Storage Unit Clearance

Self-storage is meant to be temporary, but a lot of units end up being paid for month after month long after anyone remembers exactly what's in them. A short-term solution during a house move or a renovation has a way of quietly becoming a standing direct debit, and the unit itself rarely gets any smaller in the meantime. HouseClearances.ie clears storage units across Dublin quickly, whether you're closing an account for good, downsizing what you keep, or clearing a unit on behalf of a family member.

Who This Is For

• Anyone closing a storage account and wanting the unit emptied in one visit rather than several trips.
• People downsizing who no longer need everything they've had in storage, whether that's moving to a smaller home or just deciding it's time to let go of what's been sitting boxed up.
• Families clearing a unit that belonged to a relative, often alongside a wider bereavement clearance of the person's home as well.
• Businesses clearing stock, fixtures or equipment from a commercial storage unit, including closing out an account entirely.
• People moving abroad who've decided the cost of keeping a Dublin unit going no longer makes sense against what's actually in it.
• Anyone with a unit they've genuinely forgotten about — inherited, left over from a house move years ago, or just quietly renewing on a card each month. If you can't remember what's in it, we can still quote from the unit size and clear it without you needing to go through everything first.

Facility Access

Storage facilities usually have their own access rules, and no two Dublin providers run things quite the same way. Some are open long hours seven days a week; others restrict access to a set window and expect notice if you need to bring a crew and a van. Loading bays often need booking in advance, especially at busier sites, and multi-storey facilities can mean a lift or trolley run rather than a straight walk to the van. Access cards, gate codes or ID checks at reception are common too — if your unit needs one of these, just let us know what's involved when you book.

Tell us which facility you're using and roughly what access looks like, and we'll work our schedule around their hours rather than turning up outside them. If a loading bay needs to be booked ahead of time, it's worth doing that as soon as a date is agreed so we're not left waiting at the gate.

Sized to the Unit

Storage units are a genuinely useful way to scope a job — a 25 sq ft unit and a 100 sq ft unit are very different jobs, and telling us the unit size when you get in touch gets you a much more accurate quote without needing a site visit first. Most facilities list the unit size on your account or contract, so it's usually just a case of checking that before you call.

As a rough guide, a small locker-style unit (around 10–25 sq ft) usually holds boxes and small furniture — the contents of a spare room or a modest downsize. Mid-size units (around 35–75 sq ft) often hold the contents of a one or two-bedroom home, or a decent amount of business stock. Larger units (100 sq ft and up) tend to hold full household contents, workshop equipment, or a larger commercial stock-hold — these are the ones where a van and a bit of extra time make the most difference. None of this needs to be exact; a rough size and a sense of how full it is gets us most of the way to an accurate quote.

Full vs Partial Storage Clearance

Not every job means emptying a unit completely. Sometimes that's exactly the brief — closing an account and handing the space back bare, ready for final inspection. Other times it's a partial clearance: thinning out a unit's contents so what's left fits into a smaller, cheaper unit, or separating what's being kept from what's going. Downsizing from a large unit to a small one is one of the more common reasons people get in touch — it's cheaper to pay for less space, but working out what to keep and physically moving it can be the part people put off. Let us know which kind of job it is when you get a quote, since a partial clearance with sorting into "keep" and "go" piles is a different job from a full empty-and-clean-sweep.

What Affects the Cost

A few things move the price of a storage unit clearance: the size of the unit, how full it actually is (a small unit packed to the ceiling can take longer than a larger one that's mostly empty), how much access-hours booking or lift/trolley work is involved, and how far the facility is from where the load needs to go for sorting and disposal. Dublin self-storage itself varies a good deal by size and provider — small units often start from around €80 for four weeks, with mid-size units more commonly in the €120–180 a month range — so the ongoing storage cost is often a bigger factor in the "is it worth keeping" decision than the clearance itself. We've written more about that trade-off, with a real example, in when a storage unit costs more than it's worth. As with any clearance, the actual price depends on your unit and contents, so a free quote is the accurate way to find out.

What We Clear

Household furniture and belongings, boxes, business stock and equipment, and general accumulated contents. In practice that covers things like sofas and beds that never made it into the new house, boxes of books, kitchenware and ornaments packed away "for now," old paperwork and photo albums, seasonal items like Christmas decorations or garden furniture, retail stock or display units, filing cabinets and office chairs, and the general miscellany that builds up in any space that isn't looked at often. As with any clearance, items in good condition are set aside for donation or resale where possible rather than disposed of automatically, and anything that can genuinely be recycled is kept out of general waste.

Business & Commercial Storage

Commercial storage units tend to hold a different mix than household ones — retail stock, office furniture and fixtures, archived paperwork, display equipment, or tools and materials from a trade business. If you're closing a business storage account, downsizing stock ahead of a lease renewal, or clearing out a unit after a business has wound down, we can clear it in the same way as a household unit: agree access with the facility, empty it, and sort what's reusable from what needs disposing of. For larger commercial volumes — a full storage container's worth of stock, or multiple units being consolidated — our warehouse clearance service covers the bigger end of that job.

Shipping Containers, Lock-ups and Production Storage

Containers are their own kind of job. A 20ft or 40ft shipping container used for storage can end up holding years of accumulated items: leftover building materials, furniture, boxes, tools, stock, or a mix of household and commercial contents that built up because a container is easy to keep adding to and easy to forget about. Clearing one properly usually needs a larger vehicle than a household clearance, a team sized to the volume, and disposal arranged in advance rather than worked out on the day. Container clearances often get left until a hire period is ending or a site has to be handed over, so tell us the container size and roughly what's in it and we'll scope the crew and vehicle to match.

Film, TV, event and theatre storage is a specific version of the same job. Props, set dressing and event equipment are often bulky, awkwardly shaped or built rather than bought, which makes them heavier work to lift and load than the same volume of household items. At the end of a shoot, a season or a hire period we clear these the same way as any large-volume unit, separating anything that needs to be kept, returned or handed on according to your instructions.

A Recent Storage Unit Clearance in Dún Laoghaire

Here's a genuine example rather than a stock photo: a self-storage unit in Dún Laoghaire full of boxes, furniture and general contents, cleared down to bare walls and floor in a single visit.

See a Storage Clearance in Action

A short clip of our team on a real storage clearance job, not a stock video.

Responsible Disposal

We're a fully insured waste carrier holding Waste Collection Permit No. NWCPO-25-13287-01 from the National Waste Collection Permit Office, and we aim for an average recycling rate of up to 95% across everything we clear — reuse and donation first, recycling second, and only genuine waste going to a licensed transfer station. Storage units are often a mix of things worth keeping in circulation and things that are genuinely worn out or broken, and we sort on-site rather than skipping everything into one load.

How It Works

1. Get a free quote — tell us the unit size and roughly what's inside.
2. We agree a time that fits the facility's access hours.
3. We clear the unit in a single visit wherever possible.
4. Items are sorted responsibly for reuse, recycling, or disposal.
5. The unit is left empty, ready to hand back to the facility or account for.

Related Services

Storage unit clearance rarely sits in isolation — a unit is often tied to a bigger move or a wider clean-out. If the storage unit is part of clearing a whole property, see our house clearance or apartment clearance pages. Clearing a relative's storage account often runs alongside a bereavement clearance of their home. Larger commercial stock and container-sized volumes are covered under warehouse clearance, and if a storage unit was filled during a house move that's now ending, our end of tenancy clearance service may also be useful. We also clear sheds, garages and attics — the other common spots where things quietly pile up. For a wider view of where we work, see our service areas across Dublin and Leinster.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you need to see the unit before quoting?

Usually not — the unit size (as listed by your storage provider) plus a rough description of contents is normally enough for an accurate quote.

Can I send photographs for a quote?

Yes. For most units a few photos of the open unit are enough for an initial quote. Send them on WhatsApp or attach them to the quote form below. Larger or more complex jobs sometimes need a quick look on site.

Do you clear shipping containers?

Yes, including 20ft and 40ft containers used for personal, business or site storage. Container jobs are scoped with a larger vehicle and a crew sized to the volume, because a container usually holds considerably more than a household storage unit.

Can you work around the facility's access hours?

Yes — tell us which facility you're using and we'll schedule around their opening hours and any booking requirements.

Can you clear a unit on behalf of someone else, like a relative's account?

Yes, this is common — just make sure you have the necessary access/authorisation from the facility, and we'll take it from there.

Do you clear business or commercial storage units?

Yes — stock, fixtures, office equipment and general commercial contents. For a full container or several units being consolidated, our warehouse clearance service is often the better fit; get in touch and we'll point you to whichever suits the volume involved.

What if the unit hasn't been accessed in years?

That's fine — it doesn't change how we approach the job. We'll still work from the unit size and a rough description, clear it in the same way, and sort contents for reuse, recycling or disposal as we go.

Can you do a partial clearance, not the whole unit?

Yes — if you're downsizing into a smaller unit rather than closing the account entirely, tell us what's being kept and what's going and we'll clear just the contents leaving.

Do I need to be there while the unit is cleared?

Not necessarily, provided the facility's access arrangements allow it and we've agreed in advance what's being kept versus cleared. Many customers prefer to be there for the walk-through and then leave us to it.

Can you clear more than one unit, or units at different facilities?

Yes — this comes up with businesses consolidating storage and with families sorting a relative's affairs across more than one account. Let us know the number of units and where they are and we'll quote for the whole job together rather than piecemeal.

Get a Free Quote

Tell us the unit size and roughly what's inside — we'll get back to you with a free, no-obligation quote.

Recent Work

A selection of genuine photos from recent clearances — not staged, not stock.