Junk has a remarkable aptitude for multiplying over time without you really noticing. It’s easy to stash the box of magazines that you can’t bear to throw away, or the broken table lamp that you’re definitely going to fix one day, out of sight in the attic, cellar or garage until they’re forgotten about.
Later on, they’ll be joined by some other clutter that’s taking up valuable space in the house. Even the least obsessive hoarder will eventually discover that their storage spaces have somehow become unusable because of the amount of junk that’s accumulated over the years.
When the domestic dustbin and a roll of black bin liners is no longer sufficient to keep your mountains of junk at bay and waste removal by car is out of the question, it’s time to take action with some serious junk clearance. Don’t panic – junk clearance doesn’t have to be an arduous task if you go about it in the right way. Just follow our guide to junk clearance, hire yourself an inexpensive skip that’s large enough to accommodate your clutter and you’ll be on the way to a junk-free home before you know it.
If you’ve suddenly seen the light and you’re determined to rid yourself of a houseful of junk, avoid the potentially harmful tendency to do it all in one go and as quickly as possible. Set yourself goals. Aim to completely clear one room of junk at a time before starting on the next, and reward yourself when you’ve done it (a nice cold beer/bar of chocolate should do the trick). If you need to hire a skip, hire it for as long as you think the junk clearance will realistically take and take your time.
Put on your favourite music, your scruffiest clothes and keep a supply of snacks and drinks at hand, and don’t forget to keep reminding yourself just how much better your house and your life is going to be without all of that junk taking up your space and gathering dust.
Furniture, large electrical items and anything else that’s cumbersome or heavy should be disposed of first; you really don’t want to be heaving an old washing machine into a skip or onto a lorry after a tiring day of clearing out other, smaller junk.
In order to ensure that items you value don’t get thrown out with the junk, designate an area of floor space in the room you’re clearing for junk only. Make life easy for yourself by grouping similar junk together within this floor space. Thus you might end up with a pile of junk clothes/bed linen, a pile of small junk furniture, a pile of junk toys, a pile of junk books and magazines and so on. It’s important to be ruthless; if you find something that you haven’t thought about, needed or missed for more than 18 months then it’s almost certainly junk.
Junk clearance can create a lot of mess in itself, particularly if you are throwing out large and dusty items. Once your house has been de-junked, tidy away and reorganise all of the stuff you want to keep (there should be more space for it now!) and give the house the thorough cleaning and tidying it deserves. Your rubbish removal project is done! Crack open a bottle of something fizzy and raise a toast to your better, junk-free home.
Some people try and clear out junk by themselves, filling their car and making repeated trips to their local refuse tip, or hiring a self-drive van. Some even hire a man with a van to do their rubbish clearance for them. Hiring a skip is a simple, cost-effective and hassle-free alternative to all this: you call the skip hire company, your skip is delivered, you clear your unwanted junk into it and the skip hire company takes care of your waste removal, disposing of your junk safely and legally. It’s that simple. All you need to do is to decide the size of skip that you need, and be aware of what you can and can’t put in it.
The smallest and least expensive skip you can hire is a Mini Skip which holds around 2 cubic yards of junk – that’s plenty big enough for a couple of larger items of furniture or electrical appliances and some smaller items.
A Small Skip, sized at 4 cubic yards, should be good for several rooms-worth of rubbish clearance: typically a Small Skip is capable of collecting the amount of waste generated by a kitchen or bathroom refurbishment or small garden clearance.
A Builder’s Skip with either a capacity of 6 cubic yards (small) or 8 cubic yards (large) is probably the most practical solution for the majority of small house clearance projects where a number of larger items such as furniture or large electrical appliances need to be disposed of.
Larger office or house clearance projects may require a Maxi Skip. With a capacity of 12 cubic yards this will accommodate a significant amount of household junk items of all sizes.
Government legislation dictates that there are certain items that cannot be disposed of in a skip. This legislation will apply to your junk if it includes a fridge or freezer, asbestos, gas bottles, tyres, significant quantities of canned paint, a television, computer monitor or fluorescent tubes, food waste or any toxic substance.
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