Blog posts
Why Use a Man With a VAn
Moving to a new home can be a stressful and overwhelming experience, but with the help of a Man With a Van, you can make your move as smooth and stress-free as possible. A Man With a Van is a cost-effective and convenient solution for anyone looking to move home, whether you're moving locally or across the country.
One of the biggest advantages of using a Man With a Van for your removal is the flexibility it offers. A Man With a Van is able to accommodate any size of move, from a small studio apartment to a large family home. The driver and assistant will work together to carefully and efficiently move your belongings, ensuring that everything is transported safely and securely to your new home.
Another advantage of using a Man With a Van is the cost-effectiveness. Hiring a full removals service can be expensive, especially if you're only moving a few items or a small distance. A Man With a Van offers a much more affordable option, with many providers offering competitive hourly rates or fixed-price quotes.
When choosing a Man With a Van, it's important to consider the reputation and reliability of the provider. Make sure to research different providers, read customer reviews, and ask for recommendations from friends and family. It's also important to ensure that the provider is fully insured, so that you have peace of mind that your belongings are protected during the move.
In conclusion, using a Man With a Van is a smart and cost-effective solution for anyone looking to move home. With its flexibility, affordability, and reliability, a Man With a Van can help you make your move as smooth and stress-free as possible. So, if you're planning a move in the near future, consider hiring a Man With a Van to make your journey as hassle-free as possible
Persistent Organic Pollutants
Or pops for short. You will find these in the foam in your house hold items like sofas and cushioned chairs etc. They have become very expensive to dump please use this link to find out more.
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are toxic chemicals that persist in the environment and can accumulate in the human body over time. They can be found in a variety of household products, such as furniture, electronics, and building materials. These chemicals have been linked to a range of health problems, including cancer, endocrine disruption, and developmental issues.
To reduce exposure to POPs in the home, it is important to take steps to minimize the use of products that contain these chemicals. This may include selecting furniture and building materials made from natural, non-toxic materials, and avoiding the use of products that contain hazardous chemicals such as flame retardants, pesticides, and heavy metals.
In addition, it is important to maintain good indoor air quality by regularly ventilating the home, using air purifiers, and avoiding the use of products that emit harmful chemicals, such as tobacco smoke, candles, and air fresheners.
Another way to reduce exposure to POPs is to properly dispose of household waste that contains these chemicals, such as old electronics and batteries. These items should be recycled or taken to a hazardous waste facility, as they can release POPs into the environment if not disposed of properly.
Finally, it is important to educate yourself and your family about the dangers of POPs and how to reduce exposure to these chemicals in the home. This can include reading product labels and checking for certifications, such as the GREENGUARD Environmental Institute, which certifies products that meet strict indoor air quality standards.
In conclusion, reducing exposure to POPs in the home is essential for maintaining good health and well-being. By taking steps to minimize the use of products that contain these chemicals, maintaining good indoor air quality, and properly disposing of household waste, individuals can help to protect themselves and their families from the harmful effects of POPs.
https://larac.org.uk/news/persistant-organic-pollutants-pops-domestic-seating
Are we really happier when we have more stuff? Clearing out clutter can free up mental as well as physical space!
Have you ever moved house, or used a storage unit, and left boxes full of stuff untouched for years? I moved into a much smaller house once and had to give lots of my possessions away. I felt much lighter for it.
In my late 20s, I went backpacking in India and I’ve never felt freer in my life. I had with me just a few changes of clothes, a washbag, my music, a camera, a few books … and little else. I was surprised how liberated I felt through having nothing else to feel responsible for, or to have to be concerned about.
We end up with extra things surrounding us for many reasons – as life goes on, we naturally accumulate more: we buy too much; things go out of fashion and get replaced; we keep unwanted gifts and items associated with past interests we’ve dropped, keeping others ‘just in case’. Our kids leave their stuff with us when they move out, and family possessions and mementos get passed down. If we don’t have enough storage space, our homes can become jam-packed, or we might even have rented storage and been paying month after month (sometimes for years on end) to store things we may never use again and could have bought again many times over with the fortune we’ve paid out.
When you clear away clutter in your home, you don’t just reclaim useful space; it can also make you feel more psychologically well. We may have a ‘junk room’ in our homes – something we’re always intending to clear and sort out. Some people have sheds and garages full too. Scientists claim that having chaotic, clutter-filled spaces, where nothing is sorted or rationalised, can even affect even our eating habits and sleep quality and stress levels, leading potentially to relationship problems and trouble concentrating at work.
Some people (and we all know a few) somehow manage to live as minimalists, with very little around them. But we don’t need to go that far. The problem is that we tend to feel overwhelmed by the sentimental value and memories associated with various objects, and the apparent enormity of the task of sorting through things.
But once we make a start, we start to feel emotionally lighter fairly quickly. Before long, we are able to start planning the colour we’ll paint our newly-freed-up space, and anticipating how it’ll feel to have a guest room after all this time, or somewhere to enjoy our hobbies.
We don’t have the emotional attachment to your clutter and can come in and empty your cluttered spaces in no time, whether sorted or not! We are big on recycling, so you can rest assured that wherever possible things will be put to good use. Within a few hours you won’t be able to recognise your room, or perhaps you’ll be able to use your garage to store your car or as a workshop space instead!
Focus on the end result - physical and mental space; clarity; freedom – & call us today!
Waste Carrier's Licence
Why is it a good idea to hire a company that is licensed by the Environment Agency to do my house clearance job?
You probably didn’t know this (I didn’t either before I started doing house clearance as a business), but it’s illegal to hire a non-licensed business for the purpose of house clearance in the UK.
This is because the Environment Agency has laws and rules that protect wildlife and people too from the illegal dumping of waste (fly-tipping) which could be toxic and, for example, poison water courses or cause injury in other ways, and deface our open spaces too. A licensed business is accountable to the Environmental Agency. There is a reason some people are willing to take on clearance jobs for very little: it's because they have no accountability and there's no telling where they'll dispose your unwanted goods and trash, as it's costly to do so at the waste processing plant.
Sometimes there are extra charges levied for items like mattresses, TVs, fridge freezers, white goods, tyres, batteries, paint and rubble and these are passed straight on to you, our client, at cost. In the case of mattresses, for example, these have to be stripped to recover the metal springs, and foams have to be laboriously separated into their constituent parts. Such processes minimise what might otherwise go into landfill. There are similar procedures for tyres, fridge-freezers and other items that need significant deconstruction.
We offer full transparency, and you can be sure with us that we’ll advise you upfront of the waste management centre charges for each item that incurs a tipping supplement. This way, you’ll know exactly where you are, and what the charges are for, so you can make decisions about individual items accordingly. You can get an idea by looking at our guideline prices here, but we can only finalise your quote when we come over to do the job and can be sure exactly what it will entail.
Call us for a free no-obligation estimate now
“Why are you charging so much to take these items?
One question we get asked more than others is “Why does it cost so much to take away fridges, freezers and mattresses?” The answer is simple - there are flat rates at the waste management facility to recycle certain specific items, and we list these costs upfront for the sake of transparency. We only charge you what we’re being charged on your behalf, and this way you’re able to see what each part of your load will cost and make decisions, where applicable, on an item-by-item basis. Typically, the charge will be made up of a fixed unit cost plus the weighbridge and waste management admin fees (for paperwork, etc). If such item/s are part of a mixed load, we’ll simply charge you at cost and the overall fee we’ve already agreed for the rest of the load. We do, however, have a minimum charge to cover time spent and labour, diesel and van running costs, maintenance, insurances, and so on – the necessary costs of keeping a business viable – so, if just one or two such items needed collection on their own, this would be part of our charge.
Please read this (hyperlink in the 1st article) before thinking of dumping such goods in a skip or paying someone who doesn’t have a Waste Disposal Licence. You mustn’t put fridges, freezers and fridge-freezers in skips because they contain toxic and dangerous CS gases which could escape into the atmosphere if they’re not carefully handled.
If you’re interested to learn which components are recyclable and what else is involved, the articles listed below will explain everything there is to know about responsible ways to dispose of mattresses, fridges and other bulky items, and the things you really shouldn’t do. There are many components in mattresses that can be recycled, and it’s important to do everything you can to make sure your old mattress and similar items won’t end up being fly-tipped, or adding to the landfill problem.
We take recycling very seriously and, by using us, you can rest assured your used and redundant goods will be properly dismantled, parts reused and won’t go on to be a problem for others or add to the environmental problems. Once you realise we’re simply passing on set standing charges for large items, you’ll also be helping our friendly local team to stay viable by giving us your business too!
Learn about the issues and costs for yourself:
https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/12/mattress-landfill-crisis-recycling-nightmare
https://www.businesswaste.co.uk/learn-about/fridges-and-freezers-disposal-and-recycling/
https://www.forgeskiphire.co.uk/blog/how-can-you-dispose-of-a-fridge-freezer/
Ways you might be able to dispose of bulky items free, or at relatively low cost –
Council Collection: Most councils advertise a pickup service on certain days. However, there will be a limit to the number of items they will collect and (unless it’s a free service, which only very few councils now offer), there will be a charge per item – a mattress and bed base will be charged as two items. Many councils are also overwhelmed with demand these days, and it can be frustrating waiting for them to come, lugging heavy things to and fro you’re not cluttering up the neighbourhood, causing an obstruction, and so on.
Company Collection: If you are replacing an old item with something newly bought, many stores will take your old item away for a charge. Check this, as it may not be very cheap, either, though. Some charity shops and furniture projects will come and pick them up upon arrangement, too.
Watch Your Weight! Pack Consciously.
Did you know that 75% of back injuries occur when people are lifting heavy weights, many of them during house moves? So, if you’re packing your own boxes, you not only need to be aware of the maximum weight the average man and woman should be lifting alone, in order to take care of your own back, but you need to consider the people who will then be doing the move for you, as well. This article explains all you need to know about safe lifting. The average man can only safely lift 25 kilos and the average woman 16 kilos max.
Like everything else these days, the price of the boxes and packing materials we need for a house move feels a bit too much on top of already exorbitant costs. So, often people end up skimping in this area, having minimised in their minds the amount that needs to be packed and trying to fit too much into their boxes at the last minute. If the tops aren’t taped down flush this makes stacking difficult, leaving some possessions vulnerable to being smashed and crushed, and if the boxes weigh too much this can end up putting our vans over the 3.5 tonne legal safety limit, making them potentially unstable and exposing us to a maximum fine of up to £1000.
So, please, only pack your boxes to a maximum weight of 25 kilos. Use your household scales to check the weight. We reserve the right to have the last say concerning boxes that are overpacked, and the amount we are able to load. It’s not a question of whether all the space in the van is filled. It’s an issue of how much the load weighs. It will save trouble, and ensure there are no delays, if you can use the above information to roughly calculate the weight of your load in advance, to make sure it can be transported safely and legally and everything goes smoothly for both you and your removal team on the day.
Top Tip: If you can persuade your local supermarket to put aside their banana boxes for you, these are not only strong but they also have handles at the sides, lift-on-and-off tops, and they’re a great solution for transporting books. Their size prevents them from becoming too heavy to lift and carry, and the weight is evenly distributed.
Read More: https:
https://www.movinghomemadeeasy.com/tips-lifting-boxes-safely/#:~:text=There%20are%20general%20guidelines%20%E2%80%93%20or,woman's%20maximum%20limit%20is%2016kg.
https://www.packingsolution.co.uk/what-is-the-maximum-weight-you-can-put-into-a-cardboard-box/
https://mastermovers.com/whats-the-most-a-moving-box-should-weigh/
“Fly-tipping is reaching epidemic proportions” – Keep Britain Tidy Campaign.
Don’t be unconsciously complicit!
Have you ever visited a beauty spot, been driving or walking deep in the countryside and stumbled on someone’s discarded trash? Or happened upon an area people are clearly using to dump soiled and broken household goods and/or rubble – at the side of a car park or layby, perhaps? Illegal dumping is a growing problem in cities and blot on the landscape on the outskirts of towns and villages too.
Fly-tipping, defined as the ‘illegal deposit of any waste onto land that does not have a licence to accept it’, is an increasingly pressing issue these days, when energy prices are sky-high and many people are finding it difficult to get together the funds to buy the essentials for living; just to survive.
The term ‘fly-tipping’ is made up of the phrase ‘on the fly’ (meaning ‘on the move’) and ‘tipping’ (the act of tipping something out). For ¾ of a century (since 1954), the environmental campaign Keep Britain Tidy has educated people in the UK and helped instil a sense of social responsibility in communities, largely ensuring that neighbourhoods and our towns and countryside remain litter-free. They tell us that, for many local authorities fly-tipping is now the number one environmental issue and reflect: “Most of us would hate to think we are contributing to the million fly-tips per year, but some people accidentally are”.
If you are involved in fly-tipping, either directly or indirectly, you can be prosecuted. UK law takes the issue very seriously. It carries unlimited fines, and offenders can also face imprisonment and having their vehicle decommissioned.
People who consider paying someone who doesn’t have a waste carrier’s license to take their unwanted goods away cheaply need to realise that the rubbish is likely to end up illegally dumped somewhere, and that they can be fined £400 for commissioning the driver to dispose of it on their behalf.
So, in addition to potentially endorsing fly-tipping – the negative effects of which are discussed in more detail in our Waste Carrier Licence post below – rather than getting a bargain, they can end up paying much more than they would have done if they had contracted a reputable carrier … and getting a big headache into the bargain.
Read more:
https://www.keepbritaintidy.org/faqs/advice/fly-tipping-and-law
https://www.somersetwestandtaunton.gov.uk/street-care-and-cleaning/fly-tipping/
House Of Commons Library: Fly-tipping. The Illegal Dumping of Waste.