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Washington UK, and Washington DC – What are the Differences?
Washington is a town in Tyne and Wear in the north-east of England – it was also the ancestral home of the local Washington family, from whom the first president of the US was descended.
But there are now plenty of differences between the two places, as Hamiltons Removals, who can help with removals to Washington, have been finding out.
Washington, UK
Washington in the UK is effectively a series of villages; it was designated a New Town in the 1960s, partly to boost economic growth in the area. The population at the 2001 census was around 67,000.
Historically the area was important for the coal and chemical industries; nowadays electronics, automotive and aerospace industries are major employers (the famous Nissan car assembly plant is in Washington Road, Sunderland), although one of the old pits has been preserved as a museum (pictured).
The town also has its own nature reserve and an arts centre which includes an exhibition gallery, community theatre, artist studios and a recording studio. Washington Old Hall, the family seat, still has a ceremony to celebrate American Independence Day on July 4 every year.
Washington DC, USA
The American capital is a company town – but here the main business is Government. Being the heartland of American politics has also created a number of ancillary industries – notably tourism, entertainment, and financial and health services – on top of those directly employed in the political world. The DC stands for District of Columbia – and Columbia is defined as ‘the female personification if the nation’.
The population of the city is around 700,000, and it has almost 700 parks and green spaces, covering almost 7,500 acres. It also has rather more in the way of iconic buildings than its UK counterpart – the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Capitol building, pictured, plus various national museums are all located in the American capital.
And while Washington in the UK doesn’t even have its own railway station any more (it was closed as a result of the Beeching cuts in the 1960s), around 70,000 people use Washington DC’s Union Station every day – not to mention the underground system which opened in 1976.
Removals to Washington with Hamiltons Removals
There is one other similarity between the two places – we can help you move to either of them. We offer removals to all parts of the UK from our base close to the Norfolk/Suffolk border. For more details about our UK moving service, follow this link.
When it comes to international removals to the USA, we offer a dedicated shipping service where you have sole use of your own container, or a groupage service where your belongings are part of a bigger consignment. Smaller or valuable items can be sent via air freight. If you’d like to know more about our overseas moving service to the USA, click here.
In both cases, we offer additional services which can include packing and unpacking, and insurance, a cleaning service, and foreign money exchange. Whichever Washington you want to move to, you can also call us on 01379 855203.
Key Reasons You Might Need a Professional House Clearance Company
House clearances are one of the UK’s growth industries, with increasing number of online searches being recorded over the past 20 years. The convenience of having a team of dedicated professionals declutter your home or business, coupled with the need to ensure you comply with any legal requirements, means it’s often quicker and safer to let a professional clearance company take over.
Here Hamiltons Removals, who can carry out house clearances in Norfolk, Suffolk and across the UK, identify some of the commonest underlying reasons behind many house clearances.
A House Move
This is one of the commonest reasons why you might need a house cleared – particularly if you are moving a long way away (including overseas) and can’t take all your possessions with you. Often it is easier to get a professional clearing company in to help with the process, particularly if you are short of time and have lots of other things to organise as well.
The beauty of using Hamiltons Removals is that we offer a lot of complementary services as well so a house clearance could form part of a bigger overall package. Not only can we help you with your house move, whether it’s to the UK or overseas, but we also offer secure self-storage facilities in the heart of East Anglia – via our two Safe N Stored sites at Harleston and Aldeby, on the Norfolk/Suffolk border.
You can keep your possessions safe and secure at both of these sites if you haven’t decided what to do with them, or you are moving overseas for a fixed period of time and want to somewhere to store them until you return.
We also stock plenty of high-quality packing materials at our shop which is at our Harleston site but which you can also access online.
A House Declutter
Sometimes it’s a good idea to have your house cleared even if you are not on the move. A clutter-free home creates a sense or order, reduces stress and improves your overall well-being.
A house clearance will also allow you to declutter your living spaces and organise your belongings more effectively. This is particularly true if you want to do some painting and decorating or embark on a major home DIY project.
A Hoarding Situation
Sometimes a member of the family or a friend might be suffering from a hoarding problem – that is, a build-up of possessions which they cannot bring themselves to get rid of. The official NHS definition of a hoarder is ‘someone who has acquired an excessive number of items and stores them in a chaotic manner, usually resulting in unmanageable amounts of clutter’
These items typically can be books, newspapers and magazines, clothes, and (in this digital age) emails. There may be environmental health issues if perishable foodstuffs and hazardous materials are among the items which have been hoarded.
House clearance experts who are also Licensed Waste Carriers – such as Hamiltons Removals – will be able to dispose of the items safely and securely, while treating the matter very sensitively.
Legal Compliance (1)
Sometimes residential properties need to be ‘given back’ to the owner – the local authority if it’s council-owned, or a private landlord (usually if it’s rented). There are often terms in the lease agreement which stipulate what needs to be cleared out, and by what time.
If time is a factor – for example, if a new occupant has been lined up to move in, then you might find it easier to get use a professional house clearance company. We may be able to do a much quicker job of clearing out a house within a specified timeframe.
Legal Compliance (2)
In recent years the authorities have got a lot tougher when it comes to disposing of certain items – whether they come from rented properties or private homes – due to public health concerns.
This can apply to some so-called ‘white goods’ such as refrigerators (because of issues with CFCs) and older furniture (because of fire safety concerns). You may not be allowed to dispose of these items at your local authority waste site. Again, our Waste Carriers’ Licence comes in handy here – we will know what to do with these potentially hazardous items and where to take them.
A Family Bereavement
Sometimes house clearances form part of the process of granting probate – which will mean coming up with a valuation of the house and contents as part of a deceased person’s estate before disposing of the items.
And sometimes houses need clearing out because of a death in the family. Although these aren’t always part of a probate process, they can still be emotionally difficult to deal with these and you may benefit from the sensitive yet dispassionate approach that a professional clearing company can bring to the process.
House Clearances in Norfolk from Hamiltons Removals
If you would like to know more about any of our house clearance services, follow this link. You can fill in the online form on the page if you have any queries, or call us on 01379 855203 or email declutter@hamiltonsremovals.co.uk.