When a farm or country house changes hands
Around Athy, the land is good farming country along the Barrow, running out towards Castledermot, Ballitore, Kilkea and over the Laois border towards Stradbally and Ballylinan. When a farm or a country house changes hands here, it's rarely just the house that needs clearing. There's a yard, a hayshed, an old stone outbuilding or two, perhaps a workshop, and decades of things kept because they might come in useful.
Properties change hands for different reasons. A farm might be sold whole through a local auctioneer, or the land sold or leased separately while the farmhouse and yard stay in the family. An estate might be settled after a death, or a farmhouse let to a tenant for the first time. This page is about clearing those properties. For homes in Athy town and family clear-outs, see our main page on house and property clearance in Athy.
Clearing the whole holding
| Part of the property | What we usually find | Worth telling us |
|---|---|---|
| Farmhouse | Furniture, beds, a range, the loft and the back kitchen | Which rooms the family has already sorted |
| The yard | Gates, timber, scrap metal, old tanks and feeders | Where the van can stand on firm ground |
| Hayshed or machinery shed | Old implements, wire, tyres, plastics | How much is metal and how much is rubbish |
| Stone outbuildings | Decades of odds and ends, often damp | Whether the roof and floor are sound |
| Field corners and ditches | Dumped appliances, bags, fencing | Roughly how far from the yard |
Inside the house, it's the same work as any family home: the rooms, the loft, the garage and the garden shed. Outside, it's the yard and buildings, which our page on garage and yard clear-outs near Athy covers in detail, including the hazardous items that need their own route.
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Farm waste with its own route
Some of what builds up on a farm can't travel with general clearance waste, or has a better place to go:
- Farm plastics. Silage wrap, netting and fertiliser bags have their own recycling scheme.
- Tyres. We can take them, but they need special disposal, so count them.
- Fencing wire, posts and old gates. The metal goes for recycling.
- Appliances. Old fridges, freezers and cookers are taken for recycling.
- Oil, chemicals, batteries and asbestos. These need a specialist, so point them out and we'll clear around them.
Selling: what the auctioneer and the buyer want to see
When a farm or country house goes on the market, buyers want to see the condition of the buildings, not what's stored in them. An empty hayshed shows its frame and roof, a cleared stone outbuilding shows its walls, and a tidy yard says the place has been cared for. The house should be cleared like any sale, with anything the family is keeping removed and the rest gone before the auctioneer's photographs. See our property clearance page for how we work to sale dates.
If there's going to be a clearing sale of machinery, tools and stock on the farm, hold it first. Buyers take what they've paid for, and we clear what's left afterwards, from the house to the last shed. That way nothing saleable goes in the van, and the auctioneer's viewing days aren't held up by a half-cleared yard.
Letting a farmhouse or a yard
A farmhouse being let for the first time often hasn't been lived in for a while. We clear the previous owner's things, leave any furniture you want to include, and empty the outbuildings the tenant will use. A house that's been shut up for a few winters usually has damp or mice in the soft furnishings, so mattresses, old suites and curtains are generally better gone than kept for a tenant. If the house was a flat in town rather than a farm, see apartment clearance.
Clearing a farm or country property near Athy? Photograph the house, the yard and every building, add the Eircode, and send it on WhatsApp. We'll reply with one fixed price for the whole property.
The family, the executor and the papers
Many farm clearances follow a death, and the family is often spread between Athy, Dublin and abroad. We work at their pace, can clear in stages, and set aside the papers an executor needs: land documents, farm records, herd books, Department correspondence, bank statements and photographs. Our bereavement clearance in Athy page covers planning around family visits, and bereavement house clearance explains our approach in general. If a farmhouse had become very cluttered, we clear it gently through hoarder clearance.
Everything we take is sorted, with reusable pieces kept back where possible, metal recycled and the rest taken to licensed facilities under permit NWCPO-25-13287-01. We're fully insured on every job. For the rest of the county, see house clearance in Kildare.
