We have been doing house clearance in Alton since 2007, and a fair number of the jobs look like this one. The invoice is dated a Wednesday in August 2021, and the work was done and dusted before lunch — a house up at the church end of town, GU34, emptied in a single load with two mattresses out of it as well. The person paying wasn't in the town at all. They were living over near Guildford and had come down the A31 for the morning to open up. What came back afterwards was short, and we have kept it: "Thanks so much to you and the team for the clearance this morning". The bank transfer landed the same afternoon.
That job is typical of Alton work in one respect at least. More often than not the house is here and the person sorting it out is somewhere else — Guildford, Winchester, London, sometimes a good deal further. They can give you a morning, not a week. So the arrangement is nearly always the same: meet the team at nine, walk them round, point at the two or three things that are staying, and let them get on with it. One load, in that case, meant the whole house — the furniture, the contents of the cupboards and drawers, the boxes nobody had opened, and the pair of mattresses. Nothing needed boxing up beforehand, which is worth saying, because people spend evenings bagging things they never needed to touch.
The mattresses, and why they go a different route
Two mattresses came out of that clearance and they were counted apart from the rest of the load. There is a reason for it and it isn't padding. Upholstery foam and the fire-retardant treatment in it have to travel a different route from ordinary household bulk — a regulated stream, kept separate and destroyed rather than tipped. Sofas and armchairs are in the same boat now, and so are a good many older upholstered dining chairs that look innocent enough until you turn them over. So we count them, and we tell you what is going on the van before anything moves.
The same goes for fridges and freezers, for televisions and monitors, and for a handful of other things. Every load leaves with a waste transfer note against it. If you want copies for the estate paperwork, ask, and we will send them on once the transfer station has issued them. Fair thing to ask for, and more people should.
What leaves in the van, and where it ends up
Furniture somebody would still want, we would rather see go out of the front door than into the back of the tipper. Charity depots and reuse projects around East Hampshire will take good sofas, wardrobes, decent dining sets, sometimes white goods if they are recent and working. Books and bric-a-brac shift easily in a market town like this one. What cannot be re-homed is weighed in at a licensed transfer station and sorted there for recycling.
Some things we simply cannot put in an ordinary load, and it is better said up front than argued about on the doorstep. Half-used paint. Gas bottles, patio or otherwise. Solvents, oil, car batteries, and anything clinical — a sharps bin belongs at a pharmacy, not in our van. Asbestos sheeting off a garage roof is a specialist job and we will tell you so rather than touch it.
We hold waste carrier licence CBDU419679 with the Environment Agency, and we are insured for the work, including for the property while we are in it. East Hampshire District Council runs the household collections in Alton itself; the bulky stuff and the whole-house work is where we come in.
Alton, and getting a van to the door
The town sits in a dip where the Wey rises, and the older part of it — the streets running off the High Street, the cottages near St Lawrence's — was laid out long before anyone thought about a Luton van with a tail lift. Some of those approaches are narrow, one car wide in places, with residents' bays either side and a wall you do not want to catch. It is rarely impossible. It just wants knowing about in advance, because if we have to walk everything forty yards to a legal parking spot that eats into the day, and we would sooner tell you on the phone than surprise you with it.
Out on the newer edges — the post-war semis, the estates towards Holybourne and Beech, the bungalows out past Chawton and Four Marks — it is usually a driveway and no drama at all. Bungalows here throw up their own thing: a loft hatch with a proper pull-down ladder and forty years of boxes above it, a shed, a greenhouse, and a garage nobody has fully opened since about 2005.
Alton station is the end of the line from Waterloo, out through Woking, Farnham and Bentley, and it is also where the Watercress Line steam trains set off towards Medstead, Ropley and Alresford. Handy if you are coming down for the day to let us in and going back the same evening. Several people have done exactly that: met us at nine, and caught a train home once the keys were sorted.
The kinds of house clearance we do in Alton
Probate house clearance Alton
A good share of the clearances round here are part of settling an estate. Probate changes the paperwork rather than the work itself. We can invoice an executor, a family member, or the estate's solicitor directly, and a probate house clearance is commonly paid from the estate rather than out of anyone's own pocket. There is no deposit; the invoice follows once the house is empty and you have seen it. Photographs of the cleared rooms we take as a matter of course when the person who instructed us cannot be there — it is the only way they can see what has been done. If keys need dropping back to an agent or a neighbour at the end of the day, say so beforehand and we will build it into the plan rather than ringing you at four o'clock. More on how we handle estates is on our probate house clearance page.
End of tenancy clearance and flat clearance in GU34
Plenty of jobs are the last bits before a completion or a check-out — a bed, an armchair, a mattress and a garage of odds and ends, a fortnight before the keys change hands. Half a load and a couple of hours. Flat clearance in GU34 is mostly a question of stairs and of where the van can legally sit while we are using them, which is why we ask about both when you ring.
Garage and loft clearance in Alton
More common here than a full house, if we are honest. A garage that has not been opened properly in years, a loft above a bungalow, a shed at the bottom of a long garden. It is usually one team for half a day, and the awkward part is almost never the volume — it is the ladder, the doorway, or the fact that the garage is round the back and forty yards from anywhere a van can stand. If it is only a couple of items, that is a house rubbish removal job rather than a full clearance, and we will say so.
Hoarder house clearance Alton
Some properties have been filling up steadily for thirty years — cupboards, lofts, both sheds. A hoarder house clearance takes two or three loads and sometimes two days, and it is worked room by room rather than rushed. We are not going to make a face about it, and we are not going to talk about it afterwards either.
Carpets, curtains and what stays
Carpets and underlay come up on nearly every quote. We can lift them and take them away, or leave them exactly where they are — buyers sometimes want them left, and so do landlords. Same with curtains, white goods, light fittings and the odd item somebody has second thoughts about halfway through the morning. Tell us what stays and it stays. If the team gets inside and finds a loft nobody mentioned, they will ring you before carrying on, not after.
Where we cover round here
Alton and the GU34 postcode district are the middle of it: the town centre, Holybourne, Beech, Chawton, Four Marks, Medstead and Bentley, out to Selborne, Binsted and the Candovers where the lanes get thin. South and east we are regularly in Bordon, Liss, Liphook and Rowland's Castle, and north the ground runs up to the Surrey border.
If your house is closer to one of the neighbouring towns, it has its own page: house clearance in Petersfield for the villages down that way, house clearance in Fleet for the north of the county, and house clearance in Chichester if the property is further south. Not sure which of us you want? Ring and we will tell you straight, even if the answer is the other page.
Common questions about house clearance in Alton
How much does a house clearance in Alton cost?
We will not guess at a number over the internet. Ring 0800 046 5555 or send photographs of each room through the form on this page and we will come back with a written quote — free, and it commits you to nothing.
Can you invoice the solicitor handling the estate?
Yes. We invoice executors, family members or the estate's solicitor directly, and a probate house clearance can be settled from the estate. No deposit is asked for; the invoice comes after the house is clear.
Do I need to be there on the day?
No. A lot of Alton clearances are opened up by a neighbour, an agent or a relative who can only give us an hour. We photograph the cleared rooms and send them over the same day, and we will drop keys back wherever you tell us.
What will you not take away?
Paint, gas bottles, solvents, oil, car batteries, clinical waste and asbestos. Everything else in an ordinary house is fair game, including mattresses, sofas and fridges, which go down a regulated route rather than into the general load.
How long does a house clearance in Alton take?
A part-house or a flat is a morning. A full three-bed with a loft and a garage is usually a day. Where the house has been filling up for decades, plan on two.
Getting a quote for house clearance in Alton
Ring 0800 046 5555, or send photographs of the rooms through the form on this page — the second is quicker and more accurate, and it means you get a figure in writing. Tell us the postcode district, roughly what is in the house, and whether there is anywhere for a van to stand. If there is something odd in the garden or the garage you are unsure about, ask, and we will give you a straight answer either way.
