25 Years of Emptying Houses

PRLog (Press Release) - Jul 19, 2009 -
25 Years of House Clearances   

Set up in 1984 with a £250 grant from the local enterprise agency in an old hen house, August 2009 sees the 25th anniversary of Alistair Patterson’s House Clearance business.   During the years the business has seen more than the usual numbers of oddities and Alistair talks here about some of the highlights of the last quarter century.
“We started the business in 1984 in an old hen house, with 3 pieces of stock and £250 in the bank, and I bought and sold continuously to build up the stock.  I can remember on one day I sold a sofa to a customer, took her sofa in part exchange, sold that one to another customer who I knew was looking for that particular colour, took her sofa in part exchange and sold that one to another customer before I had unloaded it off that van and put it in the shop.  It was a very entertaining day, but the end of it my head was spinning.”

“Over the years the business expanded with the Antiques market, we had a second shop in Ayr, and we sold online via our own online antique website and auction.  However now we just concentrate on the house clearances."

The business has expanded to meet an UK wide demand, however that did have one problem that Alistair wasn’t anticipating, and that was the business name.
When we started down in Sandmills, Stranraer, the name of the business was Lochryan Furniture Store, but as we started receiving enquries from people in London, and as far south as Devon and Cornwall we found out that Lochryan wasn’t a name that slipped easily of the English tongue.  “Is that Lockreeean?”  So we had a bit of a think for a new name and decided on Simply Clearances, because that is what our business is all house, house clearances, done quickly and simply for our customers.

But what has Alistair found in all those house clearances, there must have been some gems, some secret wonders.  “You’d be surprised” says Alistair, “But the funny things we find mostly don’t have a value”.   “One of the questions that we always ask clients with whether there is anything large or heavy or unusual in the loft, the reason we do this is that we did one house clearance where we found a dismantled Morris 1000”.  You may wonder why someone would possibly want to dismantle a car and put it in the loft, but as Alistair says, its because everything in the house is or was someones personal belongings, and there is always a story behind it.  “The Morris 1000 was the couples first car, they called it Bessie and it was their pride and joy.  It was also the only car that the couple ever had.  When the wife died the husband didn’t want to drive the car any longer but couldn’t bear to be parted with it.  He had no garage and so instead decided to keep it in his loft.  I must admit, it was a bit of a surprise for us, I have come across many unusual things, that this was definitely one of the strangest”

“People tend to hold onto things for sentimental reasons, long after the practical reasons have passed.  We find a lot of Presents, where the person has opened the wrapping a little just to see what’s inside, but have then put them away.”

More recently some of the weird things we’ve found included a house with 27 years worth of unopened junk mail,
Clearing a house is one of those tasks that comes to most people perhaps only once or twice in their lifetime, and therefore the house clearance company is rarely someone that they’ve dealt with before.  House clearances can be hard and very emotional, because although an outsider may just see a collection of household contents, to the family members, every single piece will have a memory attached to it, ornaments were mums precious treasures, a chair may have been dad’s favourite spot when he came in from work.  And it can be very hard for family members to see such items go.

So, we ask Alistair, what is it that keeps you driving up and down the country doing all these house clearances.  “It’s the unknown” replies Alistair.  “It’s not knowing what’s in the next house, and the challenges that it’s going to present to you.  I love the variety of my job, and the people that I meet.  I don’t think that I could ever cope with a nine to five office job.  Roll on the next 25 years!”

Notes to Editor;

Alistair Patterson is the Sole Proprietor of the business Simply Clearances.  More information about the business can be found at http://www.completeclearance.co.uk.  

Simply Clearance is a business that offers a full house clearance service, and operates throughout the UK.

For more information please contact 01465 715444 or info@simplyclearances.co.uk