House clearances always start with the best intentions. You’ve been eyeing up the boxes and unused junk that’s been taking up too much space and finally decide to get rid of it all. You dive in full throttle, and a few weeks later, all you’ve managed to do is move the rubbish to a different part of your house. It’s not uncommon when it comes to house clearances. Because life gets in the way. You get distracted. You run out of motivation. And your house clearance never actually gets done. There are things you can do to ensure your much needed house clearance is a success, and it’s a lot easier to manage than you might think. So, here’s 7 main reasons most house clearances fail, so you can make yours work.
By Team Savant
Image: Bynder
Lack Of Time
Clearing a house is a big project, and it can be harder to manage if you try to tackle a few hours at a time. One reason many clearances don’t work is because people don’t plan the time. Even clearing a single room can be a half day or full day project if you want to be thorough. Instead, many people simply try and sort their rubbish a few hours at a time after work in the week.
What to do instead: Plan the time properly. Whether it’s taking a weekend, or booking some time off work to commit to your house clearance — make sure you give yourself the time.
No Objective
When a lot of people take on a house clearance they dive in with no idea what they’re planning to sort out. They’ll flip from room to room, finding small pieces of junk to clear up, put it somewhere else and then move on to something else.
What you should do instead: Figure out exactly what you’re planning to achieve with your house clearance. Decide whether you want to take on the whole house at once, or whether you just want to focus on the one room that’s getting particularly cluttered.
There’s No Plan On What To Do With the Rubbish
There’s so much more to do with your old junk and rubbish than simply throwing it away. You can get it recycled, you can reuse it, you could donate it — you could even sell many of your unwanted goods. But the number of options can overwhelm people and they end up doing nothing.
What you should do: Come up with a plan for what you’re going to do as you move through your old rubbish. Do you simply want to throw everything away? Or could you recycle them or sell them? If you give yourself more options, make sure you organise where you’ll be putting the different items so you don’t mix them up as you go.
There’s No Organisation
When you’re clearing out your house, garden or office a lack of organisation can be a huge problem, particularly if you just end up moving things around your house from one room to another.
What you should do instead: Organise your clearance project so you know where you’ll put items while you’re sorting them. For example, have one room designated for things you want to recycle, another for general rubbish and another for goods you want to try and sell etc. This way you’ll at least feel on top of your project as you go.
People Aren’t Ruthless Enough
We’ve all been there when we’re having a clear out. Everything we haven’t used or seen for the past year is going to go — we’re determined. But then it comes to the actual clearance and all of a sudden we’re thinking about keeping the old laptop from five years ago or the board game with pieces missing or the old furniture you put away for a ‘just a few weeks’ while you organised a collection that never happened.
What you should do instead: Be as ruthless as you can be. Are you really going to bring the old laptop out even though it’s 10 years out of date with an operating system that no longer exists. Or are you really going to revamp that battered chair? Remember, most of the things you’ll find during a clear out you didn’t even know you still owned until you stumbled across them — so is it really worth keeping?
They Don’t Arrange Their Removal Service Early Enough
What most people do when planning their removal service, is they wait until after they’ve sorted their rubbish. But this can cause delays depending which removal service you choose.
What you should do instead: Once you’ve got an idea of the type of rubbish you’ll be getting rid of, you should book your removal service early. This puts a deadline on your house clearance and can make you more motivated to complete your project before your removal service turns up.
Arrange Your Professional House Clearance
When it comes to planning your house clearance, hiring the right rubbish removal service can make all the difference. It’ll take away a lot of the work and hassle of sorting your rubbish and taking it outside on the day of collection as you can get your junk removed directly from your home, garden or office.
With next day delivery available, you can even get that emergency collection sorted for the days when you just need to get waste taken away quickly, and with the right removal service, real-time tracking will be available so you can monitor your collection right to your front door.
Planning your removal service is just one part of the process of course, but following the advice in this guide will help make your house clearance a success.