You can clear a house yourself. It takes no specialist knowledge, but it does take time, a few strong people and a place where everything can go. One of our crews empties an average home in one day. A family doing it at weekends is soon busy with it for a month, and that is almost never down to the carrying.
Most of the time goes into deciding what should happen to each item, and after that into taking it away. If you know that beforehand, you can choose better what you do yourself and what you have done for you.
How long does it take to clear a house?
That depends on three things: how much there is, how many people are helping and how quickly you can get rid of it. The last one is underestimated most often. A single-family home with a loft and a shed soon produces dozens of cubic metres, and a recycling centre (milieustraat) only accepts a few cubic metres per visit.
With us it goes like this: the site visit is usually within 1 to 3 working days, the fixed price follows within 24 hours and we plan the clearance within one to two weeks. The work itself takes one day for an average home. A detached house with outbuildings can take two days.
If you do it yourself, count the trips. With a trailer of two cubic metres and a limit of two cubic metres per visit, one full loft already keeps you on the road for a day.
Clearing a house yourself in five steps
- 1. Papers and valuables firstPolicies, bank post, jewellery, cash and photographs leave the house before you start on anything else. Look in coat pockets, books, the linen cupboard and at the back of drawers.
- 2. Let the family chooseAgree on one day when everyone takes what they want to have. Nobody has to keep what is still there after that.
- 3. Work by destination, not by roomMake four piles: keep, second-hand shop, recycling centre and general waste. If you work room by room, you pick up every item twice.
- 4. Start upstairs and at the backLoft, shed and storeroom first. That is where most of the things are that nobody is attached to, and it gives you space to sort downstairs.
- 5. Plan the removal before you startBook the recycling centre, call the second-hand shop and order a skip if you need one. Without removal the hallway is full after one morning.
If it concerns a home after a death, wait before throwing things away until it is clear how the inheritance is accepted. You can read why that matters in the step-by-step plan for relatives.
Where does everything go?
The recycling centre
Residents may bring bulky waste free of charge, but there is a limit everywhere. These are the rules in a few municipalities in our region:
| Municipality | What you may bring |
|---|---|
| Gouda and Bodegraven-Reeuwijk | Free for residents, with a reservation, maximum 2 cubic metres per visit |
| Alphen aan den Rijn | 12 visits a year free, after that € 14,95 each time, maximum 4 cubic metres per visit |
| Woerden | 10 visits a year free, after that € 11,50 each time |
You need a waste pass or proof of identity for the address in that municipality. If you are clearing a parent’s house and live elsewhere yourself, ask beforehand how you get access. The rules change regularly, so check them on the municipality’s website.
The second-hand shop
Second-hand shops collect usable items free of charge, but they do not take everything. RataPlan, with shops in Gouda and Woerden, comes for a minimum of ten boxes or one large piece of furniture and only collects from the ground floor or with a lift. The items have to be clean, intact and saleable, and the driver decides at the door. A sofa with a stain or a chipboard cupboard usually stays where it is.
A skip
A skip outside the door saves trips. In 2026 you pay hire companies around € 405 to € 415 for 6 cubic metres and € 475 to € 520 for 10 cubic metres, including removal and VAT. If the skip stands on the public road, the municipality wants to know beforehand. In Gouda you report it two weeks in advance, in Bodegraven-Reeuwijk fifteen working days, and in Alphen aan den Rijn you apply for an exemption.
One skip is seldom enough for a whole house. Mattresses, fridges, paint and electronics are not allowed in it either and still have to go separately.
What doing it yourself costs
Clearing it yourself is cheaper as long as you do not count your own hours. What does come on top: one or two skips, the hire of a trailer or van, fuel, and days off if the recycling centre only has room on weekdays. With a rented home the rent also keeps running as long as the keys have not been handed in.
By way of comparison: a complete clearance by us costs from € 500 for a studio, € 1.000 to € 1.750 for a single-family home and € 1.750 to € 3.000 or more for a detached house. That includes the sorting, the removal, the tipping fees and the broom clean handover. How those amounts are made up is set out in what does a house clearance cost.
When doing it yourself is a good idea
- You have no hard dateAn owner-occupied home that only goes on sale in a few months gives you time.
- You live nearbyEvery trip of an hour there and an hour back makes a Saturday shorter.
- There are enough handsAt least four people who are available for several days, and someone with a tow bar.
- The home is small or already half emptyA flat without a loft or shed is manageable.
When hiring help is the wiser choice
- A term is runningWith a rented home after a death you have two to three months, including the sorting. The dates are in our article on handing back a rented home after a death.
- More has to come out than belongingsFloor covering with glue residue, laminate, curtain rails and lamps take more time than the contents themselves.
- It is heavy or high upA piano, a safe, a third floor without a lift or a steep loft staircase.
- You suspect asbestosIn homes from before 1994 it is still in shed roofs and old floor adhesive. You leave that alone, and so do we: that is work for a certified removal contractor.
- It weighs on youEmptying a parent’s house is no ordinary job. There is no shame in leaving that part to someone else.
The middle way: sort it yourself, have the rest done
Most families do not choose one or the other. They sort out themselves what stays, take part of it to the second-hand shop and have the rest taken away in one day. That saves money, because the price of a clearance depends mainly on the volume. Everything you remove yourself, we do not have to lift and do not have to tip.
At the site visit, say what you will still do yourself and what stays where it is. Then it is in the fixed price and there is no discussion afterwards. There is more about how we work on the page house clearance. We work from Bodegraven across the whole Groene Hart, from Woerden to Gouda. You can request a site visit through the contact page or on 085 7444 039.
