A whole house does not fit in one bin
Cape Winelands District · Stellenbosch, Drakenstein, Witzenberg, Breede Valley and Langeberg
House and Estate Clear-Outs in the Winelands
An executor's sale, a parent moving to a care home, a property prepared for handover: a house clear-out is measured in rooms and decades, not in bags. Plan the bins before the family arrives to sort.
By the Winelands Skips request desk · checked 19 October 2026 · written and fact-checked in house · every municipal fact is sourced on the guide page
What a clear-out actually produces
Furniture, mattresses, carpets, curtains, kitchen contents, garden tools, paint tins, old electronics, and the garage's accumulated everything. Most of it is general waste and fits a skip. Some of it must not go in at all: paint, solvent, gas bottles, batteries, and anything that might be asbestos.
Sort before you book. A skip filled with a mix of furniture and half-used chemicals becomes a refused load, and the family then has to empty it again.
How many bins a house needs
A three-bedroom house cleared completely typically runs to more than one 6m³. The practical approach is a 6m³ or 8m³ dropped for the first pass, with a swap booked when it fills, rather than guessing the total upfront.
A garage or a single room alone is a 4m³.
Executor sales and deceased estates
An executor's sale has a date attached and often a lawyer or agent waiting on it. The bin has to arrive before the sorting starts and leave before the handover. Say the handover date when you send the request, and the operator can plan the collection around it.
Personal documents and photograph albums are not waste. They are also not something a skip operator should be handling; set them aside before the bin arrives.
Pre-handover and rental clear-outs
A rental clear-out is usually faster and smaller: what the tenant left, plus the accumulated junk of a tenancy. In Stellenbosch the student cycle produces these in batches in December and February; in the rest of the district it is one property at a time.
If the property is a block of units, say how many. Four flats cleared into one 6m³ will not finish.
Where it goes
General waste goes to the facility that serves the town; the town pages name it. Bulky items are accepted as general waste. Anything hazardous is separated and taken to the municipal household hazardous waste service, not the skip.
Sort the house before the skip arrives
The clear-out goes faster if the household waste, the donations, the documents and the hazardous items are separated first. Once a skip is on site, everything tends to go into it, and a bin with paint tins in it is a refused load.
Excluded items to set aside: paint and solvent, garden chemicals, gas bottles, batteries, old medicines, and anything that might contain asbestos. Those belong with the municipality's household hazardous waste service or a specialist, not in a skip.
What a clear-out costs against what it saves
A house clear-out is priced on volume and hire period more than weight, because furniture and soft furnishings are bulky and light. That makes the 8m³ the economical choice for a full house: fewer collections, and the bin stays for the days the family actually needs it.
On a deceased estate with a handover date, the useful thing to tell the operator is the date, not the volume. A collection that is late costs more than a bin one size too large.
Where the load goes
General waste from a clear-out goes to the facility that serves the property's town. In Stellenbosch that is the Devon Valley Road landfill for rubble and general waste; in Paarl and Wellington the municipal facilities through Drakenstein; in Robertson the transfer station, which takes domestic and business waste but not building waste. The town page names it.
Questions before you book
Short answers. Where the answer depends on the operator, the page says so instead of inventing a number.
Can I put mattresses in a skip?
Yes, as general waste. They are bulky, which is what a clear-out bin is for.
What about paint and chemicals?
Not in the skip. Paint, solvent, garden chemicals and gas bottles are hazardous or prohibited and go to the municipal household hazardous waste service.
Can I book two bins at once?
Yes, if the property has space. A second bin standing beside the first is often cheaper than a second delivery later.
The request
Request a bin for your address
The town and one line about the job — what you are clearing, the size, the date and any access constraint. The town decides which operator sees it, and the price comes back as a quote, not a guess.
- One form. No account, no card, no obligation.
- A local operator confirms the size, the hire period and the price.
- Nothing is dropped until you accept the quote.
The request desk is not the skip company: the operator who quotes you delivers and tips the bin. The footer of every page says the same thing.
The request slip
Five fields. Your town decides which operator sees it.