Antique dealer and apartment clearance in Paris, from cellar to maid's room

Clearing a Paris apartment with an antique dealer

Emptying an apartment in Paris usually comes at a turning point in life. A parent moves into a care home, an estate is opened, the property is put up for sale or for rent. What remains is furniture, paintings, crockery, books, sometimes the contents of a whole life.

Calling in an antique dealer rather than a simple removal company changes one thing: before anything is taken out, we look at every piece. What has value is bought. That amount is taken off the price of the house clearance, and when it is enough to cover it, you have nothing to pay.

Haussmann buildings, narrow lifts, service staircases

Paris buildings have their own constraints. In a Haussmann building, the lift, when there is one, is often too small for a wardrobe or a sideboard. Things then have to go down the main staircase, or the service staircase when the building has one. We spot all of this during the visit and plan the removal accordingly.

Remember to tell the caretaker or the building manager the chosen date. It avoids unpleasant surprises in the shared areas.

Cellars and maid's rooms

Many apartments have a cellar in the basement and a chambre de bonne (maid's room) under the roof, on the top floor, often with no lift. They are easy to forget. Yet that is often where the trunks, frames, boxes of postcards and things put away years ago are sleeping. Find the keys before we come and note the cellar number.

Parking the van

In some streets, parking a vehicle for the time of a removal requires a permit. That is not the case everywhere. To find out what applies outside your building, the simplest way is to ask the mairie, in good time. During the visit, we look together at the access to the street to see whether this step is needed.

How the visit works in Paris

We travel for free, whatever the arrondissement. There is nothing to pay for the valuation either, and our offer does not commit you. If you prefer, send us a few photos on WhatsApp first: we give you a first opinion before we come.

On site, we go round the rooms with you. We set aside what we can buy: period furniture, clocks, silver, jewellery, paintings, porcelain. If you accept our offer, we pay you immediately by bank transfer. For everything else, we tell you what will be given to Emmaüs, Secours catholique or a reuse centre, and what will go to the tip or to recycling.

After a death, a valuation piece by piece also helps the heirs to agree. We describe how we work on our page about antique dealing for estates.

What you can prepare before we come

• Throw nothing away, even what seems of no interest.
• Gather the keys to the apartment, the cellar and the maid's room.
• List what the family wants to keep.
• Note the floor and whether there is a lift.

The arrondissements we cover

We work in all twenty arrondissements: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th. From the Marais to the Batignolles, from Passy to Belleville, from Montparnasse to the Butte-aux-Cailles, the terms are the same.

Our stand is in Paris itself, in the 14th: you can find us there at weekends, at the Puces de la porte de Vanves flea market. And if you are preparing the clearance yourself, our guide to emptying an apartment in Paris gives you the steps.

An apartment to empty in Paris? Call us on 06 24 56 38 58 (+33 6 24 56 38 58 from abroad), or send a few photos of the rooms on WhatsApp to the same number. We will set the day of the visit together.