The Rathmines period house, floor by floor
Behind the busy main street, Rathmines is a place of Victorian red-brick houses: terraces and semi-detached houses on wide roads and around squares, many of them two storeys over a garden level, with granite steps up to the hall door and railings in front of the basement. Over the twentieth century a great many were divided into flats and bedsits. Today some are still in flats, some have been put back together as family homes, and some have been in the same family for generations.
When one of these houses is sold or passes through an estate, the clear-out runs floor by floor. Here's what each level usually means:
| Level | What tends to be there | How we deal with it |
|---|---|---|
| Garden level | A flat, a kitchen, or years of storage | Cleared through its own door under the steps where possible |
| Hall floor | The reception rooms and the heaviest furniture | Big pieces come apart before they go down the granite steps |
| Return rooms | Bathrooms, a box room, a small flat | Narrow half-landings, so everything is carried, not swung |
| Upper floors | Bedrooms or flats, often with tall wardrobes | Covers on the stairs before anything moves |
| Vault under the steps | Coal-hole leftovers and old junk | Emptied if we can get in safely |
Selling a house that's been in flats
An owner selling a house of flats, or an estate selling one, often has a mix: some units empty, some with tenants still leaving, and a basement or shared hall full of things nobody owns. We can clear in stages as each flat comes free, and leave the house ready for the buyer.
Many buyers of these houses plan to convert them back into a single home. That's a job for builders, so fitted kitchenettes and partitions usually stay; we take the contents, freestanding appliances and everything the tenants left. For purpose-built blocks with lifts, see apartment clearance.
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Probate on a Dublin 6 family home
The other common sale here is the family home of someone who lived in Rathmines for most of their life. The house may hold a library's worth of books, decades of papers, a basement used as a store and a back garden with a shed nobody has opened in years.
The executor sets the pace, usually on the solicitor's advice, and we can clear in stages: papers, photographs and valuables first, then furniture, then the attic, the shed and any garage or mews at the end of the garden. Books in good condition are boxed for reuse rather than thrown out. See bereavement house clearance for how we work with families. If the house had become very cluttered, our hoarder clearance is gentle and done at a steady pace.
Getting a period house ready for photographs
Period houses sell on their features: the cornicing, the fireplaces, the tall windows and the proportions of the rooms. Clutter hides every one of them. For a sale, we clear what's going and can leave a few pieces that show off the reception rooms, coming back for them once it's sale agreed. Once the rooms are bare, it's the right time to get the carpets cleaned; see carpet cleaning in Rathmines.
Selling or settling a Rathmines property? Send photos of every floor, the basement and the garden on WhatsApp, with any deadline from the agent or solicitor. We'll reply with a fixed price.
When the sale has a date on it
With a house of flats, the timetable is often set by the tenants rather than the agent. If the house is being sold with vacant possession, each flat comes free on its own date, and the last one decides when the house can be handed over. We fit around that, clearing each unit as its tenant goes, so there's no rush at the end.
With a family home, it's usually the solicitor's dates that matter: the grant of probate, the sale agreed and the closing. Tell us which you're working to when you send photos. We aim to finish a few days ahead of any handover, send photos of every empty room, and return the keys to whoever you name, whether that's you, the agent or the solicitor's office.
Granite steps, railings and the van
Everything leaves a period house the same way: down the granite steps or up from the area behind the railings. We carry rather than drag, protect the steps and the hall floor, and take wardrobes and beds apart indoors. Most roads around Rathmines are permit parking, so we load from the nearest legal spot in short stops.
The moving-out and landlord side of Rathmines, along with Ranelagh's terraces, is on our main page about house clearance in Rathmines. Everything we take is sorted, with reusable pieces set aside, metals and appliances recycled and the rest delivered to licensed facilities under permit NWCPO-25-13287-01. For more on property work, see property clearance, or house clearance in Dublin for the rest of the county.
