Salvation Army house clearance
There is no such service. The Salvation Army collects furniture it can sell, free, and does not clear houses. That is worth knowing before you plan a clearance around a van that is only coming for the sofa.
Researched and edited by Taro Schenker · Updated · Prices verified August 2026 · How we calculate
Salvation Army furniture collection: what they take
Read from the Salvation Army’s and Salvation Army Trading Company’s own pages in September 2026.
- Free collection
- Salvation Army Trading Company runs a free furniture collection for people who cannot get items to a donation centre. Booked through their online locator, not a national phone line.
- Donation centres
- Over twenty donation centres accept larger furniture; ordinary charity shops mostly do not.
- Furniture shops
- Two specialist furniture shops, Wellington Street in Luton and Dumbarton Road in Glasgow, take all types of furniture and collect free.
- Charity shops take
- Clothes, shoes and handbags, toys and games, books, CDs and DVDs, bric-a-brac.
- House clearance
- Not offered.
Book through the donation centre locator. Sources: salvationarmytrading.org.uk · salvationarmy.org.uk · salvationarmy.org.uk
The filter: fire labels
Under The Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988, no charity can resell an upholstered item without its permanent fire label. The Salvation Army has no discretion here, and neither does anyone else. In a house furnished before the late 1980s that removes most of the soft furniture before the van arrives. What is left for them is the hardwood, the white goods and the electricals that work.
What to do with the rest
If what you actually need is the house emptied, the charity that runs a service is the British Heart Foundation, and it is paid, from £400. A commercial firm clearing a normally furnished three-bedroom house outside London is £670–£1,075 once you have sorted it, or £910–£1,690 if they sort it. Donate what the Salvation Army will take the week before, and the bill shrinks by roughly the volume they remove.
Book the free collection for what they will sell, then price the clearance of everything else.
Price it and get a quoteCommon questions
- Does the Salvation Army do house clearances?
- No. Neither the Salvation Army nor its trading company offers a house clearance service, free or paid. What they offer is free collection of furniture in re-saleable condition for people who cannot get it to a donation centre. The British Heart Foundation is the charity that runs an actual clearance service, and it is paid.
- Will the Salvation Army collect furniture for free?
- Salvation Army Trading Company runs a free furniture collection for people who cannot get items to a donation centre. Booked through their online locator, not a national phone line. Two specialist furniture shops, Wellington Street in Luton and Dumbarton Road in Glasgow, take all types of furniture and collect free.
- What will the Salvation Army not take?
- Anything they cannot sell: worn or damaged furniture, non-working electricals, and any sofa, armchair, bed or mattress without a permanent fire label, which The Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 bars them from reselling. Ordinary charity shops mostly do not take furniture at all; it goes to the donation centres and the two furniture shops.
- Salvation Army or British Heart Foundation?
- For donating good furniture, both collect free and both apply the same fire label rule; use whichever has a collection near you. For clearing a whole house, only BHF offers a service, starting from £400, and a commercial firm will usually be cheaper for anything that is not normally furnished.