The garage that never held a car
Ask anyone in Knocklyon what's in their garage and you'll rarely hear "the car". Most of the estates here were built in the 1970s and 1980s, between Templeogue, Ballyboden and Firhouse, as semi-detached and detached family homes, many with a garage at the side and a drive at the front. Within a few years of moving in, those garages had become the family store.
Forty-odd years later, that's where a Knocklyon clearance usually begins. A typical Knocklyon garage holds:
- bikes in every size, from stabilisers to racers
- sports gear: hurleys, golf clubs, tennis rackets, football boots
- band equipment, from drum kits to amplifiers
- a spare fridge or a chest freezer
- paint, tiles and offcuts left over from every job on the house
- furniture that moved out when a room was redone
We empty it, take down shelving and benches if you want them gone, and sweep it out. Fridges and freezers go for appliance recycling; tins of paint and chemicals need separate disposal, so mention them. There's more on our garage clear-out page and in the garage clearance guide.
Before the garage becomes a room
Plenty of garages in houses like these end up as something else: a playroom, a home office, a utility, or a downstairs bedroom for a parent moving in. Whatever the plan, the builder needs an empty shell, and that's where we come in.
- Everything out. Contents, shelving, wall cabinets, the old workbench and the carpet offcuts on the floor.
- Fixtures left alone. The boiler, the washing machine plumbing, the electrics and the door are for your builder.
- Keepers moved first. Tools and garden things you're keeping go to the shed or the house before we start, or we leave them in one marked corner.
- Swept and ready. A clear floor, so the builder can measure up and get going.
Book the clearance a week or so before the building work starts, so a delay on either side doesn't hold up the other.
spotless.ieReclaiming a garage or a few rooms in Knocklyon? Send photos of the garage with the door open, the rooms and the attic on WhatsApp. We'll reply with a fixed price, usually the same day.
The rest of the house
Once the garage is done, people often look at the rest of the house differently. The bedrooms that grown-up children left behind, still holding their clothes, school books and posters. The attic, reached by a folding ladder, with the cot, the buggy and the Christmas decorations up there since the last child was small; see attic clearance. We can clear any of it on the same visit, room by room, checking drawers and boxes as we go, and leave the rest of the house untouched.
Driveways, cul-de-sacs and the M50
Access is one of the easy parts here. Most houses have a drive, the estate roads are wide enough, and the M50 brings the van close. If your drive is shared, or the cul-de-sac fills up with cars at weekends, tell us and we'll pick a weekday or arrive early. A side passage makes the garden quicker; without one, the shed's contents come through the house with the floors covered. See shed clearance.
Selling up, or staying put
Some Knocklyon families clear the garage and the spare rooms and stay. It's often the first step towards a decision: with the storage gone, it's much easier to see whether the house still fits, or whether it's time for somewhere smaller. If you do decide to sell, the house is already half ready, and the estate agent will thank you for a garage that can be photographed with the door open. Others clear the lot and sell, often moving to an apartment; see apartment clearance for the practical side of the new place. If the house is being cleared after a parent has died, we take our time and hand back everything personal; see bereavement house clearance. If belongings have built up until a house is hard to live in, we help without judgement; see hoarder clearance.
How the price comes together
How we price: one figure, agreed from your photos before you commit. The crew, the van, the sorting and the disposal are all in it. What changes the figure is the volume, the carry, and anything like a spare fridge or a mattress that has to be handled separately. A four-bed with a full garage and attic usually takes us one to two days.
Paperwork-wise, Spotless is an authorised waste carrier (permit NWCPO-25-13287-01), and every job we do is fully insured. Bikes, sports gear and furniture with use left in them are passed on where possible, broken metal and electricals are recycled, and the rest is taken to licensed facilities.
For carpets in the rooms you're keeping, see carpet cleaning in Rathfarnham and Knocklyon. And for everything else we do, start with house clearance or house clearance in Dublin.
