Where the work is in an Artane house
Most of Artane was built in the 1950s and 60s: estates of semi-detached and terraced houses off the Malahide Road, the Kilmore Road and Collins Avenue, between Raheny, Coolock, Beaumont and Donnycarney. Many of the people who bought them are still there, or were until recently.
After sixty-odd years, the rooms are rarely the hard part. A bedroom can be emptied in an hour. It's the attic and the garage, and often the shed, where decades have quietly piled up, that take the time and fill the van.
Up in the attic
An Artane attic is usually reached through a hatch on the landing, sometimes with a folding ladder, sometimes with nothing but a stepladder. Some are fully boarded; many are boarded only down the middle, with insulation between the joists everywhere else. What we tend to find up there:
- suitcases and holdalls, some still packed
- Christmas decorations, artificial trees and boxes of cards
- toys, schoolbooks and cots from a generation ago
- papers and old bank statements in boxes and bags
- rolls of carpet, wallpaper and spare tiles from old decorating jobs
We bring our own lights, step only on boards and joists, and pass everything down through the hatch by hand so nothing drops onto the landing. Papers and photos are looked at before they leave. For more, see attic clearance.
If you're planning to have the attic insulated once the house is sold or the family moves in, an empty loft is exactly what the installer will need. Clearing it first saves paying for the insulation to be fitted around forty years of boxes.
spotless.ieIn the garage
Where Artane houses have a garage, it's usually beside the house, and it usually stopped holding a car a long time ago. Instead it holds tools, bikes, an old fridge or chest freezer, garden furniture, DIY leftovers and the timber someone was saving for a job. Some have been half-converted into a utility room or a workshop.
Some older garages have corrugated roof sheets that may contain asbestos. We don't touch the structure in that case; we clear the contents and leave the roof to a specialist. Mention it when you send photos if you're unsure.
We clear garages down to the floor and take out the shelving too if you want it gone. Appliances go for recycling, metals are separated, and usable tools are kept aside for reuse where possible. More on garage clear-outs, and for the shed at the end of the garden, shed clearance.
A quick guide to what builds up
| Space | What we usually find | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Attic | Boxes, cases, decorations, papers | Hatch access; we stay off the insulation |
| Garage | Tools, bikes, appliances, shelving | Paint, oil and chemicals aren't taken; use a civic amenity site |
| Shed | Lawnmower, hoses, pots, garden furniture | Can be emptied, or taken down too |
| Box room | Overflow from every other room | Usually the best room to sort first |
Attic and garage full in Artane? Send a photo through the hatch, plus the garage, the shed and each room, on WhatsApp. A fixed price comes back, usually the same day.
The rest of the house, and the family
When a whole house is being cleared, after a death, a move into care or ahead of a sale, we treat it as a family home first and a job second. You can sort alongside us, or leave it to us; either way, anything personal is handed back. See bereavement clearance for how that works. If the house has become overwhelmed with belongings, hoarder clearance explains how we work at a gentler pace. Apartments around Dublin 5 are covered on our apartment clearance page.
In the bedrooms, we empty wardrobes and the space on top of them, look under the beds and lift the mattresses, because those are the places envelopes, cash and old documents tend to turn up. Anything like that goes straight into a box for you.
If you're starting with the attic and garage before deciding about the rest, that's a sensible order. It's where most of the volume is, it gives the family a chance to find papers and keepsakes early, and the rooms can follow when you're ready.
Parking and price
Most Artane houses have a drive, which makes loading straightforward. On the Malahide Road or the busier stretches of Collins Avenue, we load from a side road and keep out of the bus lane.
The price is fixed from photos before booking. It reflects the volume, the carry (an unboarded attic takes longer than a boarded one) and anything needing special disposal. We hold waste collection permit NWCPO-25-13287-01, and we're fully insured for every job we take on.
Next door, see Raheny, Donnycarney and Santry. For the county, there's house clearance in Dublin, and the full service is explained on our house clearance page.
