Most of the house clearance work we take on in Wigan starts with somebody who lives nowhere near the property, a set of keys and a date they have to work to. We have been clearing houses since 2007 and we hold waste carrier licence CBDU419679. A house clearance Wigan booking goes together the same way whether it is a two-bedroom terrace in WN2 or a semi with a loft and a garage up in WN6. Postcode, number of bedrooms, whether there is a loft, garage or shed in play, and an honest idea of how full it is.
Here is one from the books, September 2023. It was booked over the phone in the morning, and the confirmation went out by email the same day with the details of the job written back to the customer to check. He read it through and replied: "Further to your email, I confirm my agreement to the terms and conditions set out therein." No haggling, no long back-and-forth. That reply is the whole of the paperwork, and it is worth more than a signature on a doorstep because it means both sides are looking at the same list of what is being cleared.
The house came out in a single load. A mattress went with it, and mattresses travel and are dealt with on their own route rather than being buried in the general load — springs and foam are not something a transfer station wants baled in with a wardrobe. The rest went out under regulated recycling and disposal, which is the boring phrase for weighed in, documented, and gone somewhere it is meant to go.
The order of the day on a job like that is always the same. The team is at the door at nine. The team leader walks the whole property first and takes photographs before anybody lifts a stick of furniture, and takes another set when the last load has gone. Nothing needs boxing or bagging beforehand — the lads clear out cupboards, wardrobes and drawers themselves, lift carpets and underlay where they have been asked to, and sweep through at the end. People do sometimes spend a weekend bagging things up before we arrive, and then feel a bit daft when they see how fast a full wardrobe empties.
Hindley, two freezers and five POP items
A different sort of job, over in WN2. This one was probate, with more than one executor to keep in the loop and the estate settling the bill between them rather than one person putting a card down. That's normal for us and we're set up for it — the invoice can go to the executors or a solicitor and sit until probate is granted, and there's nothing to pay before the work is done.
The house came out over two loads. An upright fridge freezer in the kitchen and a chest freezer in the back. Both count as hazardous waste because of the gas in them. They go out separately and are documented on their own, never chucked in with the sofa cushions. There were five upholstered items too: settees, armchairs, padded dining chairs. Since the rules changed in 2023, upholstered seating counts as a POP item. It is kept apart from the rest of the load from the moment it leaves the house, and goes to a permitted destruction route rather than landfill or a recycling bay. That rule is the Environment Agency's and not ours, and it catches a single loose settee cushion the same way it catches a three-piece suite — a customer asked us that exact question once and the answer surprised him.
One of the executors wrote the same evening: "Just want to say thank you for all the help you've given us today."
The kinds of house clearance Wigan asks us for
Probate house clearance in Wigan
This is the bulk of it. An executor, often out of the county, a house that has to be emptied before it can go on the market, and a solicitor waiting on the paperwork. We invoice the executors, the solicitor or an attorney direct, the work can be paid for out of the estate, and if the money has not been released yet, say so and we will wait. You get before-and-after photographs of every room and a waste transfer note for the estate file if you want one. There is more detail on our probate house clearance page, but the short version is that probate work is the ordinary run of our week, not a special case.
Flat clearance in WN1, WN3 and WN5
A flat clearance is a different animal to a house. Stairs with no lift, a communal door that shuts behind you, a bin store that is not ours to fill, and often a letting agent or a warden holding the keys rather than the family. Tell us the floor and whether there is a lift when you book, because a third-floor flat clearance changes how many of us come and what goes on the van first.
Garage and loft clearance in Wigan
Plenty of people do not want the house done at all — they want the garage and loft emptied and nothing else. Standish and Aspull semis usually have both, and the garage is generally the part of the property nobody has opened since about 2011. Lofts round here are boarded more often than not, which helps, though the hatch is usually the size of a tea tray. A garage and loft clearance is a half-day sort of job as a rule.
End of tenancy clearance in Wigan
Landlords and managing agents in WN2, WN3 and WN5 mostly need the same thing: property emptied, swept, keys back, and evidence it was done. Photographs cover the last part. If there is a mattress or a fridge left behind, those go out on their own routes as above.
If any of that is what you are dealing with, ring 0800 046 5555 or send photographs through the form on this page and we will give you a figure and a date.
Up at Newburgh
WN8 stretches out west and north into Skelmersdale, Up Holland, Newburgh, Dalton and Parbold, over the Lancashire line. Village properties out that way are often instructed by somebody who never comes north at all. Keys left with a neighbour or an agent, questions answered by email, photographs of the empty rooms sent when it is finished. That accounts for a good share of our WN8 work and it suits us fine, so long as we know before the day who is holding the keys.
Small bedrooms in houses of that age are rarely bedrooms by the end. More often they're where the household office went to die. This stuff turns up in Wigan clearances constantly: a fax machine nobody had plugged in since dial-up, an Amstrad word processor, a dot-matrix printer with the paper still threaded. A beige tower PC under the desk, boxes of vinyl, carrier bags of cassettes, spindles of burnt CDs with felt-tip writing on them. The records tend to be the thing families ask us to set aside, so we do. It takes thirty seconds and it's usually the box somebody actually wants.
The patch we cover
Wigan borough in Greater Manchester. WN1, WN3, WN5 and WN6 cover the town itself — the centre, Pemberton, Orrell, Standish and Shevington. WN2 takes in Hindley, Ince, Platt Bridge and Aspull. WN4 is Ashton-in-Makerfield and Bryn. WN7 is Leigh, Pennington and Bedford. WN8 stretches out west and north into Skelmersdale, Up Holland, Newburgh, Dalton and Parbold, over the Lancashire line. Standish, Orrell, Shevington, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Golborne, Atherton and Tyldesley all sit within a short run of the same routes.
Beyond the borough boundary we work the same week. House clearance in Leigh over the East Lancashire Road, house clearance in Bolton up the A6, and house clearance in Manchester itself. Manchester is a straight run in, and the town most people search for even when the house is out here.
Wigan North Western and Wigan Wallgate sit almost on top of each other in the town centre. Hindley, Gathurst and Up Holland stations lie further out; Leigh, famously, hasn't had a railway station since the sixties, so anything in WN7 we reach off the East Lancashire Road or down from M6 junction 23. Skelmersdale runs off the M58. The van is loaded the night before with the right kit for the property described, which is why we ask so many questions when you book.
Access, entries and estates
Terraced streets around Ince and Platt Bridge are tight, with back entries that a Luton cannot get down and often can't turn in. That's fine — we plan for a longer carry rather than block a road for four hours and set the neighbours against you. Skelmersdale is a different puzzle. The new-town estates were laid out with the cars in parking courts and the front doors reached by footpath, so on paper you're parked thirty yards away and in practice it's a proper trek with a three-piece suite. Standish and Aspull semis usually have a drive and a garage, and the garage is generally the part people have stopped opening.
If parking is genuinely impossible, tell us before the day and we'll sort a suspension or work out where the van can legally sit. It saves two hours and an argument with a traffic warden.
What we won't put in the van
Paint tins, gas bottles, solvents, car batteries, anything with asbestos in it. A lot of Wigan garages still have that corrugated cement sheeting on the roof — none of that can travel in a household load. It has a different disposal route and, honestly, a specialist should be lifting the asbestos, not us. Bring paint tins to the borough's own recycling centres, Kirkless in Ince being the handiest for most of the WN2 addresses.
Everything we do take leaves the property under our waste carrier licence, CBDU419679, and lands somewhere it's meant to. Anything still usable goes to a charity shop or a reuse scheme in the borough than a skip, and there are people round here who will take it. The remainder goes to a permitted transfer station, weighed in, with a transfer note we'll send you if you want it for the estate paperwork. Loose rubbish on its own, with no furniture in it, is house rubbish removal rather than a full clearance, and we do that too. We're insured for the work and for your property while we're in it, and we'll send you photographs of every room before and after, which matters most to the customers who live nowhere near the house.
Full houses, difficult houses
A fair number of the properties we clear haven't been emptied in forty years, and some of them have been filling up rather than emptying for the last ten. We turn up, we get on with it, and nobody on the team passes comment. Hoarder house clearance is its own kind of day and we plan it as one: if it needs three loads, if it needs a second day, we'll tell you at the walk-round rather than at the end, and you decide. The same goes for a garden that's gone over — brambles, rotten sheds, forty pots and a barbecue that hasn't been lit since the millennium. That's quoted separately but it can usually be done the same week.
House clearance Wigan — common questions
Do you handle probate house clearance in Wigan, and who gets the invoice? Yes, and it is a large part of what we do. We invoice the executors, the solicitor or an attorney direct, whichever suits the estate. The work can be paid for from the estate, there is nothing payable before the clearance is done, and if probate has not been granted yet the invoice can wait.
Which parts of Wigan do you cover? WN1 to WN6 and WN8 — the town centre, Pemberton, Orrell, Standish, Shevington, Hindley, Ince, Platt Bridge, Aspull, Ashton-in-Makerfield and Bryn, plus Skelmersdale, Up Holland, Newburgh, Dalton and Parbold out west.
Do I need to empty the cupboards and drawers before you come? No. The team clears cupboards, wardrobes and drawers themselves, takes up carpets and underlay if you want that, and sweeps through at the end. Just tell us what is to be kept and put it in one room, or take it out beforehand.
Can you do just a garage and loft clearance, or a single flat? Yes to both. A garage and loft clearance without the house is a normal booking, and a flat clearance is too — tell us the floor and whether there is a lift.
What can't you take away? Paint, solvents, gas bottles, car batteries and asbestos. Fridges, freezers and upholstered furniture we do take, but they leave on their own regulated routes rather than in with the general load.
How to get a quote
Phone 0800 046 5555 or use the form on this page with the postcode, the number of bedrooms, whether there's a loft, garage or shed in play, and a rough idea of how full it is. Photographs help enormously. The quote is free and there's no obligation on it. You'll be given a figure and a date, not a salesman on your doorstep, and nothing is payable until the clearance is finished and you've seen it. If you're an executor and the estate isn't settled yet, say so — we'll wait.
