House clearance in Surrey and south London

What a full house clearance actually involves

A full house clearance means our own team comes to the property and clears everything, room by room — not just the obvious furniture in the middle of the floor, but the insides of cupboards, wardrobes and drawers, and the places most people forget until moving day: the loft, the garage, the shed, the greenhouse, the basement and whatever has collected in the garden. Carpets, curtains and white goods are cleared too if you want them gone, or left in place if the property is being sold or re-let with them. You tell us which; we do the lifting.

You don't need to sort, pack or box anything beforehand. Emptying cupboards and drawers is part of the job, and a good part of why people book us rather than hiring a skip — a skip still leaves you to carry everything out to the kerb yourself. We're used to working carefully around a family that is often dealing with a great deal at once, setting aside anything that matters and keeping the pace sensible.

When the last load is on the van we sweep through, so the property is left clean and ready to hand back to an agent, a buyer, a landlord or the family. Most homes are done in a single day.

What we can take — and the few things to tell us about first

The short answer is almost everything a household accumulates. To give you a sense of it, a typical clearance takes:

• furniture of every kind — sofas, beds and mattresses, wardrobes, tables, chairs;
• white goods and electricals — fridges, freezers, washing machines, cookers, TVs (handled as WEEE, the regulated route for electrical waste);
• carpets and curtains, if they are to come up;
• the contents of lofts, garages, sheds, greenhouses and gardens;
• general clutter, boxes, bags and the odds and ends that fill a lived-in home.

A few things are worth flagging when you call, because they change how we plan the job rather than whether we take it on:

• Hazardous or verminous contents. Decaying food, animal or human waste, bodily fluids, an animal carcass, a death in the property, or drug paraphernalia such as needles all make a clearance verminous. We handle these, but we bring the right protective equipment and disposal route, so it helps to know in advance.
• Special items. A piano to remove, a stairlift to dismantle, a safe, or paperwork and valuables to be set aside rather than cleared — tell us and we plan for it.
• Anything to be left. If certain items are staying, point them out or leave a note and we will work around them.

How the price works — the honest version

A full house clearance starts at £695 +VAT per load. That figure covers the load itself and the team to clear the property for you, with all the labour included — there is no hourly rate ticking over while we work. One load can clear up to a three-bedroom home depending on how much is in it, and any further load needed on the same day is half price.

We can advise how many loads a job will take from photos or a free visit before we start, there is no payment upfront and no deposit; you settle the invoice when the work is done, and probate clearances are usually paid from the estate rather than out of your own pocket.

If the contents are already outside and simply need taking away — a pile in the garden or garage, or the leftovers of a renovation — that is rubbish removal, priced by volume rather than by the day, from £70 +VAT for a minimum load of up to about a cubic yard. It is the cheaper option precisely because you are not paying for a full-day team to come inside and sort.

On occasion, as our customers appreciate, estimates can change as not everything can be seen or assessed on first look. If our teams anticipate any changes to the estimate provided, we will notify you as soon as possible with updated information and any cost implications so we can adhere to your instruction.

Why we price per load, not 'per bedroom'

You will see clearances quoted 'per bedroom', and it sounds tidy, but it guesses at the one thing that actually drives the work: how much is in the house. A three-bed home that has already been sorted can be a single van-load. The same three-bed home after years of accumulation can be three to six. Quoting by bedroom either overcharges the light job or leaves the heavy one to be 'revised' on the day.

Pricing by the load, confirmed from photos or a quick visit first, means the estimate reflects your actual house — and with same-day loads at half price after the first, a bigger clearance doesn't multiply the way you might fear.

How to read a 'house clearance from £35' advert

Very low 'from' prices are common in this trade. They are not quite untrue, but they almost never describe clearing a home. 'From £35' is usually the price to take away a single item — one chair, a few bags left at the kerb. The moment a team has to come inside, empty cupboards, lift furniture down stairs and make several trips to an approved tip, the real figure is many times that.

There is one question that cuts through it: is that price to clear the whole property, or per item? We would rather tell you our honest starting point — from £695 +VAT for a full clearance load, or from £70 +VAT for a ready-to-go minimum load — than win the click with a number you would never actually pay.

Getting a quote — a few photos, a video, or a visit

The quickest way to a firm price is to send photos or a short video of each room and area to be cleared — including the loft, shed, garage, greenhouse, basement and anything in the garden — and to tell us whether white goods and carpets are staying or going. You can WhatsApp them to 07479 391950 or email them, and we come back with a free, no-obligation estimate. No photos? We often work 'blind' and can email you our pricing so you know where you stand.

When we book you in, a few clear details make the day run smoothly — and they double as a handy checklist for planning your own clearance:

• the full address and rough size, including outside areas (say, a three-bed house plus loft, garage and shed);
• anything that affects access — no water or power, work at height, a long carry;
• whether carpets, curtains and white goods are to be cleared;
• who gives access on the day — a keysafe code, keys posted, or keys from a local estate agent;
• parking for a large Luton or tipper van, and any permit or width restrictions;
• a contact name and number for the day, and who we should invoice.

What happens to everything we take

Very little of what we clear goes straight to landfill, and that is deliberate. Furniture and household goods in usable condition are donated or passed on; textiles, metal, wood and electricals are separated for recycling; and only what genuinely cannot be reused is disposed of. Electricals go through the proper WEEE route rather than into general waste.

All of it is carried under our Environment Agency upper-tier waste-carrier licence and taken to approved facilities. That licence is not just a badge: under UK law, if waste from your home is fly-tipped, the liability can come back to you as the householder, not to whoever dumped it. Using a licensed carrier who can show where your waste went is the only way to be sure that never happens.

Probate, bereavement, downsizing and end-of-tenancy

Most clearances fall into one of a few situations, and each needs a slightly different touch:

• Probate and bereavement. Clearing a parent's or relative's home, often for executors or family who live some distance away. We work to a solicitor's timescale where there is one, hold back anything that may need valuing before it leaves the house, keep a note of what went where, and can be paid from the estate.
• Downsizing. Moving to something smaller and keeping only what matters. We clear the rest at your pace, so you are not rushed into decisions.
• Landlords and end-of-tenancy. A property left full at the end of a let, cleared and swept quickly so it can be re-let or sold without a void month.
• Hoarded and verminous homes. Heavier, sometimes difficult jobs that we take on with the right equipment and without judgement.

Access, parking and the practical side in Surrey

The thing that most often decides how a clearance day runs is not the volume of contents but access. Our vans are large — a Luton or tipper — and parts of Surrey and south-west London come with narrow lanes, permit bays and tight flat car parks. A third-floor flat with no lift is a different job from a bungalow with a driveway, and it is better to plan for it than to discover it on the morning.

So we sort the practicalities before the day: where the van can legally sit, how keys are handed over — a keysafe code, keys posted, or collected from a local estate agent — and whether anything needs dismantling to get it out. Get those settled and the clearance itself is usually the easy part.

Who we are, and where we cover

Churchills is a family-run house clearance business, working the same way since 2007. Most of our work has always come from recommendation — someone who used us telling someone else to. We are a licensed upper-tier waste carrier, insured to £10 million public liability, VAT registered, and listed with SafeContractor and Checkatrade.

We cover Surrey and south-west London — from Guildford, Woking and Godalming across to Kingston, Surbiton, Esher, Cobham and Weybridge, out to Leatherhead, Epsom, Redhill and Reigate, and up to Croydon, Sutton, Twickenham and Richmond. Just outside that? Call and ask — we usually can.