Goodbye to DIY!

Mrs Verity Backwater called me this morning. She and her husband had been clearing his Mother’s flat, after she’d been moved into a care home, and they were taking just about everything to the tip in car. All very straightforward so far, but they’d been at it for nearly two days and made about a dozen trips to the local recycling centre.

Unfortuantely they hadn’t made any real impression on emptying the flat. It was becoming clear that this was going to take a lot longer than anticipated. Plus what about the larger things, like furniture, that wouldn’t fit into the car, and then the heavier items, like the washing machine, that neither of them could move?

You’ll have guessed that Mrs Backwater wasn’t her real name. Confidentiality of our customers is one of our highest priorities in the House Clearance business because the contents of any house are highly personal and private to the family.

But Verity Backwater was struggling. She’d resorted to the Lancashire Safe Trader website to see if anyone could help her and she’d chose us because we’d had good customer feedback.  She explained that she and her husband Ernest had been working steadily for two days on the house, filling black bags and stacking them in the boot and back seat of their Land Rover Disco… but, she said “it was like painting the Forth Bridge… never-ending” I promised to call over the next day and see exactly how we could help.

The flat was on the outskirts of Chorley, Verity was waiting for us at the front door and she and Ernest showed me around. Apart from the cupboards and drawers being emptied from their efforts, it was pretty tidy except for the dozens of black sacks piled around. I told her that we could do a complete clearance the following Monday, including disconnecting and removing all the ‘white goods’ (such as cookers, fridges and washing machines) plus the carpets and curtains, all of which were old and worn.  We also performed a basic clean to leave it neat and tidy, ready for a sale or handing back the landlord.

On the Monday our van promptly pulled up outside and with the aid of two strong men everything was soon loaded and ready to be taken away.  We’d also brought with us a qualified tradesman to disconnect the cooker. After tidying and cleaning the property as promised, the clearance was complete.

But the job doesn’t end there. We make every effort to be as enviromentally friendly as possible, so waste is sorted as economically possible so that wood, metal, cardboard and non-recyclable general waste is treated separately. It’s not only good for the environment but it’s cheaper too, tipping wood, for instance is about half the price per tonne of non-recyclable rubbish.

Tipping waste at an industrial recycling centre can be very expensive. When you take items to a tip you could be forgiven for thinking it’s free, but you’re actually paying for it through your Council Tax. The cost of legal waste disposal for businesses is very high, this is why so many cheap clearance outfits just drop their contents in fields or by roadsides. It’s a very serious offence! If your rubbish is found to have been fly-tipped, you will be equally as liable as a rogue tipper, with big fines to pay and the possiblity of your vehicle being seized.

But we’re forgetting Verity Backwater! She and Ernest were so pleased to have the job done so quickly and effortlessly that she wrote us an almost embarrassingly-glowing testimonial for Safe Trader! She said she only wished they’d brought us in right from the start and not struggled and worried for those first two days.

All their efforts hadn’t made the clearance any cheaper plus when customers bag items up in advance, it’s not always helpful to us when sorting later for disposal. As Shakespeare once wrote, ‘all’s well that ends well’ and Verity and Ernest lived happily ever after!