Make your House Clearance Eco-Friendly: No-one these days can be unaware of the effects of global warming.
Dumping broken, unused or disliked household items in our bins so they get taken to landfill and left to pollute our environment isn’t helping. That’s because as landfill decomposes, plenty of toxins and greenhouse gases like methane are expelled into the atmosphere.
To make things worse, those non-working lampshades, old bike parts and torn duvet covers dumped in landfill could probably have been recycled or repurposed.
And what about all that single-use plastic to be found around most of our homes?
The upshot is, when it comes to clearing an entire house, such as that of a relative who has passed, then it is important for us to be extra careful about what is thrown out. Always ask yourself if there can be a better way to dispose of something rather than chucking it in the bin. Can it be upcycled, recycled or donated to a charity shop?
Upcycling and recycling
You may be a little confused over the terms ‘upcycling’ and ‘recycling.’ They’ve been bandied about for a number of years now but sound so similar that it’s easy to get them confused.
Upcycling is when you take an item and either repurpose it (ie turn it into something else entirely) or keep it as a sideboard, settee etc but paint it or reupholster it so that it’s given a second life. You may have seen some of the upcycling programmes on TV these days, so you’ll be aware of how upcycling can completely alter an object in a Eco-Friendly manner.
In terms of repurposing, there is a trend on at the minute for adding old fashioned-looking light bulbs onto items such as a cobbler’s anvil or meter and turning them into industrial design-style lamps.
Recycling is when an object is broken up and its raw materials reused to make something new. This is great because it means less waste, but it still requires energy to break down the materials in the first place.
Marking items for recycling or upcycling
The easiest way to differentiate between items that can be recycled and those for upcycling when you are embarking on a house clearance, is to mark them with a post-it note or colour-coded stickers. Green can be for upcycled items, for instance, red for recycled, yellow for those that are going to the charity shop, and blue for those you’ll keep.
Take it room by room and even divide the room into sections so that you can go through items methodically and don’t feel instantly overwhelmed. Note everything on a spreadsheet so you can organise everything and should know where things are in the house.
Once you have finished with a room, remove the items and start packing them up, remembering to organise them by category.
Cleaning materials
Of course, another way a house clearance can be eco-friendly is by using cleaning substances that aren’t pollutants. And these days there are many of these on the market to choose from – ones that don’t contain petrochemicals, detergents and chemical disinfectants. Not only is this better for the environment, but also our own health.
It doesn’t take much to swap plastic spray bottles for refillable glass ones either. This isn’t just ‘greener’, it’s also cheaper – so what’s not to like?
What to keep
Take that blue ‘keep it’ pile and sort through the objects so that you can look at them one at a time. Pick out the items you love and, in the words of declutter guru Marie Kondo, ‘bring you joy.’ Keep those and give away the rest or recycle.
Otherwise, if you decide to keep too many, you’ll just end up cluttering up your own home and be less Eco-Friendly.
Get in touch
Are you faced with having to clear the house of a relative or close friend who has left it to you in their will? This can be an emotional task and you’re probably not in the best frame of mind to do it. And yet, the longer you leave it, the worst it becomes for you and other family members.
Clearing an entire house can also be arduous, of course. It means taking time off work or spending an entire couple of weekends going through someone else’s belongings.
At National Clearances, we specialise in probate clearance, in particular. We cover both England and Wales and all properties, from bungalows to high rise flats. If you are in need of our services then you can call us, tel 0203 985 9552 or email us via info@nationalclearances.co.uk. You can read about our full house clearing service at www.nationalclearances.co.uk