We’re the UK’s Go-To Cleaning Company
High-Standard Cleaning with Compassion and Care.
Most house clearance companies do not pay you. You pay a company to clear your property, and they take away the furniture, waste, and unwanted items in one trip. Payment for a clearance is rare, and only happens when the property has real resale value, like antiques or jewellery. Even then, a free clearance is more likely than cash. For almost every job, plan to pay, not get paid.
This guide comes from years of house clearance work at Scrubbed With Love, checked against current UK data. Our house clearance services cover everything from one bedroom to a full property.
House clearance is a service. Most people just want to get rid of everything in one go. A team sorts through a property, loads a van, and takes it all away for reuse, resale, recycling, or disposal. That cost covers labour, transport, and disposal, not just the drive to your door. That's why you pay for it.
House clearance companies work on one of three pricing models. Most jobs are a standard paid job: you get a quote, agree a price, and pay it once done. Some are a free clearance, where resale value roughly matches the cost of the work, so nothing changes hands. A few are a paid clearance, where valuable contents let the firm pay you something instead of a fee.
House clearance companies pay you only when the surplus left over after costs is worth handing back. In practice, house clearance companies pay for contents far less often than people assume, since most homes don't have enough left over.
If a firm can sell enough inside a property to cover labour, transport, storage and disposal costs, it might clear the house for free instead of charging you. That's fair, but it isn't being paid. Cash only lands in your account once there's a genuine surplus after every cost is covered.
A clearance company doesn't hand over money just because it spots a few decent items. It has to weigh up collection, labour, transport, storage and disposal costs before it knows whether there's anything left over.
Resale value minus labour minus transport minus disposal minus storage minus selling costs equals the potential surplus.
If that surplus is healthy, you might get offered a payment. If it barely covers costs, expect a free clearance. If there's nothing worth much inside, you pay the standard fee. That's why one clearance company might quote £500 for a job while another does it for free, or even makes an offer for the contents.
Genuine cash offers appear when a property has high value, easily resold items such as antiques, jewellery or specialist equipment.
Quantity doesn't equal value, since a full house of ordinary furniture is often less attractive than a property with a couple of valuable antiques. A well-kept piece of furniture can be worth far more than one needing restoration. The same contents can get very different valuations from a general house clearance firm, an auction house, an antique dealer or a specialist reseller, since each has different customers and costs.
Second-hand value isn't the same as what something originally cost. A sofa that cost £2,000 doesn't make a house clearance company anywhere near £2,000 once resold, so don't expect a payout since your furniture was expensive.
Here's the average house clearance cost, based on several UK pricing guides and cross-referenced rather than estimated: the typical house clearance cost for an average property sits between £450 and £650. If you're wondering how much is a house clearance in Liverpool, your own house clearance cost depends on the size of the job, how much needs to go, how easy access is, and where in the UK you're based. London and the South East run above the national average, while the North and Scotland tend to be cheaper. A few key factors decide your final cost: volume, location and access. Even outside London, prices shift within your own local area, so get more than one quote.
Most house clearance firms price by volume, often described in van loads:
The price is a rough guide only, and the actual cost varies with your property, the volume involved, and where you live. Ask for a written estimate that breaks down the price. Your house clearance cost should be confirmed in writing before work starts. Always get a written house clearance quote before agreeing to anything.
Certain items attract extra costs. Washing machines and other white goods usually carry a small fee since they must be recycled. Mattresses can't go straight into general waste, so they need booking into a specific recycling stream, and most house clearance firms charge separately for them. A van full of mattresses alone can take longer to process than a van of general furniture, since mattresses have to be handled differently. Specific items like paint, gas bottles or building rubble can add to your final bill, so ask about anything extra before you agree to a price.
Clearing the rubbish yourself means working out what size skip you need, booking it, and hoping nobody dumps extra rubbish overnight. A skip can look cheaper on paper, until you add the hire cost and the hours spent loading it. A skip won't sort anything for resale or reuse; it just goes to landfill. A skip is cheaper upfront, but a house clearance company saves the labour and gets more value from anything worth reselling.
House clearance covers more than a single room, though a spare room can take up more space than expected. Most firms clear an entire property, including bedrooms, kitchens, garages and gardens, and the job takes half a day to a full day depending on size and access. House clearance work needs a team of two or three, who set aside usable items and valuable items and take the rest away in one trip. Our house clearance team separates anything valuable before it goes near a van.
House clearance services include a full house clearance for people moving home, downsizing or dealing with a bereavement, and garage clearance, often priced at the same rate as house clearance, with our services extending to gardens, garages and lofts. They cover single room clearance for one bedroom or a home office, plus removing unwanted items such as furniture, a dining table, appliances or general rubbish.
Around 1.8 million UK households moved home during 2024 to 2025, and moving is one of the most common reasons people arrange a clearance. If you have a moving date, make a plan for the clearance a few weeks ahead. With close to 29 million households across the UK, there's a constant stream of properties needing sorting. Most house clearance services cover a garage or shed on its own. Clearing a garage can free up a lot of space for people downsizing, and garage clearance is one of the most common requests we get.
Around 8.6 million people in the UK lived alone in 2025, close to 29.5% of all households, and nearly half were aged 65 or over, while more than 240,000 probate grants were issued in England and Wales in 2025, with many estates needing someone to sort, value, sell, donate or clear what's left behind. These often need more time and care than a standard clearance, since there's more sorting involved.
A house clearance company that takes responsible disposal won't just send everything to landfill. Removal and house clearance services overlap, and a dedicated firm handles disposal and recycling better than a general removals company. Most house clearance companies use licensed waste carriers, and a firm should give you a Waste Transfer Note showing where your waste went, since fly-tipped waste traces back to you. General waste, recycling and anything for reuse get sorted separately, so nothing decent ends up in landfill.
England generated around 21.9 million tonnes of household waste in 2024, roughly 376kg per person, and the household recycling rate that year was 43.8%.
Reuse Network members put more than 2.29 million furniture and electrical items back into use in 2025. Small electrical items like kettles, lamps and toasters, along with usable furniture, clothes and household goods, can be donated or resold rather than binned. Reuse over disposal can lower the volume needing disposal, cutting your overall cost.
If you suspect anything in the property is worth something, get it checked before the clearance team arrives. Ask the company to explain their process for identifying anything valuable before it's thrown away. Jewellery, antiques and specialist equipment are easy to miss during a clearance valuation, since a general house clearance firm isn't set up to price specialist pieces like a dedicated dealer.
Get a jeweller or dealer to check anything that might be worth something. Ask your clearance company whether they offset costs against any valuable items they find. Donate anything in usable condition to a local charity if you'd rather it went to reuse than resale, since local charities offer collection services for furniture.
A trustworthy house clearance firm will offer a no-obligation quote, with a fixed price in writing before work starts, and should hold public liability insurance. Not every house clearance company offers the same range of services, so check what's included before you book.
Not all house clearance companies price the same way, so contact a few, compare quotes, check what counts as an extra cost, and confirm they use licensed waste carriers and can provide a Waste Transfer Note.
Easy access from the street to your front door keeps a job quick and the price down. Poor access, like no lift or a long driveway, means more labour, which pushes up the final bill. Large items like wardrobes, sofas and a coffee table need two people to carry them, and carrying charges can add to the cost. Large items too big for a door or stairwell need dismantling, which adds time. Mention it when you arrange a quote, so the estimate matches the price.
For nearly every homeowner, house clearance is about paying to get rid of things, not a way to make money. Most people pay for the work, and that's normal. The exception is a property with a handful of valuable items, where a company might offer cash instead of a bill. Either way, get more than one house clearance quote, ask questions about valuable items, and get everything agreed in writing before the team turns up. Your house clearance cost shouldn't come as a surprise, and a fair company will explain what drives that cost up or down before you sign. Knowing the likely cost upfront means you pay once, in full, with nothing hidden.
