Out on the peninsula
Donabate and Portrane share a peninsula between the Rogerstown and Malahide estuaries, with beaches along the east side and the Belfast railway line running through. It can feel a world away from the M1, but for us it's an ordinary run out from the Swords side, well within the area we cover every week.
The one thing we plan around is traffic. The roads in and out can be slow at commuter times, so we aim to arrive after the morning rush and to finish loading before the evening one. That keeps the van off the road at the busiest times and gives the crew a full working day in your house.
Newer estates: garages, attics and the spare room
Much of Donabate has been built since the early 2000s, and more is going up. Those houses share one thing when it comes to clearing them: storage fills up quietly. The garage stops holding a car, the attic takes everything that didn't fit anywhere else, and the spare room turns into a box room.
Typical jobs in newer homes:
- The garage, before a conversion, a sale or just to get the car back in. See garage clear-outs.
- A boarded attic full of boxes, baby gear, old decorations and suitcases. See attic clearance.
- The spare room, freed up for a new baby, a lodger or a home office.
- The whole house before a sale, so it photographs well and viewings go smoothly.
Some of the newer developments also include duplexes and apartment blocks. Those come with a management company, allocated parking and sometimes rules about when moves can happen, so it's worth checking before you book. If you're in one of those, read our apartment clearance page before you book.
spotless.ieOur attic clearance guide explains what to check before anyone goes up the ladder.
Older homes in the village and along the roads out
Donabate was a village long before the estates arrived, and its older bungalows and cottages bring different work. Gardens are bigger, sheds and outbuildings are more common, and there's often green waste and old timber to deal with as well as the contents of the house. We clear sheds and can take them down too (shed clearance), and deal with garden rubbish through our garden clearance service.
When an older house is being cleared after a death, we work patiently and set aside papers, photographs and anything personal for the family. The family can sort alongside us on the day, or we can clear in stages. See bereavement house clearance for how we approach it.
Landlords, buyers and houses that came full
Not every clearance is for the person who filled the house. It might be a landlord whose tenant left furniture behind, a buyer who got the keys to a house still half full of the previous owner's things, or a family helping a relative whose home has become hard to manage.
For landlords and letting agents, our property clearance page explains how we turn a house around between tenants. For a home that has become very cluttered, our hoarder clearance service is quiet, patient and non-judgemental, and can be done over several visits.
Need a house in Donabate or Portrane cleared? Send photos of the rooms, attic, garage and shed on WhatsApp with your Eircode, and we'll reply with a fixed price.
What decides the price
Three questions decide most of it. How much is there, roughly, in van loads? How easy is it to get out: one floor or three, a driveway at the door or a long carry? And does anything need separate disposal, such as fridges, freezers, mattresses or electricals?
Good photos answer all three, which is why we can usually give you a fixed price the same day without calling out. The price is agreed before you book and covers the trip out to the peninsula, the crew and the disposal. For a very large or unusual job we might ask to see it first.
Where the contents end up
We sort as we load, not afterwards. Furniture and household items in decent condition are set aside so they can be reused where possible. Metals, electrical items, appliances and cardboard go for recycling. Anything that can't be reused or recycled is taken to a licensed waste facility.
That matters more than it sounds. Spotless is operated by Krystal Klean Express Limited, which holds waste collection permit NWCPO-25-13287-01, and using a permitted collector protects you: if waste is dumped illegally, the householder can be held responsible. You can read more in what happens to furniture after a house clearance, or see how we work across the county on our Dublin house clearance page.
