You want to move without everything surplus going to landfill.
The skip is a deadline problem
Reuse takes time. A charity collection has to be booked, a resale listing has to find a buyer, a reuse organisation has to confirm it will take the item. None of that happens overnight.
So the work that avoids a skip is not physical work, it is calendar work — and it has to happen early, while the move still feels distant.
Do the sorting when you book, not when you pack
The right moment to decide what is not coming is at the survey, which is usually well before the move. That leaves room for collections to be arranged at a sensible pace.
We sort into reuse, donation and disposal as part of the survey for exactly this reason. It is not an upsell; it is the only point in the process where there is still time.
Know what has no reuse route
Some things genuinely have to be disposed of, and pretending otherwise just delays the decision.
- Upholstered furniture with no fire label — most reuse organisations cannot take it.
- Mattresses in poor condition — some specialist recyclers take them, general charities do not.
- Damaged white goods — recyclable, but as material rather than as an appliance.
- Paint, garden chemicals, gas bottles and fuel — household hazardous waste, and a council or specialist route.
If it does come to disposal, insist on the paperwork
Anything taken away as waste should go through a licensed carrier and produce a waste transfer note. Ask for a copy and keep it.
This is not box-ticking. Duty of care on household waste sits with you as well as with the carrier, and fly-tipped waste traced back to your address is your problem. A copy of the transfer note is the answer to that.