Hoarding clearance in Paris 2nd
A clearance is first a question of volume, and then a question of route. Everything that came into the flat over the years has to leave it again through one door, one landing, one staircase and one street. In the 2nd arrondissement it is that route, far more than the floor area, that decides how the work is organised.
Défi Clean handles the sorting, decluttering and removal of heavily cluttered flats and commercial units across the 2nd. Clearance frees the surfaces: it comes before cleaning and does not replace it. An emptied room is not a clean room, and the quote always keeps the two operations apart.
- Sorting done in the flat, before anything is carried out
- Furniture dismantled when the staircase will not take it
- Everything packed so it can be carried by hand
- Waste sent to the stream that matches it
Three things to settle before the first box
How much is there, really?
- Depth of clutter on the floor, room by room
- Full cupboards, which count twice once they have to come out
- Cellar, storeroom or courtyard often left out of the estimate
- Share of heavy furniture against bags and boxes
What is being kept?
- A written instruction agreed beforehand, not a decision made on the stairs
- Documents and personal items spotted during sorting, set aside to the agreed instruction
- A collection point agreed inside the flat
- Family or appointed representative asked whenever there is a doubt
Where does the rest go?
- Bulky waste, timber, cardboard and general waste kept apart
- Electrical appliances and batteries pulled out separately
- Cleaning products and aerosols handled on their own
- Nothing left on the pavement outside the building, ever
Getting a volume out of a building in the 2nd
The van almost never parks at the door here. The 2nd is the smallest arrondissement in Paris and one of the most difficult to drive in: pedestrian streets around Montorgueil, narrow one-way runs near the Sentier and the Mail, pavements taken up by wholesale deliveries, standing traffic on the Grands Boulevards. The drop-off point is therefore chosen in advance, sometimes several dozen metres from the entrance, and everything is carried by hand over that whole distance.
The building dictates the rest. Narrow wooden staircases, tight turns, landings too short to set a wardrobe down, no lift in most of the older blocks, top-floor rooms reached by a back stair: all good reasons to dismantle rather than force. We protect the communal areas as standard — handrail, treads, entrance floor — and leave them clean at the end of the day. Where the courtyard is shared, or the passage runs past a shop, telling the concierge or the managing agent before the job starts avoids a great deal of friction.
From the first look to the last load
Site check
Estimated volume, width of the staircase, floor level, lift or no lift, and the distance to the nearest point a vehicle can stand.
Sorting instruction
What is kept, what is shown to you before a decision, what goes without review. Written down, agreed, known to the whole team.
Preparing the access
Handrail, treads and entrance floor protected, concierge or managing agent informed, vehicle slot agreed with the neighbours.
Sorting and packing
Sorting happens inside the flat. Waste goes into containers one person can carry, and furniture is dismantled as the work moves through.
Removal and tidy-up
Trips out to the vehicle, waste separated by stream as it is loaded, then the flat swept through and the communal areas cleaned behind us.
What makes one clearance bigger than another
A clearance is not just a number of cubic metres. For the same volume, two jobs in the 2nd can demand completely different effort, depending on the route out and on how closely the sorting has to be done.
- The total volume, and how much of it is bulky furniture
- The floor level and the exact shape of the staircase
- Whether there is a lift, and how big it actually is
- The carrying distance between the street door and the vehicle
- Traffic and parking conditions in the street itself
- How many items need looking at rather than simply removing
- The number of pieces of furniture to be taken apart in the flat
- The kind of waste involved and how many streams it has to feed
One point worth knowing when you compare proposals: a clearance ends with the flat emptied and swept. Floors, kitchen and bathroom, once uncovered, then need a deep clean, and sometimes full restoration before the property is relet or sold. Those services are quoted separately, so you can see exactly what each line covers.
Related pages for Paris 2nd
A clearance is almost always one step in a sequence. These pages cover the work that comes before and after it in the 2nd.
Frequently asked questions — hoarding clearance in Paris 2nd
Is a clearance enough to leave the flat clean?
No. It frees the surfaces and finally lets you see the state of the floors, the walls, the kitchen and the bathroom. Deep cleaning comes afterwards, on whatever has been uncovered. Treating the two as one thing nearly always ends in disappointment.
How can I be sure something important will not be thrown out?
By setting the instruction before we start and making sure the whole team knows it. Papers, photographs, jewellery, keys and small devices are set aside as standard in an agreed spot, then handed back to your contact at the end of the job.
Does furniture have to be dismantled?
Often, yes. In the older staircases of the 2nd, a wardrobe or a bed base simply will not make the turns. Taking it apart in the flat protects the handrail, the stairwell walls and the piece itself. It is allowed for in the quote, not added on the day.
Where does everything you remove end up?
In the stream that matches each type of waste: bulky items, timber, cardboard, electrical appliances, specific products. The separation is done as the vehicle is loaded. Nothing is left on the pavement or in the communal areas of the building.
How is parking handled?
It is settled before the job, not on the morning itself. Depending on the street — pedestrianised, one-way, busy with deliveries — the drop-off point may be some way from the entrance. That carrying distance is built into the assessment.
Do you also clear cellars and storerooms?
Yes. The 2nd has a great many cellars, back rooms and storage spaces at the end of a courtyard or below ground, particularly around the Sentier and the Mail. They are cleared by the same method, usually with an even more awkward staircase.
How do I get an estimate of the volume?
By describing each room and, if you can, sending photographs taken from the doorway. The floor level, the width of the staircase and the street matter as much as the volume itself: those three things decide how the work is organised.
A flat to clear in the 2nd?
Tell us the rough volume, the floor and the street. We will assess the sorting, the carrying and the removal, then set out what the cleaning would involve afterwards.