Why clear your belongings before moving home?

Here are our top tips for clearing your belongings when moving house. There are many reasons why you might need to dispose of some of your possessions.

  • There’s not enough room in your new home
  • You want to make some extra money to help pay for those moving costs.
  • You have been planning a spring clean for a long time and this is the perfect opportunity.
  • You have inherited a lot of belongings or furniture from family members over the years and you’ve no where to put them.

Whatever your reasons you need to find a straightforward, trouble free  way of disposing of your unwanted or surplus belongings when you move house.  There are a number of routes open to you but your removals company can usually help with most of them.

  • Selling your belongings
  • Recycling your possessions
  • Disposal throwing away
  • Storage

The first thing is to work out what you want to take with you when you move and what you want to clear out.

Selling your belongings

 

  • Auction Rooms/houses – are great places to start for those heirlooms. It’s a specialist area  and they are in the unique position to advise and assist you with the sale of all kinds of items. Whether its antiques, art, furniture or collectables. Check with your removals company they may already have a working relationship with the auction houses in your area.
  • Internet selling –  eBay is a good place to start, an online website where you can list your items for sale.  But, like auction houses you sometimes have to pay a fee.
  • Car Boot sales – are a great place to sell your items.  It’s hard work with an early start and but usually great fun for all the family.  Your local papers will have listings of all of your car boot sales in your area.
  • Local adverts  – You can use your local papers, newsagents, community notice boards and free magazines to advertise your items. These are good for the bigger items that need collection.

Recycling your belongings

This isn’t just about taking your items to recycling facilities and local dumps where you can recycle clothing, tools and electrical equipment. Recycling is also about giving things away to people or charities that can re-use them.

  • Freecycle – is an online nationwide network of groups that promote recycling of goods between users.  Their goal being to keep usable items out of landfills.They match people who have things they want to get rid of with people who can use them.
  • Gumtree – is not as big as eBay but it does have a section where you can give your stuff away. It’s labelled ‘freebies’  and often other people post what they are looking for aswell.
  • Charities – most areas have charity shops who are always looking for donations. Be careful what you drop off as some shops specialise in clothing and books but don’t accepts childrens toys for example. So it’s always best check beforehand. They might even offer a pick-up service.

Disposal

  • Here again your removals company maybe able to help.  Make sure they are a registered waste carrier with the environment agency and are able to legally dispose of items of no commercial value. They may offer this service as part of moving you.
  • Skip hire – these work well most offer a 1 day service or longer if you prefer.
  • Local household and recycling centres. – Fondly referred to as dumps.  Remember if you are using a commercial vehicle you’ll need a permit.

 Storage

This is always a good option. You maybe between homes for a while and need a short term storage option. Or you have larger items that you don’t want to sell but need to store on a long term basis. Again your removals company may offer this service or you can rent your own individual unit.  Agree a price up front before you move. Visit the facilities so you can check out their security and see how and where your belongings will be stored.

 

If you are moving house soon Clarks of Amersham has a free no obligation provisional booking service so give us a call on 01494 774186 and we will book you in. And don’t forget you can to fill in our  online estimate form and we will get straight back to you with a guide price. Don’t forget to mention if you want help with disposing of some of your belongings