We have been clearing houses since 2007, and a good part of that is house clearance in Dorchester and the villages spread out around it — DT1 for the town itself, DT2 for everything beyond it. What follows is two real jobs and the practical business around them: parking, the order of the day, what cannot go in the van, and where the contents actually end up.
The cricket score books were the thing we were told to watch out for. A two-bedroom terrace in DT1, June 2024, two days booked, and among the printed lists handed to the team at nine in the morning was a line about them. A family asked us to look out for a set of old cricket score books they wanted to hand back. They surfaced on the second day, flat and foxed at the corners, under a drift of paperwork in the dining extension. Somebody's Saturday afternoons, in pencil, going back years. They went into a box by the front door instead of into the van.
That house was a simple shape and an awkward volume. Two bedrooms, one bathroom, living room, kitchen, and a dining extension added on the back, and every one of those rooms had something in it. The family had been through the contents beforehand and written up a keep list, which is honestly the best thing anyone can do for us — it turns a day of asking questions into a day of carrying. They also warned us there was still food in the fridge and probably in the small freezer as well. That is normal on a probate job. Nobody wants to open a freezer that has been shut since a funeral. We take it out, bag it, and it goes off the property with everything else, and the appliances come out afterwards with the gas circuits intact rather than being tipped on their side in the road.
Parking, and why we ask about it in Dorchester
Access is the question that decides how a Dorchester day runs. The terraces at the top of town, up towards Fordington and the roads that climb away from High East Street, are Victorian and the streets in front of them were laid out for carts. A Luton van needs a length of kerb, and there often isn't one going spare. On the June job the family sorted it themselves — a neighbour on the same run was told in advance that a van would be sitting outside for two days, and a quick phone call the day before confirmed it. That is worth more than any amount of planning on our side.
It is a pattern across the whole DT1 and DT2 area. In Poundbury the road layout is deliberately tight and the parking courts sit behind the houses, so we sometimes carry further than we'd like. Out in the villages — Charminster, Puddletown, Broadmayne, the lanes off the A35. There is usually a farm gateway or a drive we can back into, but the lane itself is single track and we don't want to sit in it blocking a milk tanker. When you ring, tell us what is in front of the property. If it is a bay you'll need to suspend, say so early; Dorset Council want notice for that and it is easier arranged a fortnight ahead than on the Monday morning.
A three-bedroom bungalow, arranged entirely by email
Not every clearance is booked by somebody standing in the hall. One of ours, in September 2025, was organised from a long way off by a customer who never met the team on site at all. He filled in the booking form, then sent photographs of the items to be cleared and of the access and parking at the property, then an updated list of the contents. Then a second email a few minutes later, because he wasn't sure the first set of pictures had gone through, this time with the photos zipped up so they would send properly. Nobody minds that. We would far rather have too many photographs than a phone call that opens with "it's only a few bits".
It was a three-bedroom bungalow, with parts of it excluded from the job, booked for a Wednesday. His questions came before the date rather than on it, which is how you want it, and the first one was about the vehicle:
"What size van will you be using - presumably the bigger capacity van?"
Fair question, and the honest answer depends on what the photographs show. He also wanted to know what happens if the whole lot does not go in one run and the crew has to come back the following day, and which items count as upholstered furniture — mattresses, chairs, soft furnishings. Sofas, armchairs, stools and seat cushions go down a controlled route because of the flame retardants in them, and they cannot simply be thrown in with a mixed household load. That is a legal requirement on how the stuff is handled, not a matter of preference, and it is much better understood in advance than explained on the doorstep with the tailgate down.
The other thing that job did well, and it is worth copying: the contents list was updated when the situation changed. Lists go stale. A relative comes and takes the dresser, somebody decides the loft is staying after all, a bed is sold. Send us the revised version and the crew and the vehicle get matched to what is actually there.
Where the load actually goes
Everything that leaves a Dorset property is sorted rather than tipped. Furniture that is sound, crockery, books, tools, bikes, curtains still on their hooks. The first question is always whether a reuse shop or a local charity can take it, and a fair amount of what we lift in West Dorset goes back out that way. Textiles and metals are separated at the yard. What genuinely cannot be reused is weighed in at a permitted transfer station and we hold the paperwork for every load, so if a solicitor or an executor asks where the contents of a house went, there is an answer with a ticket attached. Our waste carrier registration is CBDU419679 and it is worth checking that number, or anyone else's, before a van pulls away with somebody's estate in the back.
On a probate job the invoice goes to the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly, and it can be settled out of the estate rather than from anyone's own pocket. There is no deposit — nothing is asked for before the work is done.
A few things we have to leave. Half-used tins of gloss in the shed, patio gas cylinders, asbestos sheeting on a lean-to roof, an old drum of creosote. None of that can travel in a mixed household load, and paint, gas cylinders and creosote go to the household recycling centres at Dorchester and Bridport; asbestos needs a licensed specialist — the council sites don't take it. Tell us what's in the garage when you book and we'll say plainly what we can and can't lift. If it is loose rubbish rather than a whole house, that is house rubbish removal and it is booked the same way.
Bungalows, part-clears and jobs run by somebody else
Not every booking is a whole house. A good share of the house clearance Dorchester and its villages need is partial. The furniture stays because the property is being sold with it, and it is the cupboards, the wardrobes, the loft and the accumulation of a long occupancy that have to go. Or a garage and loft clearance is the whole of it, with the rooms left alone. A flat clearance above the shops in the town works the same way.
Or one room is untouched because a relative is coming for it at the weekend. All of that is fine — it just has to be written down before the day, because a crew that has been told "everything" and then finds a keep pile works slower and asks more questions than anyone wants. It is also common that whoever booked the job is not there. A sister, a neighbour, a managing agent meets the team with the keys and makes the calls on the borderline items.
That works perfectly well, as long as the person on site actually has the authority to say yes.
Overfull houses are part of what we do too, and we don't make a performance of it. If a place has been filling up for twenty years and there are paths between the rooms rather than floors, we bring more crew and more days, and nobody on the team passes comment. That is hoarder house clearance and it is ordinary work to us. Loose cash and jewellery turn up in those houses more often than people expect — in tea caddies, in coat pockets, taped inside drawers — and it gets set aside on the kitchen worktop for whoever booked the job. Same with documents. Deeds, war medals, photographs: they come out of the skip pile and go on the table.
What it costs, and where we cover
We don't publish figures, and we won't guess one down the phone from a description. Send photographs of each room through the form on this page, or walk us round on a video call, and you get a written, no-obligation estimate before anything is booked. Where an estate is settling, we can deal with the solicitor or the executor directly and wait for probate rather than chase anybody on the day of the clearance. Most of our probate house clearance work runs exactly that way, with the executor several counties off and the keys in a safe on the wall.
Dorchester sits in the middle of our West Dorset work and we run out from it in every direction. DT2 for the villages, DT6 to house clearance in Bridport and West Bay, DT7 for house clearance in Lyme Regis, DT8 around Beaminster, DT9 up at house clearance in Sherborne, and down the A354 to Weymouth. East along the A35 the county changes character entirely and the conurbation begins; house clearance in Bournemouth has a page of its own, as do Poole and Christchurch. Two stations, which is unusual for a town this size — Dorchester South on the Waterloo to Weymouth line and Dorchester West on the route up through Yeovil towards Bath and Bristol. Both are useful if you are coming down to meet us and handing back a set of keys the same afternoon.
Common questions about house clearance in Dorchester
Do you do probate house clearance in Dorchester?
Yes, and it is the bulk of what we do here. Probate work is usually a whole house, often with a keep list, and often booked by somebody who lives nowhere near DT1. We can work from a key safe, send photographs of the empty rooms afterwards, and hold the disposal paperwork for the file.
How long does a house clearance in Dorchester take?
A small flat is generally one day. The two-bedroom terrace above was two, because of the volume rather than the floor area. A full three-bedroom house with a loft, a garage and a shed is usually two, sometimes three if access is poor and the van has to sit up the road.
Do you clear lofts, garages and sheds as well?
Yes, unless they are excluded when you book. Say which, because loft and garage clearance changes the shape of the day — the loft is slow, ladder work, and the crew plan around it.
Can you do an end of tenancy clearance to a fixed date?
We can, and the date is normally the whole point. Tell us when the keys have to go back and we work to it. We can also clean the rooms once they are empty, which is often what settles the argument about the deposit.
Do you cover the villages, or only the town?
Both. DT2 is a large district and we are out in it constantly — Charminster, Puddletown, Broadmayne, the lanes off the A35. Single-track access is not a problem as long as we know about it in advance.
What can't you take away?
Paint, gas cylinders, creosote, chemicals and asbestos. Everything else in a normal household — furniture, white goods, mattresses, upholstery, garden clutter — goes, with the fridges and upholstered items handled down their own controlled routes.
If you have a house, a flat or a bungalow to empty anywhere in the county, ring 0800 046 5555 or use the form on this page and describe it: the property, the access, and roughly what is still inside. We will tell you how many days it needs and what happens on each of them.
