Tall houses, long histories
Rathgar is a suburb of Victorian and Edwardian red-brick: houses on Rathgar Road, Highfield Road and around Kenilworth Square, with granite steps up to the hall door, three or four floors, and often a garden-level flat below. Some have stayed in one family for generations; others were divided into flats years ago and later put back together.
That height shapes a Rathgar clearance. More floors means more carrying, more stairs to protect, and more rooms where something important could be sitting in a drawer. It's usually a job for a bigger crew, and a large house can run to two days.
Floor by floor: how we clear a period house
We work from the top down, so cleared floors stay clear and nothing is carried past the same room twice.
The attic
Old trunks, suitcases, papers and decorations, often over a narrow hatch at the top of the house. We check boxes as they come down. See attic clearance.
Upper floors and the return
Bedrooms, the return room and the wardrobes that were assembled in place decades ago. Big pieces are dismantled where they stand rather than forced round the turn of the stairs.
Hall floor
Reception rooms with heavy sideboards, bookcases and dining sets. Covers go down on the stair carpet and the hall tiles before anything heavy moves.
Garden level or basement
Often a self-contained flat or a store room with its own door under the steps. If it has a separate entrance we use it, which keeps traffic off the main stairs.
Back garden and lane
Sheds, bikes, garden furniture and pots. Where there's rear access from a lane, we can load from the back. See shed clearance and garage clear-out.
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Flats in converted houses
Some Rathgar houses are still split into flats. When one empties, we clear just that unit, from the beds and the fridge to the bags left in the shared hall, and leave it swept for the next tenant. See apartment clearance, or our guide to preparing a rental property.
Shared halls need a little thought. Let the other tenants know when we're coming, and we'll keep the hall and stairs clear for them while we work. We take only what belongs to the flat we're clearing, plus anything you've listed from shared storage, such as a bike or boxes under the stairs.
Milltown and Dartry
Milltown, between Rathgar and Clonskeagh, mixes older houses with apartment developments near the Luas Green Line. For those apartments, the plan is mostly about the building: booking the lift, finding out where the management company wants contractors to load, and keeping the van's stop short. Dartry's larger houses near the Dodder clear much like Rathgar's.
If you're downsizing from a Rathgar house into one of those apartments, we can clear around the move: the attic, basement and spare rooms first, then the rest once you've settled in.
Clearing a period house in Dublin 6? Photograph each floor, the attic, the basement and the garden, and send them on WhatsApp. We'll reply with a fixed price for the whole house.
Sorting a lifetime of belongings
In a house lived in for half a century, the sorting matters as much as the lifting.
- Papers and photos set aside. We open every drawer, box and coat pocket and hand you anything personal.
- Family choose first. Take what you want before we start, or go through things with us on the day.
- Valuables are your call. Have anything you think is valuable looked at before the clearance date.
- Nothing simply dumped. Sound furniture goes for reuse where it can, metal and electrical items are separated for recycling, and the remainder is taken to licensed facilities. Our waste collection permit is NWCPO-25-13287-01.
Families and executors can read how we work on the bereavement house clearance page. Where a home has become hard to manage, we clear it gently, in stages if that helps; see hoarder clearance.
Access, parking and pricing
Most Rathgar roads have permit or pay-and-display parking, and many front gardens sit behind railings at the top of steep steps. Tell us about the steps, the parking and any lane at the back when you send photos, along with anything very heavy, like a piano, a safe or a solid mahogany wardrobe.
We can't take asbestos, gas cylinders, paint, solvents, oils or chemicals. Older houses sometimes have these tucked away in a basement or shed, so check there before the day and take paint and chemicals to a civic amenity site; we'll clear the rest.
The price is fixed before we book and is based on the volume, the number of floors and how far everything has to be carried. For more on how clearances work across the city, see house clearance in Dublin.
