House clearance in Stroud is rarely a flat, easy job. The town sits in a bowl at the western edge of the Cotswolds with five valleys running off it, and the terraces climb. In a good half of the properties we empty there is a slope, a flight of steps or a single-file lane between the front door and the nearest place a Luton van can legally stand. We have been clearing houses in this county since 2007, and GL5 — the town, the valleys and the hill villages above them — is one of the districts our teams know best. If you want a figure for a house clearance in Stroud, ring the office on 0800 046 5555 or send photographs through the form on this page.
The Uplands job, and why some houses take four loads
The heaviest house clearance Stroud has given us was up at Uplands. It ran to seven van loads across the day, plus a fridge freezer, an under-counter fridge, a mattress and a full clean at the end. If you've walked up towards Uplands from the town centre you'll know why a job like that eats hours: the lanes narrow, the parking is on-street and half of it is on a slope, and a Luton cannot always sit outside the front door. Everything comes down to the van on foot.
Inside it was a house that had been lived in properly for decades. A wardrobe had to come apart on the landing because it had plainly been built in the room and never come out of it since. A divan with the drawers jammed shut. A headboard with sliding doors in it, the sort with a little cupboard behind each side. A piano stool with sheet music still inside the lid, a sewing table, a card table with green baize gone shiny at the corners, and a nest of stacking stools nobody had stacked in years. Boxes of records too — Wizzard, David Cassidy, the Simon Park Orchestra — the kind of collection that turns up in most Gloucestershire lofts of that vintage.
The clean afterwards was part of the booking. Bear in mind that a clean is a clean: floors, surfaces, windows inside, the lot swept and wiped. It isn't a deep scrub inside ovens and white goods, and we say so before the day rather than after.
Flat clearance: cupboards, divan drawers and nobody at home
The other job worth telling here was a three-bedroom flat, and it is a good example of how a flat clearance differs from a house. No garage, no shed at ground level — there was a small shed out on the balcony instead, and the instruction was to empty that only if the day allowed for it. Nothing to clear outside otherwise. Everything in and out through one door and one stair.
The customer wasn't going to be at the property at all. She wrote: "I would like the team to collect the key from my current address I will not be present." So the team picked the key up on the way in, cleared the flat, and the key went back the same way at the end.
The question she asked beforehand is the one we get most often on a flat clearance. It is worth quoting because it tells you what people are actually worried about:
"Please can I check that the team will clear all cupboards and divan drawers for me"
Yes. That is the point of the job. We don't ask anyone to empty cupboards, drawers, divan bases, wardrobes or the cabinet under the sink before we arrive — the whole reason to book a clearance is so you don't have to stand in a cold flat bagging up somebody's linen. Bookings were arranged at short notice on that one and it still went out on the day asked for.
Probate house clearance in Stroud: executors, solicitors and houses being sold
A good deal of what we clear around Stroud is probate work. The pattern repeats almost weekly: someone is dealing with a parent's or an aunt's house from two counties away, the sale is moving, and the property has to be emptied without them taking a week off work. Probate house clearance in Stroud usually means the person instructing us has never met us and won't be in the house on the day.
On who pays, we can be plain about it. We invoice the solicitor, the appointed executor or the estate directly — whichever you tell us to — and payment can come out of the estate rather than from anyone's own pocket. There is no deposit and nothing is asked for up front; the invoice follows the work, once the house is empty and signed off. If probate hasn't been granted yet and the timetable is uncertain, say so when you ring and we'll work around it.
If there are papers, photographs, jewellery or small things of sentimental value to be kept back, tell us what they look like and where in the house they are likely to be, and they'll be set aside rather than loaded. That instruction matters more on a probate clearance than any other, because the person who knows what's worth keeping is usually the one who isn't there.
Garage and loft clearance in Stroud
A garage is nearly always underestimated. So is a shed, and so is a loft. People count bedrooms when they guess at the size of a clearance. Bedrooms are rarely the problem — it's the garage with the workbench in it, the tins and offcuts under the stairs, and the loft nobody has been into since the aerial was fitted. Garage and loft clearance is often booked on its own around Stroud, without the house at all: a family sorts the rooms themselves and calls us for the two spaces they can't face.
Tell us honestly whether the loft is full and whether the garage door still opens. Both change the day.
End of tenancy clearance in Stroud
Landlords and managing agents book end of tenancy clearance on the void between one tenant and the next, and the clock is usually short. A tenant has left furniture, a bed, half a kitchen and a shed of odds behind; the property needs to be empty for the inventory or the redecoration crew. We can work from keys held by the agent, photograph the property before and after, and send the waste transfer note for the file. Same for hoarder house clearance, which around here is more common in the older terraces than people think — no lectures, no comment, just the job.
Keys, empty houses and nobody on site in Stroud
Keys through an agent, keys in a safe on the wall, keys with the neighbour two doors down, keys collected on the way to site — all of it is normal for us. The team leader photographs the property before starting and again once it's bare, so whoever instructed us can see exactly what was taken and what state the rooms were left in.
If you want a call when we arrive and another when we finish, ask for it and you'll get it. People instructing a house clearance in Stroud from London, Bristol or further off tend to want that, and it costs us nothing but a minute.
What we can and can't put in the van
Anything still usable we try to pass on — a local charity shop, a reuse project, a house-clearance buyer if there's furniture worth money. The remainder goes to a licensed transfer station and every load leaves a paper trail; ask and we'll send you the waste transfer note. Our waste carrier registration is CBDU419679. Gloucestershire's own household centre out towards Horsley takes some of the smaller stuff, and Stroud District Council's bulky collections are worth a look if you've only got two or three items rather than a house.
Sofas, armchairs and anything upholstered now have to travel and be processed on their own regulated route, because of the flame-retardant chemicals in the foam. That's law, not preference. Mattresses likewise, and fridges and freezers have their own handling rules again.
What we won't load: tins of paint and thinners, gas cylinders, car batteries, asbestos sheeting from an old garage roof. If you've got any of that, say so early and we'll point you to the right disposal route rather than turn up and refuse it on the doorstep.
Where we cover around Stroud town and the valleys either side of it: Cainscross, Cashes Green, Ebley, Dudbridge, Bowbridge, Brimscombe, Uplands, Rodborough, Thrupp, Chalford, Amberley, Minchinhampton, Nailsworth, Painswick, Stonehouse. Beyond the district we work across the Gloucester districts in Gloucester and Churchdown in GL3, out to Cirencester in the Cirencester side, north to Tewkesbury in GL20 and Newent in GL18, and over to Cinderford in the Forest of Dean, GL14.
South down the A46 and the Cam valley we also cover Dursley, which often shares a day with a Stroud booking. If the property isn't in GL5 at all, the nearest pages are house clearance in Gloucester for the city and the Gloucester districts, house clearance in Cirencester for the Cirencester side and the Cotswold side, and house clearance in Dursley for GL11.
Stroud station sits on the Golden Valley line between Swindon and Gloucester, and Stonehouse is a few minutes further down — handy if you're coming from London for the day to meet us at the property. Plenty of people do exactly that: train down, unlock, watch the first load go, catch the afternoon service home.
Where the van goes matters more than people expect
In Stroud proper the terraces climb, half the streets are single-file with cars both sides, and in the town centre you're negotiating with loading restrictions. Up at Uplands and Rodborough it's slope and on-street parking; down at Cainscross and Cashes Green it's easier, and at Chalford it can be a footpath and a set of steps to the door. Tell us the truth about the parking when you book and we'll bring the right vehicle and the right number of hands. A bad guess about access is the commonest reason a clearance runs into a second day.
Houses that have been filling up quietly for thirty years don't bother us and don't get a lecture. We've done a good few in this valley. Some need a second day and we'll say so honestly on the morning rather than at four o'clock.
What we need from you to book
Ring 0800 046 5555 or use the form on this page with the address, the number of bedrooms, whether there's a garage, shed or loft still full, and what the parking is like. Photographs on your phone are worth more than any description. You'll get a proper figure before anyone gets in a van, and a date — usually a day or two out, sometimes the same week.
Common questions about house clearance in Stroud
Can you invoice the solicitor or executor on a probate clearance? Yes. We invoice the solicitor, the executor or the estate directly, and payment can come from the estate. There is no deposit — the invoice follows the work once the property is empty.
What will a house clearance in Stroud cost? Ring the office on 0800 046 5555 or send photographs through the form on this page and you'll be given a figure. Photographs of every room, the loft hatch, the garage and the outside space get you the most accurate answer.
Do we need to be at the property on the day? No. Keys with a neighbour, an agent, a key safe or collected on the way are all routine, and the team photographs the property before and after so you can see what was done.
Do we have to empty cupboards and drawers first? No. Cupboards, wardrobes, divan drawers, the cabinet under the sink — the team clears them. Just tell us what is to be kept back and roughly where it is.
Will you take fridges, mattresses and sofas? Yes. They travel on their own regulated routes because of the rules on refrigerants and flame-retardant foam, so mention them when you book so the right vehicle comes.
Can you clear a garage or loft on its own? Yes — garage and loft clearance without the house is a normal booking, as is an end of tenancy clearance for a landlord or agent between tenants.
We're licensed, we're insured, and we've been clearing houses in this county long enough to know which lanes the big van won't fit down.
