Moving house - when did you start to pack?

[Mrsdp123]

We are hoping to move 4 weeks today. I am hoping to exchange and complete in the same week (Exchange Monday, complete Friday). Has anyone else done this and were there any problems?
Also as we don't want to exchange until then and I am also aware that things can go wrong at the last minute, when did you all start to pack?
We have had the moving boxes delivered and I just keep opening the sitting room door, chuking boxes and bubble wrap in and closing the door and we are not using the room but when do I start to pack. The thought of it all going tits up and having to unpack it all in this house fills me with dread.
The only things I've decluttered are the gin bottle and wine rack.....

[Goodwordguide]

We're moving two weeks today and have done a fair amount of packing - all the books, pictures, most of the glasses and mugs, spare sheets etc. also decluttered a lot, sorted out the attic. However, we have exchanged - i would probably only declutter before exchanging.

[Pascha]

Start now and do a box a night. Leave the necessary stuff til last but get all the crap away asap. Its a damn sight less stressful in the last week if you know you've already done most of it.

[MrsJamin]

Our trouble is that we are moving because we are running out of room (4 of us, 2 bedrooms), so where do we put all the boxes when we start to pack? There is nowhere to put them! Every square inch of the house is either a thoroughfare or used every day. I think we will be leaving it til the last minute (we are 5 wks away from completion, probably)

[Mrsdp123]

Hmm am still looking at the boxes. I might get some made up this week. I must stop buying new hings in the meantime!!

[Goodwordguide]

We can barely get in our living room at the moment and still have a week to go

[narmada]

I started to pack .... well, actually, I didn't. I let the movers do it :) I highly recommend it. For us it was only an extra £100 quid or so and was a mighty stress-saver. Is that an option with your removals firm? Most of them offer it now.

[Mrsdp123]

Hi Narmada we have looked at this. Only worked out at an extra £300 in our case but all that will happen is they end up moving all our junk to the new house, I really need a sort out as otherwise I can see piles of paperwork, books, magazines, old clothes etc coming with us. We can get them to pack certain rooms by the hour so we are going to get them to do the kitchen as the thought of wrapping glasses in paper doesn't fill me with joy but I'm not even sure what is in one of the kitchen cupboards since the new washing machine - which is evidently larger than the old one - now means I can't open that cupboard. Am guessing I won't be needing whatever is in there...

[TomArchersSausage]

Moving company packed for us. I thought it seemed all rather un-necessary but boy was I wrong. It was the best thing we did. Highly recommended.

[Yamyoid]

I left it til a few days before for the reason you said. I didn't want to unpack if it fell through. Also I was desperate to move cos of bad neighbours so couldn't believe it was actually going to happen. It ended up completely stressful and the removal men were chucking stuff in boxes in the end. Oops. I Don't recommend doing it like that.

[Goodwordguide]

I agree Mrs - it is useful to go through the books, clothes & toys to check we are not taking junk but I spent hours and hours last week bubble-wrapping pictures and glasses and crockery etc - not a great use of my time. So I would get the removals to do part-packing, if possible, next time (not that there will be a next time becasue this is my last move ever!!)