Part of the house, not all of it
Plenty of the calls we get from Cabra aren't about emptying a whole house. Someone still lives there, sometimes someone who has been there for fifty years or more, and what they need is a few rooms back: the box room, the back bedroom, the shed, maybe the front room. The rest of the house carries on as normal.
The compact two-storey houses around Cabra and Cabra West suit this kind of job. There are only so many rooms, so clearing even two of them changes how the whole house works. If the house needs emptying from top to bottom, for a sale or after a death, our main Cabra page covers full clearances in Dublin 7.
Working around the person who lives there
A partial clear-out in a lived-in home needs a little planning, so nobody is left without a kettle or a bed at the end of the day. We agree three things before we start:
- Which rooms we're clearing, and which doors stay shut.
- What stays in those rooms, marked with a sticker or moved out the day before.
- Where the van will load, so the path from the room to the front door is short and clear.
While we work, the kitchen and the sitting room stay usable. We carry things out through the hall with covers down, and we're usually finished in a few hours. Nothing leaves a room without being checked, and we'll ask about anything that looks personal.
Downsizing without moving house
Not everyone who downsizes moves out. For a lot of older people it means living in fewer rooms of the same house:
- A bed downstairs. The front room is cleared so a bed can go in when the stairs get too much.
- Space for a carer. A back bedroom emptied for a carer or a relative who stays over.
- Room for adaptations. Clearing the way before a stairlift, grab rails or a downstairs shower room go in.
- Upstairs closed off. Bedrooms nobody uses any more emptied, so there's less to heat and keep.
Some people do move, to a smaller place nearby, a senior citizens' flat or in with family. That's a bigger job, but the approach is the same, and nothing goes until the person moving has had their say.
The box room
Most Cabra houses have one, and it's usually the first room to fill. It's the small room over the stairs that became the store when the last child moved out: bags of clothes, a cot, suitcases, boxes from three house moves ago and a single bed nobody sleeps in.
It's also a quick room to win back. A box room is often an hour or two's work, and it can become a nursery for a new grandchild, a small study, or a bedroom for someone moving home.
spotless.ieWant a few rooms back in Dublin 7? Send photos of the rooms, the shed or the attic you want cleared on WhatsApp. We'll reply with a fixed price for just that, usually the same day.
Out the back
Behind most Cabra houses is a garden with a shed or an old outhouse that's been filling up for decades: tools, tins of paint, a mower that hasn't started since the nineties, bikes, timber and flowerpots. We empty it, sweep it out and can take the shed itself away if it's past saving. Garden waste goes in the same load.
Old paint and chemicals need their own disposal, so mention them with your photos. Where there's a side passage, everything comes out that way; where there isn't, it comes through the house, and the floors get covered first.
How smaller jobs are priced
A part-house clear-out is priced on what's going, not on the size of the house. Typical jobs look like this:
| Job | What's usually in it | Time on site |
|---|---|---|
| Box room | Bags, boxes, a single bed or a cot | An hour or two |
| Two or three bedrooms | Beds, wardrobes, chests of drawers, bags | Half a day or so |
| Shed and back garden | Tools, bikes, paint tins, garden waste | A couple of hours |
| Attic | Boxes and bags passed down through the hatch | One to three hours |
For just a couple of bulky items, furniture removal is the better fit. If there's an attic or a garage to do as well, add them to your photos.
Gently does it
Sometimes a partial clear-out follows a death: a widow or widower who is ready to let a partner's clothes and things go, but not ready to leave the house. We go at their pace, and our bereavement house clearance page explains how. If a home has become hard to move around in because of the amount in it, we can clear one room at a time; see hoarder clearance. For someone moving out of a flat or an apartment instead, see apartment clearance.
Reusable items are kept back, metals and appliances recycled and the rest taken to licensed facilities. We're an authorised waste carrier with permit NWCPO-25-13287-01. For the rest of the city, start with house clearance in Dublin.
