House Clearance in Sandymount: Books, Records and a Lifetime of Collections

When the contents are a library, not a living room

Most house clearance advice assumes the hard part is furniture. In a lot of Sandymount homes it is not. The sofa and the beds are an afternoon's work; the difficulty is the thousands of books on every wall, the boxes of records, the filing cabinet and the biscuit tins of letters, the cabinet of china that was a wedding present, the photographs in albums and envelopes, and a shed of tools that belonged to someone who could fix anything. Each of these categories is numerous, heavy, and personal in a way a wardrobe is not.

This guide is about those categories. How to triage them without reading every page. Who realistically takes what, and what charity shops and reuse can and cannot absorb. Why books change the quote and the day more than any other item in a house. Whether to box or leave loose. And how to keep a short list of the things that must be found, so that the crew is looking for them too.

PropertyClearance.ie is based in Athy, Co. Kildare, and clears homes across Dublin 4. The general service is on our house clearance in Sandymount and house clearance pages; if the house is being cleared after a death, our bereavement clearance guide covers the decisions and the estate side. Call 083 090 4545 if you would rather talk first.

Why collections take longer to decide about than furniture

A three-piece suite is one decision. A wall of books is a thousand, and every one of them invites the same three thoughts: someone might want this, this might be worth something, and I should just have a look inside. Families who set out to go through everything properly usually stop a few shelves in, not because they do not care but because the method is wrong. Reading is not sorting.

The second trap is the sense that the collection was the person. Books, records and tools are often the clearest picture of how someone spent their time, and clearing them can feel like clearing the person. It helps to say plainly that the collection and the memory are different things, and that keeping a shelf's worth, chosen with care, honours it better than keeping twenty boxes nobody will open again.

Triage without reading every page

A method that works for books and transfers to records, papers and china:

1. Decide by shelf, not by titleStand back and look at a whole shelf or a whole box. Most shelves are obviously one thing: paperback fiction, old textbooks, a run of a magazine, reference books from decades ago. Decide about the shelf. Pull out only the few volumes that stand out.
2. Ask three questions, in orderDoes anyone in the family want it, by name? Is it likely to be of real value, by a dealer's standards rather than ours? Is it in good enough condition for anyone else to use? If the answer to all three is no, it goes, unopened.
3. Sample a box, do not empty itFor boxes of papers and records, lift the lid, look at the top layer and the labels, and decide about the box. Only a box that looks like documents, photographs or letters needs to be gone through.
4. Use three places, not three pilesOne room or corner for keep, one for offer to family or a dealer, and everything else stays where it is for the crew. Mark the keep area with tape on the door.
5. Photograph the shelves for relatives elsewhereA photograph of each shelf run lets a brother in London or a daughter in Australia point at what they want without a long weekend in Dublin. Give them a date to answer by.
6. Time-box itTwo hours a visit, a few visits, then stop. The remainder is cleared as it stands.

Who realistically takes what

Honest expectations save a lot of carrying. In our experience the categories behave like this:

Weight and volume: why books change the quote

Books are, by weight, usually the heaviest single category in a house. A run of shelving that looks modest in a photograph is dense, awkward to carry in quantity, and has to come down stairs and out to the truck a few armfuls at a time. The same is true of records, which are heavier again for their size, and of paper in boxes. That weight affects the quote, the number of trips, and how the truck is loaded, which is why we ask for a photograph of every shelf run and every stack of boxes rather than one picture of the room.

Two practical consequences. First, do not try to move the books yourselves before the day. Carrying boxes of books down a staircase is how backs are hurt, and there is no need; carrying is the part we do. Second, tell us where the heaviest concentrations are: a boarded attic full of boxes, a basement study, a garage lined with shelving. Those decide the sequence and the people.

Photograph each shelf run from a step back so that the height and depth are visible, and photograph boxes with their lids off where you can. Send them with the room photographs and you will get one fixed written price covering labour, transport and disposal.

Boxing versus loose loading

There is no need to box anything that is going. Books are taken from the shelves and loaded by the crew, and the time you would spend boxing them is better spent choosing what stays. Boxing is only worth your while for the things you are keeping, so they travel safely and are never confused with what is leaving.

• Use small boxes for books and do not fill them to the top; a box of hardbacks that one person can lift is a half-full one.
• Keep records upright, never flat in a stack, and away from damp.
• Put papers in lidded boxes and label the outside with what is inside and whose they are.
• Put everything being kept in one room, close the door, and tape a note to it. Anything outside that room is treated as going.
• Mark individual pieces staying in place, such as a bookcase or a cabinet, with tape and a note on the front.

If pieces are going to relatives in Dublin or nearby, tell us; our furniture removal page covers how that works.

The day itself in a Sandymount house

Sandymount is a seaside village of terraces and family houses, many lived in by the same family for decades, and many with parking on the street rather than a driveway. The truck stands as close as the street allows and the books come out through the front door, which is why we ask for a photograph of the street as well as the rooms. Tell us about stairs to an attic study or a converted roof space; a boarded attic full of boxes is often the heaviest part of the whole job.

On the day the crew works room by room. Shelves are emptied into the truck, and as they go the crew checks inside books, between records and in the bottoms of boxes for the things on your list and anything else that looks personal: papers, photographs, letters. All of it is set aside and shown to you rather than loaded. Kept items in their marked room are not touched. Good-condition books and household goods are sorted for reuse where possible, the rest for recycling and disposal, and every room is swept and photographed before the keys go back.

Sandymount, Irishtown, Ringsend, Ballsbridge and Donnybrook

The same kinds of houses, and the same kinds of collections, are found across the coast and the rest of Dublin 4. We clear homes in Irishtown, Ringsend, Merrion, Ballsbridge and Donnybrook as well as Sandymount. For the practicalities of a tall period house, our Donnybrook guide covers parking, stairs and sequencing; for attics and sheds full of boxes and tools, see attic clearance and shed clearance. Start from the Dublin page for the whole city.