Moving house this summer? Here is how to clear the big stuff fast

Getting rid of bulky furniture is the part of moving house that catches everyone out. 

August has been the UK's most popular month to move for over a decade, and the last Friday is typically the busiest day of all, nearly four times a normal day. According to the Home Owners Alliance, in 2025 Friday 29 August alone saw more than 22,000 households relocate, roughly four times a normal day. 

Everyone wants to be settled before the school term starts, which is exactly why removal firms, storage units and waste collectors all get booked solid.

And here's the part people underestimate. 

The boxes are easy, it's the big stuff that slows a move down. The sofa that won't fit the new lounge. The mattress you were never taking with you. These are the things still sitting in the hallway at 6pm on completion day, and they're the reason a lot of moves run late. A proper house clearance when moving is what keeps completion day on track.

So let's talk about how to shift them quickly, and how to do it without landing yourself a fine.

Moving house clearance: sort your furniture into three piles first before moving day

Do this a couple of weeks before you move, not the night before. Walk every room and put your bulky items into one of three groups: keep, rehome, or clear.

Rehome covers anything still in decent nick. Charity shops will often collect furniture for free if it's clean and in a resaleable condition, and reuse is always better than the tip. Sites like Gumtree and local Facebook groups shift usable sofas and wardrobes fast, especially in summer when students and first-time renters are hunting for cheap furniture. The same summer rush means end of tenancy clearance is in high demand too.

Clear is everything else. Broken, stained, or simply not worth moving. That pile is the one that needs a proper plan, because a few of those items can't just go out with the rubbish. For the bulkier items, a booked furniture removal service takes them straight from the room, no kerbside drop-off needed.

What you can't put in a bin or skip when clearing your home

This trips people up every summer, so it's worth knowing before you start bringing your items out.

Upholstered furniture is the big one. Since January 2023, sofas, armchairs, futons and other padded seating have to be kept separate from general waste and sent for incineration, not landfill. That's because the foam and fabric can contain persistent organic pollutants, a group of chemicals that stay toxic for years. It's law, and it means your old sofa needs handling by someone who disposes of it the right way.

Fridges and freezers are another. Under the WEEE and F-gas rules, they can't go to landfill at all. The gases in the cooling system have to be removed by a licensed facility before the unit can be recycled, so an old fridge freezer needs a proper route, not a corner of the front garden.

Mattresses aren't banned in the same way, but most tips charge for them and many councils won't take them in a normal collection. They're bulky and worth planning for rather than discovering on the day.

Council bulky waste collection: cheap, but rarely fast

Your local council will collect bulky items, and if you've got time it can be a good, low cost option. Just be realistic about two things:

First, the wait. Most councils take somewhere between 5 and 14 working days from booking to collection, and in summer that stretches as demand climbs. If your completion date is a fortnight out, fine. If it's this week, it probably won't line up.

Second, the cost and the limits. The average minimum charge is now around £38, some councils go up past £90, and a handful still offer it free. Most cap how many items you can put out, anywhere from 4 items to 10 depending on where you live. A full house clear-out can easily blow past that.

The council route rewards planning ahead. It punishes leaving it late.

Same-day rubbish removal when you're short on time

If moving day is close and the big stuff still needs to go, a same-day or next-day clearance is usually the difference between a smooth handover and a stressful one. This is where a booked same day furniture collection earns its keep. You pick a slot, someone comes and does the lifting, and the hallway is clear before the new owners arrive.

This is what we built Litta for. You book online in a couple of minutes, choose same-day or any dates you prefer, and our team handles the loading, including the heavy things that’s hard for you to carry down a stairwell. We collect 7 days a week, so a Sunday completion isn't a problem. Sofa removal, mattress removal, fridges and freezer removal are all taken to the right place and processed as required by the rules, and we divert 97% of what we collect from landfill.

Check who's taking your waste away, or risk the fine

This matters more than most people realise, and it's the part dodgy operators rely on you not knowing.

If you pay someone to take your waste and they dump it, you can be fined, even though you paid in good faith. Under the household duty of care, handing your rubbish to an unlicensed carrier can land you a fixed penalty of up to £600. The fly-tipping itself carries penalties of up to £1,000 on the spot, and far more in court. So a "man with a van" quoting you £40 cash and no paperwork isn't a bargain. It's a risk with your name on it.

The protection is simple. Only use a licensed waste carrier, and get a waste transfer note, the receipt that proves where your waste went. Every Litta collection comes with one automatically, because we're registered with the Environment Agency and we log the whole journey. It means that once your things leave your old address, they're genuinely off your hands.

Ready to clear the big stuff before you move? Book a collection with Litta and let us handle everything. Get a price in minutes at litta.co.uk