Clearing homes in Portlaoise
Portlaoise was Maryborough until after independence, and the old town is still a tight grid around Main Street, Church Street and the courthouse, with the Dunamaise Arts Centre and the Laois Shopping Centre a couple of minutes’ walk from each other. The oldest housing is the terraces and cottages on the streets off Main Street and along the Dublin, Borris and Stradbally roads, followed by the council-built estates such as Knockmay.
Then came the boom. Kilminchy on the Dublin side of town is almost a town in itself, with semis, duplexes and apartment blocks around its own greens, and Esker Hills, Fairgreen and the estates off the Mountrath, Borris and Stradbally roads filled in the rest of the ring. Most were built between the mid-1990s and 2008 for families commuting up the M7 or taking the train to Heuston, and many are now changing hands for the first time.
Outside the town it is rural Laois: farmhouses and one-off bungalows around the Rock of Dunamase, The Heath, Ratheniska and Ballyroan, often with a hayshed, a garage and a workshop that have not been emptied in decades. The two prisons on the Dublin Road are the landmark everyone gives directions by, and the motorway skirts the town with junctions at either end.
What we clear in Portlaoise
- Full house clearances in Kilminchy, Esker Hills, Fairgreen and the other commuter estates, usually before a sale or a new tenancy, with the attic, garage and shed counted in the same quote.
- Bereavement clearances in the older terraces and the first-generation estates, taken at the family’s pace. Our bereavement clearance page explains how papers, photographs and keepsakes are handled, and if the house is going through probate, this plain guide on whether you can clear a house before probate is worth reading.
- Farmhouses and bungalows with outbuildings across the county, where the shed clearance is often bigger than the house.
- Attics that were filled the week the family moved in and never looked at again. Our attic clearance guide covers what to expect.
- Garages used as a store rather than for a car, which is most of them in a 2000s estate.
Access, parking and the practical bits
The estates were built for cars, so the van sits on the driveway or at the kerb and we carry through the side gate or the garage. Kilminchy’s apartment blocks and duplexes need a word with the management company about parking and lifts, which we sort out before the day.
Main Street and the streets around it are pay parking and busy from mid-morning, so for a terrace in the centre we aim to arrive early and use a rear lane where there is one. On a farm, tell us about the gateway, the lane and how far the sheds are from the hardstanding, because a long carry across a yard adds time to the day.
From Dublin the run is the M50, the N7 and the M7 to junction 17 or 18, roughly an hour each way without traffic. If you are coming down from Dublin to meet us, Portlaoise station is a short walk from the centre and there are commuter trains from Heuston.
Why people in Portlaoise call us
We are a Dublin company, not a Laois one, and we say that up front. Because of the distance we prioritise full-house and larger clearances in Laois; a single wardrobe or a couple of bags is better served by somebody local, and if that is what you have we will tell you.
The travel is built into the fixed quote, and we try to group Laois jobs into the same week so that nobody is paying for an empty van on the motorway. Our post on how far we travel from Dublin explains the thinking.
Many of the calls come from sons and daughters living in Dublin or abroad who are clearing a parent’s house in Portlaoise or out in the county and want one crew to do the carrying, the sorting and the disposal in a day or two. Others are executors with a closing date, or families leaving a commuter semi for somewhere bigger with a garage they cannot face.
Everything goes out in our box van under Waste Collection Permit NWCPO-25-13287-01: furniture and household goods in good order are kept back for reuse or donation, metal, timber and cardboard are separated for recycling, and what is left goes to a licensed transfer station. We also cover Carlow and Athy on the same side of the country, and Kildare Town is on the road home.
