Glass Clear Out When Moving House: The Essential Checklist

A glass clear out when moving house saves you from packing heavy boxes, dealing with rattles in the boot of your car, and making stressful last-minute trips to local bottle banks. Moving requires enough heavy lifting without carting months of empty jars and wine bottles to your new address.

Use this room-by-room checklist to clear out your glass quickly and get it ready for collection before handover day.

Step 1: Check Every Room for Stashed Glass

Glass accumulates in more spots than just the kitchen recycling corner. Take ten minutes to do a quick sweep across the house:

• Kitchen and pantry: Empty pasta sauce jars, olive oil bottles, condiment jars, and spice containers.
• Fridge: Expired sauces, salad dressings, and half-used jars you do not want to transport.
• Living room and dining areas: Empty wine, beer, and spirit bottles from cupboards or drink cabinets.
• Bathroom and bedroom: Empty glass cosmetic bottles, perfume bottles, and skincare jars.
• Shed or balcony: Any empty bottles or jars stashed away out of sight during previous cleanups.

Step 2: Know What Glass Can and Cannot Be Recycled

Before packing your glass for collection, make sure only recyclable items make the cut. Mixing non-recyclable materials in with packaging glass ruins the batch.

Accepted glass items:

• Wine, beer, and spirit bottles
• Food jars (jam, pasta sauce, baby food, condiments)
• Non-alcoholic beverage bottles
• Cosmetic and perfume glass containers
• Broken bottle and jar glass (carefully handled)

Non-accepted glass and homeware:

• Drinking glasses and wine glasses
• Pyrex, heatproof bakeware, and oven dishes
• Mirrors and window pane glass
• Ceramics, mugs, and crockery
• Light bulbs

If you are unsure about a specific item, check our guide on what glass can you recycle.

Step 3: Prep Your Bottles and Jars

You do not need to spend hours scrubbing, but a quick preparation makes storage much cleaner while you finish packing your home:

• Empty all liquids: Give containers a quick rinse so leftover contents do not leak or create odours while sitting in boxes or bags.
• Lids and caps: You can leave metal and plastic lids on your bottles and jars for collection. If taking metal lids off is easy for you, feel free to pop them into your dry recycling bin so the metal is processed separately.
• Deposit Return Scheme items: Remember that Ireland's Re-turn scheme covers plastic bottles and aluminium or steel cans. Glass bottles are not part of the Re-turn scheme and should be kept with your standard household glass recycling.

Step 4: Book a Doorstep Glass Collection

Instead of hauling heavy bags of glass to a public bring bank alongside your moving boxes, schedule a kerbside pick-up straight from your front door. A dedicated glass bin collection keeps your hallways clear and saves valuable time on moving week.

See how our service works on our how it works page, and consult the glass bag collections monthly calendar to pick a date that fits your moving schedule.

Step 5: Check Your Area Coverage

GlassBag operates route-based collections across all Dublin postcodes (D1 to D24, plus D6W) and County Dublin, as well as North Wicklow (Bray, Greystones, Delgany), North Kildare (Maynooth, Celbridge, Leixlip, and Lucan-route homes), and South Meath (Ashbourne, Ratoath, Dunshaughlin, Dunboyne).

Find out more about our local coverage on our glass collection near me page, where you can enter your Eircode to verify your address.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I put household glass into my regular green recycling wheelie bin?

No. Household kerbside dry recycling bins in Ireland do not accept glass bottles or jars. Glass must be brought to a bottle bank or collected separately through a dedicated glass collection service.

Do I need to remove labels and lids from jars before collection?

No, you do not need to remove paper labels. GlassBag can collect bottles and jars with their lids on. However, taking metal lids off where easy is good practice so the metal can go into your standard dry recycling stream.

Does the Re-turn deposit scheme take glass bottles?

No. The Irish Deposit Return Scheme (Re-turn) applies only to plastic bottles and aluminium or steel drink cans. Glass bottles are excluded from the scheme and should be recycled via dedicated glass collections or bottle banks.

Can I include broken drinking glasses or Pyrex dishes in my glass bag?

No. Drinking glasses, Pyrex, mirrors, window panes, and ceramics melt at different temperatures than container glass and cannot be processed in bottle recycling streams. Only household bottles and jars (including broken bottle or jar glass) are accepted.

Ready for Your Moving Day Clear Out?

Take the hassle out of moving day by booking your doorstep glass pick-up today. Check current options and secure your date on our pricing page to get started, or read our FAQ for more details.