Charity house clearance

The British Heart Foundation runs two services, and they are not the same

This trips up more people than anything else in the niche. The BHF’s furniture and electrical collection is free, nationwide, and takes donated items in re-saleable condition. Their house clearance is a separate, paid service that empties an entire property — including sheds, garages and household waste that could never be sold.

That clearance service starts from £400. Enter a postcode, they visit and assess, then quote by email and take payment in advance to hold the date. No weekend clearances. It will not take oil, chemicals and medical waste, explosives, ammunition and weapons, petrol, fuel and petrol machinery, asbestos, gas and compressed bottles, building materials, garden waste, and anything infested with insects or vermin.

So searching for a charity to clear a house free of charge and landing on the BHF is not finding the free option — it is finding a commercial clearance firm that happens to be owned by a charity. Price it against the alternatives the way you would any other quote.

Why the sofa gets refused

Under The Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988, upholstered furniture, beds, sofa beds, cushions and mattresses need a permanent fire label before anyone can resell them, second-hand included. No label, no collection — the charity has no discretion here.

Furniture sold before the regulations arrived was never tested or labelled to that standard, so clearing a house that has been lived in for forty years usually means most of the soft furniture is legally unsellable regardless of condition. A 2025 amendment removed the separate swing label, leaving the permanent label as the one that matters — so check the sewn-in tag, not anything hanging off the arm.

What to do with everything else

Donating first is still worth doing — it cuts the volume, and volume is what a clearance firm bills you on. Just expect it to trim the bill rather than remove it. A normally furnished three-bedroom house outside London costs £670–£1,075 to clear once sorted, or £910–£1,690 if someone else does the sorting.

Price your own clearance · What’s genuinely free · When contents pay for the clearance

Common questions

Do charities do house clearances?

Charities collect donations; they do not generally clear houses. The exception is the British Heart Foundation, which runs a paid house clearance service alongside its free donation collection. That clearance service starts from £400 and takes household waste as well as saleable goods, which the free collection does not.

Will a charity collect furniture for free?

Yes. The British Heart Foundation offers free nationwide collection of furniture and electricals, and the Salvation Army collects free where you cannot get items to a donation centre. Both require items to be in good, re-saleable condition, and both are barred by law from taking upholstered furniture without an intact fire label.

What will charities not accept?

Anything they cannot resell. That rules out worn or damaged furniture, non-working electricals, and — the big one — any upholstered item, bed or mattress missing its fire label. On top of that, no charity takes hazardous material: chemicals, paint, gas bottles, asbestos, medical waste or anything infested.

Is it worth donating before a house clearance?

Yes, but be realistic about the scale. Donating what a charity will take reduces the volume a clearance firm has to remove, and volume is what you are billed on. On a three-bedroom house it might take a few hundred pounds off. It will not remove the need for a clearance, because the items charities refuse are exactly the ones that are expensive to dispose of.