring the office or send photographs of the rooms and we'll come back with a date — from the team who'll actually be on your drive at nine, not a call centre.
