House Clearance: What happens to items that are cleared?

If you need a House Clearance Company in Cornwall, choose one like The Green Clearance Company that disposes of waste in responsible manner, recycles wherever possible, and helps the local community with rehoming and donating items. The Green Clearance Company takes it’s name from our commitment to green values. With every house clearance we undertake, our environmental responsibilities are one of the most important factors in how we manage items. We are committed to reducing the amount of furniture and items that go to landfill in Cornwall.

We rarely come across house clearances where nothing can be rehomed or reused. Situations like an infestation can prevent items being reused or rehomed.

Customers often contact us before anything at all has been removed from the property. Our first advice for customers who are going through the sad process of a Bereavement Clearance is to liaise with relatives and put aside sentimental items. This may require a degree of sorting through the house to ensure you know what is there.

Reselling Antique and Vintage Furniture

In the initial stages of a house clearance, we will discuss with you any items that could potentially be resold. This could be antique furniture and unusual or valuable household items. We can offset this against the value of your clearance which can help to bring the overall cost down. Reselling pre-owned antique and vintage furniture helps to reduce carbon emissions as the manufacturing process was carried out many years ago and sees a quality piece of furniture in a new home.

We look for antique furniture, early to mid 20th Century furniture, unusual items such as antique shop fittings, signage, nautical items, industrial furniture and lighting, antique clocks and antique rugs, amongst others.

Rehoming Pre-loved Furniture and Homeware

Many houses are full of pre-loved furniture that are simply no longer required by their owners. Carrying out ethical house clearances ensures that these items don’t get treated as waste. Heal’s commissioned research that found each year we throw away 300,000 tonnes of reusable furniture in the United Kingdom and we do what we can to not contribute to that shocking statistic.

A special mention goes to Hidden Help, a Cornish charity that collects and accepts donations of goods to their warehouse in Bissoe. They receive referrals from Social Services and other agencies to help people in need furnish their homes with the basic kit and more. This includes everything from beds and mattresses to tin openers and cutlery. The lady behind this charitable venture is Judy Backus and she has just received an MBE in the New Years Honours for her charity work.

As a company we donate to many local charities throughout the county, often depending on what town the clearance is in. This coul be anything from white goods and sofas with appropriate fire safety labels to general household items such as kitchenware and tableware.

Recycling furniture, items, timber and rubble

In most house clearances there will be items that need to be recycled. Every house clearance is different and sometimes as part of a house clearance there will be a large amounts that can’t be dealt with here at the yard. We have taken down garden sheds and these will go straight to a recycling centre. We use local recycling centres such as Nick Ferris Waste and Recycling Services.

Large amounts of household items will come back to the yard to be sorted into areas for rehoming, recycling, and waste. On our premises we hire on site recyling containers from Devon Contract Waste. DCW are the only Zero to Landfill operator in the region to process waste for recycling instead of disposing of everything. Anything we place in these bins are sorted through for recycling and anything not recyclable will be sent for incineration at an Energy from Waste Plant. These plants convert solid waste into heat or electricity.

Recent changes to upholstered domestic seating disposal

We used to recycle unusable sofas and domestic seating by stripping them down and recyling the materials, but there have been recent changes to legislation across the UK and this is no longer possible to do. New legislation regarding Persistant Organic Pollutants (POPs) came into effect on 1st January 2023 and affects all upholstered domestic seating and how it is disposed of. POPs is a toxic group of ‘forever chemicals’ and requires this group to be incinerated. Read our blog post about POPs here.

How do I book a House Clearance or Garage Clearance in Cornwall?

Whether you need a Garage Clearance in Penzance or a House Clearance in Truro, we can help! Contact us on 01209 861444 to talk through your requirements. If you have any photos of the areas to be cleared, sending them to us can help the process. If you are selling your house and have a link to the estate agent listing, we are happy to take a look at that too. We can arrange free, no obligation quotes! The Green Clearance Company can assist with business clearances, probate clearances, loft clearances and much more.