We have been doing house clearance in Bridport since 2007, and in the DT6 villages that sit round it. Probate work, end of tenancy work, flats, bungalows, garages, lofts, and the sheds at the bottom of the garden. Below are two real jobs and the plain mechanics of how a day goes — and if you would rather talk to somebody than read, the office is on 0800 046 5555.
The walker in the hall stayed. So did the cooker, and the bird perch in the kitchen — those three things were on the list of what not to touch, and everything else in the flat came out. It was a small one-bedroom ground-floor flat in a sheltered complex on the DT6 side of Bridport, cleared on a Monday morning at the end of June 2024. The tenancy had to be given back before the thirtieth, which is the sort of deadline that decides a date for you. Access was through a key safe, so nobody had to drive down and stand about waiting for us. There was one van space at the front of the complex and we used it.
Out of that flat came a fridge freezer, a mattress, a television set, and an upholstered chair that had to be booked in separately. One load, then a clean through the whole place afterwards so the flat could be handed back looking like somewhere a person could move into rather than somewhere a life had just been packed up. The family were dealing with the estate at the time. Afterwards one of them wrote: "Thanks for this. It is a relief to have it finished and have done a thorough job"
That word — relief — comes up more than anything else in what people write to us after a Bridport clearance.
What we do with what comes out
Nothing sensible gets binned just because it's easier. Furniture that's sound, kitchenware, books, tools, garden bits — pass it on to charity shops and reuse schemes rather than a skip. Bridport keeps a good run of charity shops along South Street and East Street, plus the Wednesday and Saturday market, so there is usually somewhere for a decent sideboard to go. What genuinely can't be reused goes to a permitted transfer station and comes back as a weighbridge ticket. Our waste carrier registration with the Environment Agency is CBDU419679, and Dorset Council can look it up in thirty seconds if anyone ever asks who took the contents away.
Upholstered furniture is the fiddly one. Sofas, armchairs, padded dining chairs, some mattresses — since 2023 the foam and fabric in them have to be kept apart from ordinary bulky waste and burned under permit, because of the flame retardants in them. Persistent Organic Pollutants, if you want the full name; POP items, as the paperwork has it. They travel a different route to a different permitted site and there's no way round it, so we tell you about it before the day rather than after.
Paint tins, gas canisters, oil drums, asbestos sheeting off an old garage roof — those don't ride in with the household load. We'll say so on the phone and point you at the household recycling centre or a specialist, and the rest of the job carries on as normal.
A three-bed house clearance, three sheds, and one chair to keep
Another one, and a completely different shape of day. A three-bedroom property where the house itself was barely the job at all. The customer set it out for us before we booked anything: "Its a three bedroom property but the house is pretty much empty. There’s furniture in one room but we don’t want it removed. No white goods or pop"
So: no fridge, no washer, no sofa, nothing that needs the POP route, and one room left exactly as it stood. The work was outside. Three sheds, all of them going, and one survivor — "There’s 3 sheds to clear, one arm chair to be kept from there but everything else binned". An armchair in a shed. Somebody wanted it, so it came out first and went where they asked, and the rest of three sheds' worth of decades went into the van. Team and one load, and a fair bit of garden work with it.
The handover was as simple as it gets: "Nothing to clean. Just emptied". No sweep-through, no polish, nobody moving in behind. Empty was the whole requirement.
Two things about that job are worth saying, because they come up on half our enquiries. The first is that before it went in the diary they asked us, quite reasonably, who would actually be at the property on the day and who to speak to once the estimate had been done — a sensible question, and one nobody should feel awkward asking. It was a repeat customer, so we could put the same team back on it, the ones who had been before. The second is that the invoice didn't go to the person at the door; it went to a relative at another address entirely, which is the normal state of affairs on estate work and causes us no trouble at all.
We also ask two questions before every booking, and did on that one: whether anyone at the property is unwell, and whether there is any hazardous or verminous waste in it. Both answers were no. If the answer is yes to either, it doesn't stop the job — it changes how the crew turns up.
Getting to you
Bridport lost its railway in 1975 and never got it back, which shapes how this town works. The nearest usable station is Maiden Newton, up the valley on the Heart of Wessex line, and after that Dorchester West and Dorchester South, or Crewkerne and Axminster if you're coming from the east or west along the main line. Most people arrive by road. So do we — the A35 through Chideock and Charmouth from one side, or over from Dorchester on the other, and the vans come loaded for a full day because there is nowhere to nip out to for another dozen packing boxes once you're in West Dorset.
Parking is the usual seaside-town business. The centre is fine, wide streets and space by the market. Terraces off North Allington and the older lanes behind East Street are tighter, and West Bay in summer is a job we'd rather book for early morning than mid-afternoon.
The kinds of house clearance we take on in Bridport
Probate house clearance in Bridport
Most of what we do here is probate house clearance, and most of it is arranged by somebody who doesn't live in the county. West Dorset is full of houses whose owners retired to the coast and whose children didn't follow — a fair number of Bridport clearances are run from London, Cardiff or Bristol, with one relative or a neighbour holding a key. That works well, in our experience. Somebody standing there who knows which box is which saves an hour of us asking, and it means nothing goes on the van that the family later wishes hadn't. We invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly, we are used to waiting while probate goes through, and there is no deposit. Say at the first phone call that it's a probate job and we'll set the paperwork up that way from the start.
End of tenancy clearance in Bridport
An end of tenancy clearance is a different animal, and the difference is the date. Sheltered schemes, housing associations and private landlords all want the keys back on a fixed day, and everything works backwards from it — the flat above was a straight end of tenancy job with a hard deadline of the thirtieth. Landlords and managing agents in Bridport tend to ask for the same package: everything out, the floors swept and washed, keys back the same afternoon. Tell us the handover date first and we'll tell you honestly whether we can hold it.
Flat clearance in DT6
Flat clearance in DT6 is usually one of three things: a sheltered scheme, a converted floor over a shop in the middle of town, or a small block out towards West Bay. All three mean stairs, a communal door that mustn't be wedged open while other residents are coming and going, and one parking space if you're lucky. We carry down rather than argue with a lift that isn't there. Key safes are fine by us — a good proportion of our flat clearance work happens with nobody from the family within a hundred miles.
Garage and loft clearance in Bridport
Half the Bridport jobs we quote turn on two questions people forget to answer: is the garage in, and is the loft in. Bungalows are quicker than they look, as a rule. No stairs to carry a wardrobe down, and the garage usually swallows whatever the house couldn't hold, so it's all on one level and within a few steps of the tailgate. Lofts are the variable. Sometimes the hatch stays shut and we never touch it; plenty of times it doesn't, and a hoarded roof space in a Bridport bungalow can add three hours on its own. Sheds, greenhouses and the lean-to behind the kitchen count in the same breath — as the three-shed job above shows, the outside can be the whole job. Have a look before you ring and tell us what's up there, even if the answer is "no idea, it's been shut since Dad's time".
What we cover round here
Bridport and the DT6 villages are the core of it — Bradpole, Allington, Bothenhampton, Symondsbury, Eype, Burton Bradstock, West Bay, Netherbury. West along the coast to Chideock, Charmouth and house clearance in Lyme Regis, and on towards Crewkerne, which is over the county line in Somerset. North up the Brit valley to Beaminster. East to house clearance in Dorchester and the villages around it, and as far as house clearance in Sherborne in the top of the county. All of it West Dorset, all of it Dorset Council for waste rules and permits.
Quotes, probate and the awkward ones
On what it costs, this page does one thing and no more: ring the office on 0800 046 5555, or send photographs of each room through the form on this page, and you'll get a figure back. We don't print numbers on a web page, because a three-bed with an empty loft and a three-bed with a full one are not the same house and never will be. Photographs help, but they aren't compulsory — the postcode district, the number of bedrooms, and whether the loft, garage and shed are in or out is usually enough.
Executors and solicitors' clients, plainly: we invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly, the bill can be settled out of the estate, there's no deposit, and nothing is due until the work is finished and you've seen it done.
Houses that have got badly on top of someone — floor-to-ceiling, paths between the furniture, a decade of post in the hall — are ordinary work for this team and nobody makes a face about it. If there's cash, jewellery or paperwork likely to be in among it, tell us and the crew will set anything like that aside for you rather than let it go on the van. That happens more often than people expect.
Questions people ask us about house clearance in Bridport
Do I have to be there on the day? No. A key safe, a neighbour with a spare set, or an agent letting us in all work fine — the sheltered flat above was done through a key safe with the family two counties away. If somebody can be there for the first half hour it does help, because that's when the questions come.
Can you invoice a solicitor on a probate house clearance? Yes. We invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate direct, and payment can come out of the estate once probate has gone through. There's no deposit and nothing is due up front. Say so when you first ring and we'll set it up that way.
What will it cost to clear a house in Bridport? We don't publish figures. Ring 0800 046 5555 or send photographs of each room through the form on this page, and you'll get a figure back for your house rather than a guess for somebody else's.
What won't you take? Paint tins, gas canisters, oil drums, asbestos — off a garage roof or anywhere else. We'll tell you on the phone and point you at the household recycling centre or a specialist, and the rest of the clearance goes ahead as planned.
Will you clear just a garage, a loft or one item? Yes. A single wardrobe down two flights, a garage and loft clearance with the house left alone, three sheds and nothing indoors — all of it is normal. It doesn't have to be a whole house.
How much notice do you need? It depends on the week and on where the vans already are. If you're working to an end of tenancy date or a completion date, give us the date first and we'll tell you straight whether we can hold it rather than promise and reshuffle.
Ring or email with the postcode district, the number of bedrooms, and whether the loft, garage and shed are in or out. That's usually enough for a proper figure without anyone having to drive to Bridport first.
