Basement Clearance: A ‘How To’ Guide

Basements and cellars can often seem like an invaluable addition to a house, with almost endless possibilities and advantages available to the homeowner. But in reality, many basements become dumping grounds for the items that homeowners can’t decide whether to keep or throwaway. Clearabee conducts over 200,000 clearances each and every year via our ‘Man and Van’ service, with many such clearances concerning basements and cellars.

With that in mind, we thought we’d offer you some advice on the best ways for you to go about clearing your basement, as well as tellling you how we can help, of course. Some homeowners fancy turning their basement into a new bedrooom, whilst some just recognise that they’re due for a tidy. Some people are even turning their basements into secret fantasy worlds. Whatever it is you have planned for your basement or cellar, you’ll need to get rid of all those unwanted items before you can put those plans into place. But where should you start?

How to clear your basement

Unless you’re having a complete clear out, when it comes to clearing out your basement, the first thing you need to do is to simply get down there. You need to start organising the contents of your basement into two piles: what should stay and what should go.

Ask yourself the following questions when you’re getting organised:

Do I still really need this item?

Can someone else make use of this item?

Can this item be sold or donated?

If you’re strict with yourself, such questions should help you to whittle down whatever you have stored away in your basement and enable you to find a suitable home; whether that’s a buyer through an online marketplace, a charity shop or at a local Waste Transfer Station. Once you’ve decided what you’re keeping and what you’re getting rid of, what’s the next step?

Clearing your Basement: What to do with unwanted items

The next step all depends on how you’re planning to get rid of your unwanted items. If you’re planning on removing the items yourself, it might be worth starting on the items you’re donating first as they should be the easiest ones to get out of your house. Wherever you live in the country, there are no doubt plenty of local charity shops which will be happy to accept your unwanted items so that someone else can make use of them. Our nationwide pages feature some recommended charities for each area in the UK so that might be a useful place to start. Just be sure to check with the charity in question first before you make the trip out.

Any items that you’re planning to sell or pass on might take a little bit longer to get rid of. Whether you’re planning to list the items on eBay, Facebook Marketplace or Gumtree, it can feel labour-intensive to upload your images and communicate back and forth with interested parties. It’s worth considering how much you’ll be able to sell each item for and if that amount is worth your time. If not, then a charity shop or a site like Freecycle might be a better bet.

Finally, when it comes to the items you’re looking to say goodbye to, start to think about how you’re going to transport your items to your local Household Waste Recycling Centre. Do you have suitable transport or would you need to arrange a van or a people carrier from a friend? Would you be better off hiring a van and trying to get the tip trip and the charity shop trip all done in one day?

And then there’s the tip. Most tips or Household Waste Recycling Centres are only accepting bookings now via their website and are not admitting anyone without a booking or photo ID and proof of address. You should check what other restrictions your local facility has in place and if they are able to accept the items you’re planning to tip.

If, after weighing all of this up, you would rather hire a waste clearance company to take care of your unwanted items on your behalf, then let’s have a look at costs involved.

How much does it cost to clear a basement?

As with most house, garden or office clearances, there are no fixed-price solutions for basement clearances because of the differing factors such as floor space, volume of waste and the nature of the items themselves. Some items, such as fridges, laptops or mattresses will incur additional costs due to the fact that they will cost more to responsibly dispose of.

With this in mind, the best course of action is to contact Clearabee so we can create a bespoke quote which is purpose built for your individual needs. You can provide us with an accurate description of the items that you want removing, an estimate of the volume or you can send us images of the items themselves. The more information you are able to give us, the more accurate the quote will be.

If that option doesn’t appeal, you can also simply book a ‘Man and Van’ clearance and simply pay the call-out charge of £59.99 upfront. Once our team arrives, they can assess the volume of the collection, quote you on the spot and collect payment there and then.

As a general rule, we are unable to remove hazardous waste streams but in some cases, if you contact us we may be able to provide a bespoke solution for your requirements.

Basement Clearances with Clearabee

As long as it safe to do so, Clearabee are happy to clear your basement or cellar on your behalf. As long as the stairs to the basement or celllar are structurally sound and there are no obstacles which may hinder access, we can do all of the heavy lifting for you. And, as reasonable labour is included in our ‘Man and Van’ prices, we’ll go up and down the stairs for as many times as it takes to get the job done.

What’s more, with Clearabee you don’t have to worry about separating your unwanted items into piles for the tip and piles for recycling; our clearance teams can do this for you. On average, we divert from landfill over 95% of the items that we collect from households and businesses across the country so you can keep your planet tidy as well as your basement.

Once your unwanted basement items have been collected, they’ll be transported to one of our trusted Waste Transfer Stations. These local stations are audited by our compliance team to ensure that they attain the highest possible rates of recycling that is practical and achievable. When your collected items reach their destination, you will receive a digital Waste Transfer Note.

The Waste Transfer Note will detail the items that you have had collected as well as the vehicle which collected them and the final recycling/landfill diversion rate. The Waste Transfer Note forms a key part of your duty of care and is kept on record by both Clearabee and the customer. Here’s some information on Clearabee’s environmental credentials if you want to find out more about how Clearabee’s eco-friendly rubbish removals.

Removing rubbish (and clearing your basement). It’s what we do.

About Clearabee

Since 2013, Clearabee has continued to evolve our industry-leading waste clearance services. Our rapid reaction ‘Man and Van’ rubbish removal service is now comprised of over 100 vehicles with 300 members of staff being directly employed by Clearabee. Our services also include skip hire, Skip Bags, sofa removals and our recently-launched private home wheelie bin collections.

We are extremely proud to count several of the UK’s best-known brands as exclusive customers of ours. Here at Clearabee, we also ranked as Europe’s fastest-growing waste management company for three consecutive years as well as featuring on The Sunday Times Virgin Atlantic Fast Track for the last two years.