A let that is ending for good
Most guides to clearing a rental are about the gap between tenants: take out the worn furniture, clean the carpets, let it again. This one is about a different moment. The house in Stillorgan that was let for ten or twenty years is not going back on the rental market. A son or daughter is moving in, the owner is coming home, or the family has decided to sell.
That changes every decision. Furniture that was good enough for a let is not what anyone wants to live with. Carpets cleaned between tenancies and never lifted may be at the end of their life. The garage and the attic hold things from several tenancies that nobody now owns. And instead of a letting agent's checklist, there is a family trying to picture the house as a home again.
This guide works through those decisions in order, for a typical Stillorgan house: a 1950s or 60s semi with a garage at the side, an attic over the landing and a long back garden with a shed. Our house clearance in Stillorgan page covers the area and its access, and house clearance in Dublin covers how a clearance works. If the house is going back to tenants rather than to the family, read preparing a rental property between tenants instead.
Two kinds of contents in one house
Walk through an ex-rental and you find two layers: what the last tenants left, and the landlord's own furniture, some bought for the let and some the family's furniture that went in with the first tenants and never came out. They need to be dealt with differently.
What the tenants left
Even a tidy tenant leaves things: a mattress, a desk, bags in the attic, a bike in the shed, half-used tins of paint in the garage. Most of it is rubbish to the former tenant, but what you may do with it, and when, is a legal question rather than a practical one.
The Residential Tenancies Board publishes guidance on belongings left behind at the end of a tenancy, and that is the place to start; a solicitor can advise if anything is disputed. This is practical guidance, not legal advice. Whatever the position, three habits protect you:
- photograph every room, the garage, the attic and the shed with the date before anything is moved
- keep a note of any contact with the former tenant about collecting things
- put anything that looks personal, such as post, papers or photographs, in one box, separate from everything else
Once you are satisfied the items can go, they are cleared with the rest of the house. If the former tenant is coming back for something, tell us what and where, and it stays where it is.
The landlord's own furniture
This is the harder layer, because it was yours: beds bought cheaply for each room, a sofa chosen because it would survive, a wardrobe that was your parents' and went into the let because there was nowhere else for it.
Be honest about condition. Mattresses that have been slept on through several tenancies should go, whoever is moving in. Fabric sofas and armchairs can be cleaned if the frame is sound, but a sagging seat is a sagging seat. Solid wooden pieces, the sideboard, the table, the wardrobe, are the ones most worth keeping, and the ones we can move into one room so the rest of the house is cleared around them.
Deciding what to keep for the new use
What stays depends on what happens next. Someone moving in needs a working house on day one; a sale needs an empty one. This table is a starting point.
| In the house now | Someone is moving in | The house is being sold |
|---|---|---|
| Fridge, washing machine, cooker | Keep if they work; replace one at a time later | Usually left for the buyer; check the contract |
| Beds and mattresses | New mattresses at least; frames if sound | Go, unless the agent wants a bed dressed for photographs |
| Sofas and armchairs | Keep and clean the fabric ones that are sound | One sofa may stay for photographs; the rest go |
| Curtains, blinds, light fittings | Keep until you have chosen your own | Normally stay with the house |
| Kitchen table and chairs | Keep; a table is the first thing a household needs | Go, or stay for photographs |
| Garden furniture, tools, mower | Keep the mower if it runs; the rest rarely | Go |
Mark what stays with tape or move it into one room, and send us a photo of that room with the rest; nothing marked as staying leaves the house. We do not value contents, so if a piece might be worth selling, have it looked at before the clearance.
spotless.ieThe garage, the attic and the shed
In a Stillorgan semi these three spaces hold as much as the rooms, and in an ex-rental they hold the strangest mix: leftover tiles and paint from the last refurbishment, a previous tenant's bike, decorations from a family who moved out years ago, the garden furniture that came in for one winter.
Clear them in the same visit as the house, and photograph each from the door and, for the garage, from the back wall looking out, so the whole volume shows. Two things to check before the day:
- Paint, solvents, oils, fuel, chemicals, batteries and gas cylinders are not something we take. An ex-rental's garage shelving usually has some of each, so set them aside for a civic amenity site or a hazardous waste collection.
- The attic hatch. Tell us whether it has a ladder and whether the attic is boarded.
Our pages on garage clearance, attic clearance and shed clearance go into each space in more detail.
Carpets: cleaned by hot-water extraction, or lifted
The carpets are where ex-rentals differ most from a family home. They were usually chosen for price, cleaned at the end of each tenancy if at all, and never lifted. Each room needs its own decision.
Clean it if the pile is intact, the carpet is firmly fitted and the marks are dirt rather than damage. A traffic lane from the door to the window, a grey tone and the odd spot usually come out with hot-water extraction: hot water worked through the pile and pulled straight back out, taking the dirt with it. We test a hidden patch first, under where a bed or a wardrobe stood, which also shows the original colour.
Lift it if the backing has gone, the carpet moves underfoot, there are burns or tears, or a pet or a leak has reached the underlay. A carpet in that state is lifted during the clearance and taken with the load, leaving a bare floor for whoever fits the new one. We tell you room by room which we would do, and in an ex-rental the honest answer is often to clean the bedrooms and lift the hall and stairs.
Cleaning happens after the clearance and after any painting, with the rooms empty, and a cleaned carpet wants a few hours and some heat to dry. See carpet cleaning in Stillorgan, carpet cleaning in Dublin for the method, and cleaning carpets before you move in for the timing around the removals van.
Taking a Stillorgan house back from tenants? Send a photo of each room, the garage, the attic and the garden on WhatsApp, and tell us who is moving in or whether you are selling. We will reply with one fixed price for the clearance and the carpets.
Kitchens and bathrooms: a job for a cleaner
After a clearance the kitchen and bathroom are clear and swept like every other room, but a full domestic clean of presses, oven, tiles and sanitary ware is a cleaner's job, not ours. In an ex-rental that clean is the difference between a house that feels like someone else's and one that feels like yours.
Book a cleaner for the slot between the clearance and the painter, when the rooms are empty and the presses can be opened wide.
The outside: drive, paths and patio
A rented house has often had a garden that was nobody's in particular: the drive green at the edges, the side path slippery, the patio under moss, the shed leaning.
Garden clearance takes the green waste, the broken pots, the rotten garden furniture and the shed contents, with the shed itself if it is coming down. Then the hard surfaces are washed with hot water, which lifts moss and algae from block paving, concrete and patio slabs; see driveway cleaning and patio cleaning. Power washing runs from the house's own outside tap and a power socket, so make sure both still work, and have it done last, after the trades have gone.
The order of work before anyone moves in
Most of the frustration in taking back an ex-rental comes from doing things in the wrong order: carpets cleaned before the painter, a cleaner booked before the clearance. This order works.
- Settle the question of what the tenants left. Photographs, the RTB guidance, the solicitor if needed.
- Decide what stays and move it into one room, or mark it.
- The clearance. House, garage, attic, shed and garden in one visit, carpets lifted where agreed, floors swept.
- The cleaner for the kitchen and bathroom, while the rooms are empty.
- Repairs and painting. Walls that have seen several tenancies usually need it.
- Carpets cleaned, once the painter has gone, with a day to dry.
- The outside washed.
- Move in. New mattresses delivered, the kept furniture back in place.
Allow a few weeks between the clearance and the move-in date if you can; the clearance is quick, and the trades in the middle are what need time.
If the house is being sold instead
The same order applies with two changes. The agent decides what, if anything, stays for the photographs, usually a sofa, a table and a dressed bed, and those pieces are cleared after the photographs or once the sale agrees. And the outside matters more, because the front of the house is the first photograph buyers see. Our guide to preparing a property for sale sets out that version, and property clearance in Dublin covers working with agents and solicitors to a date.
Getting a price
Photograph each room from its doorway, the garage from the door and from the back wall, the attic from the hatch, the shed and the garden, and a photograph of anything you want kept. Tell us whether someone is moving in or the house is being sold, and which date you are working to.
The price comes back in writing as one fixed figure, with the carpets and the outside priced from the same photographs, and nothing is added once we arrive. Spotless is based in Dublin and covers Dublin and all of Leinster, working Monday to Saturday between 8am and 5pm, under waste collection permit NWCPO-25-13287-01 and fully insured. Photographs can go by WhatsApp to 085 202 1222 or with the quote form. Nearby, we also cover Blackrock and Booterstown.
