Hoarder clearance in Dún Laoghaire: one finished room at a time

A clearance for someone who is staying

Most of what we write about cluttered homes assumes the house is being emptied: for a sale, for a landlord or after a death. Our guide to a hoarder house clean-up in Dublin covers that job from start to finish, and the service itself is on the hoarder clean-up page.

This page is about a different situation. The person lives in the house or the flat and is going to go on living there. It may be a terraced house a few streets back from the seafront, a flat in one of the big period houses, or an apartment in a block near the town. Nobody wants it emptied. They want it liveable: a kitchen that works, a bathroom that can be reached, a bed with clean sheets and a chair by the window.

We are not here to diagnose anything, and nothing on this page is medical advice. What we do is the practical work, at a pace the person can live with.

Why one room at a time

Clearing a whole lived-in home in a single day leaves the person with nowhere to be and a great deal to take in at once. Clearing a little from every room leaves the house looking much as it did. The method that works is in between: one room, completely, and then stop.

• The room is emptied of everything that has been agreed to go
• What is staying is checked, sorted and set to one side
• The carpet is cleaned by hot-water extraction
• Fabric chairs, the sofa or the mattress are cleaned where needed
• Furniture goes back, and the room is handed over finished

Only then do we talk about the next room. For many people the first finished room is what makes the second one possible, and there is no rule about how long the gap between them should be.

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Which room first

The person who lives there chooses, but it helps to suggest an order that makes daily life easier soonest.

If one room is too hard, we skip it. A spare room that stays full does no harm while the rest of the house is working.

What happens on a clearing day

We arrive at the time agreed, with covers for the floors and stairs. The person can be there, can sit with a family member in another room, or can be out for the day if they would rather not watch. Either way, the list of what goes has been agreed beforehand and we keep to it.

Everything is handled, not swept up. Papers with a name or an account number, photographs, cards, keys, glasses and phones go into a box that stays in the house. Medication is left where it can be found. Drawers, coat pockets and handbags are checked before anything is carried out.

What is leaving is carried to the van by us. Usable furniture and household goods are set aside for reuse where possible, metals and electrical items are recycled, and the rest goes to licensed waste facilities under our waste collection permit, NWCPO-25-13287-01. We are fully insured on every job.

Then the cleaning

This is the part that is unusual for a clearance company, and the reason the room-by-room method works with us. Once a room is empty, the same visit or the next one covers the cleaning.

Carpets. Carpet that has been under boxes and bags for years is usually dirty and flattened, not worn out. We test a hidden patch first. If it responds, hot-water extraction lifts the soil and brings the pile back up. If it has been damp for a long time or the backing has gone, we will say so, and lifting it is the honest answer.

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Sofas, armchairs and dining chairs. Fabric upholstery is cleaned the same way, with a hand tool, and left to dry with the cushions lifted. We clean fabric only, not leather or faux leather.

Mattresses. A mattress that is otherwise sound can be cleaned. One that is stained through or has lost its shape is better replaced, and we take the old one away.

What it is not. We leave rooms clear, with floors swept or vacuumed and the carpets and upholstery cleaned. It is not a deep clean of kitchens and bathrooms; if that is needed, it is a job for a cleaning company once the rooms are clear.

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Houses, flats and apartments in Dún Laoghaire

The plan changes a little with the building.

In a terraced house or cottage, the hall is narrow and everything comes out through the front door, so the hall and stairs are nearly always the first job. Tell us what the parking is like on the street, and send a photo of the kerb outside so we can plan where the van stops.

In a flat in a converted period house, the stairs and landings are shared. We cover them, keep them passable for the neighbours and carry in short runs. If the building has a managing agent, let them know the date.

In a modern apartment, there is usually a lift and a management company. Our guide to apartment clearance in Dún Laoghaire covers lifts, booking and loading in a managed block.

For houses in the town generally, see house clearance in Dún Laoghaire and the Dún Laoghaire area page.

What Spotless does, in one place

For a cluttered home in Dún Laoghaire, these are the services that come together:

• Hoarder clean-up: careful, staged clearance with the person involved in every decision.
• House clearance: the full version, when a home does have to be emptied.
• Carpet cleaning, including carpet cleaning in Dún Laoghaire: hot-water extraction for rooms, stairs and landings.
• Upholstery cleaning and mattress cleaning: fabric sofas, chairs and beds.
• Furniture removal: when a broken sofa or an old bed is the only thing that has to go.

We work Monday to Saturday, 8am to 5pm, across Dublin and all of Leinster, and we send photos of each finished room if the family cannot be there.

Getting a price

Take one photo from the doorway of each room and send them on WhatsApp to 085 202 1222, or use the quote form on this page. Tell us who lives there, which room they would like done first and what they have said must stay. You will get a fixed price for that first visit, usually the same day, and nothing is added to it afterwards.