Moving house... tips please...

[winnie]

Hi everyone,

We shall be moving house in the next month or so. I am terribly excited... but obviously want the actual move to be as painless as possible. We are not moving far, we are staying in the same town but I'd really appreciate any tips. We have a 12 year old and a toddler of 14 months.
Thanks in advance,

[Marina]

Get the toddler to stay with kind friends all day. I'm sure you thought of this already, but have his room ready and as similar in layout as before before he comes in to the new house.
As quickly as you can bear, have familiar faces from the old house to visit so that he knows that although it's gone, everything good associated with it hasn't.
Oh, and get your super-daughter to supervise all the packing and liaise with the removal firm, I recall she is a complete domestic gem. (And you could get your nine year old visitor digging over the garden and putting up shelves...)
Sorry Winnie, hateful day at work, it's making me a bit light-headed. Some of the above suggestions are based on our moving house with son at the same age and they did seem to help him settle quickly. It was much less hassle than we had feared.
Hope it goes very well for you all too!

[SueDonim]

Hi, Winnie, we've moved countless times over the years. My tips are: Don't even attempt to move yourself, unless you've a minimum of stuff. It's worth paying for a removal firm to do it all. They should also issue you with a handy little booklet that gives you loads of helpful hints! Ask someone to have the children for the day and feed them/bath them. (You can offer to return the favour later). Plan to have carry-out meals for a couple of days. Have a separate box put aside, or in the car, with the kettle and other essentials. If you're not moving to a new house, employ a firm to clean the new place before you move in. To have clean bathrooms and clean kitchen cupboards into which you can put things straigtaway is bliss! If you're moving a long distance, book a couple of nights in a B&B or hotel. Oh, and don't allow your children to come out in chickenpox on the day you move!!
Good luck in your new home.

[SueDonim]

Oops, didn't pay attention to the 'same town' bit, sorry! Could still have a night or two away, though.....

[emsiewill]

May I just second the "don't do it yourself" advice. We've moved a few times in the last 5 years and the last 2 times, we paid someone to pack and move us, and it was worth every penny - even though I'm not a "hoarder" and we had an empty loft/garage, we still had loads of stuff and the thought of trying to pack it gradually was a real stomach-turner! The removal men did it all on the day (wouldn't disconnect things like washing machine, though), and all we had to do was tell them what room to put things in at the other end. We did unpack ourselves, though, but you can do that in your own time. Great idea about paying someone else to clean, too.
I vaguely remember reading something about a website that will let all the relevant people know that you're moving. May be something to do with British Gas (sorry to be so vague). Also, get your mail forwarded by the post office - it's not v. expensive, and you may think you've remembered everyone, but you'd be surprised!

[TigerMoth1]

Get double the packing boxes than you think you need. Allow yourself at least double the time you estimate it will take to pack them. Start packing now.

Label all boxes on all sides, so when they are all in a higgidly piggidly pile in the van or in your new house, you can instantly see what each box contains.

Recruit, if possible, a friend or two to help at the other end. There's always more running around than you expect.

Keep your 12 year old, but definitely, positively and absolutely get your toddler looked after for the day.

Good Luck Winnie - I'll post again if I think of more.

[Rhiannon]

You could colour code the boxes as our not too clever removal men weren't able to figure out which room was which even with labels on the doors!

Take your current bedding in the car with you so you can put it all straight back on the beds as soon as you get there. R.

[Hilary]

My advice is to see www.flylady.net for tips on clearing your house of clutter before you go and not taking anything you don't need or love with you. We've moved quite a lot and my advice is don't try and do it yourself and GET RID of rubbish from now onwards, you won't believe how much stuff you have got until you try to box it all up - better to get rid of it now. And don't forget your loft!

[Hilary]

Also, have something exiting at the new house for your toddler, we had bought a sand pit for the garden last time we moved and he loved it instantly, was busy, occupied and happy.
I think the 'letting everyone know you've moved' thing is advertised on www.upmystreet.whatever. Sorry, not quite sure of the address but you'll find it.

[jasper]

I'm with Hilary on the get rid of the old clutter.Be absolutely ruthless! My mil just moved house, thought she was being ruthless chucking out stuff, but on unpacking in her new place still chucked out even more stuff !

[winnie]

Thanks everyone for the tips, will print this off now. Marina, your thoughts seem perfectly reasonable to me More ideas welcome...

[TLB]

The website to tell everyone your new address is www. ihavemoved.com

Thanks for the tips we are going to be moving at the end of Jan am already starting my declutter and have my nanny for the morning with my dd as we are moving out of the area so I suspect tears!!

[Hilary]

Rozzy, you can always unsubscribe...she does say that you should only use the emails which are relevant to you or unsubscribe if it is not working for you at all.

[Chi]

Winnie,

I moved house with a 12 day old baby, and one of the things that we did that was really worth its money was to get the movers to do all the packing as well, they boxed everything that went into boxes, carried the clothes on hanging rails, and put them in the new wardrobe once arrived, it was bliss!!

As I was recovering from the birth I also stayed with a friend for a couple of days until my husband and his mum made the house liveable. (this is for those who are so crazy as to move with a young baby).

lots of luck and enjoy your new home

[jodee]

Rozzy, I've recently subscribed and after hearing about the hundreds of messages per day I chose to have it all in one daily digest - not got round to reading any of them, mind, and my sink is definitely NOT shiny!

[EmmaM]

We've just sold our house and are in the process of buying another one, but I'm having huge panic attacks as to whether we will get our mortgage. I'm sure I'm being irrational - we've got plenty of income and manage very well, but we've got a massive loan and I can't help thinking its going to count against us. Last year we consolidated all our credit cards, store cards, car loans into one big amount and we saved loads on our monthly outgoings. We've got a mortgage promise, so I suppose that means we must be OK in theory.

Please tell me I'm being daft. My financial adviser told me that as long as we've got no CCJs or bankrupcies and our salaries match the usual lending criteria then we've got no worries. Does everyone have the heebie-geebies when applying for a mortgage or do I need to have a big slug of Rescue Remedy? If I carry on like this I'm going to need my finger surgically removed from my calculator!

[jasper]

EmmaM you are being daft! Exactly the type of daftness I am prone to myself so I know how you feel.
I am mrs. law abiding but always worry about "official" things, financial things, and inadvertently falling foul of the law.
You probably won't stop worrying but in the meantime ccan I recommend the therapeutic properties of a big glass of wine?
Good luck.
Have you foud the house you wish to buy?

[EmmaM]

Thanks - feel better this morning. I spoke to our lender and confirmed that, subject to survey, the mortgage is practically signed, sealed and delivered. I found out our credit score and it makes me feel better. We're arranging the mortgage via the telephone - apparently you can do this these days and then all we've got to do is sign a declaration that confirms the information given is correct. Also, did you know apparently that the Halifax, when they credit score you, if you come out OK then they don't take any existing credit agreements into consideration. Just got to part with £225 for the survey fee, on top of the £150 I've already paid to the solicitors to carry out the searches! Aaargghh. Looking forward to moving into my suburban semi though eventually!

I told my hubby that moving house is a bit like having a baby. After a while the memory fades as to what it was like going through the process and you start to think you'd quite like to do it again. Then once you get into it you remember what it was like. You know the outcome is going to be great, but getting there is a slow and painful process!

[MBB]

I'm nearly 6 months pregnant and due to move house next week, about 150 miles away to a house I've only seen once!! Its not the moving itself/the mortgage/the estate agents (although they do come v low in the food chain as far as I'm concerned) that gets my blood pressure up -its the solicitors!!! Do they understand the word 'proactive'? Have they discovered this amazing new invention called a TELEPHONE, or even EMAIL? NO!!!!! Why can they not just DO SOMETHING without being specifically asked, then reminded 3 times, then called up again to find out what the answer is because they never phone me back? This is their job, they should know what to do and also know what effect it has on their clients lives. I have my own job, I am not a solicitor and I really don't need to be trying to anticipate their next cock up/ommision. I know they charge more for producing letters than making phone calls, but they could charge me what they want if they just did something once in a while.

I must go now - to ring my solicitor to see if I am actually moving next week, or if I should postpone everything AGAIN.

[fairy]

MMB I know exactly what you mean, our solicitor was very nice and all that, but speed wasn't her strongest point!

She didn't seem to understand either that moving while pregnant wasn't great. We were due to move when I was 6 months pregnant, and eventually moved with three weeks to go!!

I think you have to push them along, and don't worry about it, aftet all you are paying them enough. When we move again I would consider doing what they do myself, I seemed to do half of it this time.

[Selja]

I work for a solicitor in conveyancing and lots of the other solicitors are so technologically backward its unreal. My boss does nearly everything by fax as it goes straight from our pcs only to have one solicitor ring up and say he hadn't acted on the fax because he was waiting for the hard copy of the letter - why? We have to put on our faxes 'no hard copy to follow'. If someone has e-mail he'll communicate via that as well as he gets very frustrated at ringing people back only to find they're on the phone or not answering. He does have a policy though of only getting in touch if he has anything to report or needs something doing. We find the lenders are the worse especially the Woolwich. We are always waiting round on them. We find we have to be mind readers as well because the client or estate agents have forgotten to tell us that a date has been agreed or the price has altered.

[KMG]

6 wks to D Day, and I'm just starting to think about doing some packing. We had some packing boxes delivered yesterday.

Any further hints to what's already listed below? What's the best way to label boxes? Have you used colours successfully? My dh thinks it would be best when we move to have them deliver all boxes into one room upstairs, and one room downstairs, then we will have space to unpack into the other rooms. Do you agree?

We have got the luxury of the boys (3 & 4) at grandparents for a week either side of the move.

[bea]

we just moved about a month ago and the best thing to do about packing (i think and it worked for us!) is to e.g. pack all things you want in dd's room and get all hose things delivered into the right room, stands to reason doesn't it? one room upstairs etc? no no! do you really want to go piling through a room sky high with boxes to look for your address book? (hmmm where did i put it?) and believe you me, you always have thousnads more stuff then you thought you had, if you can fit all your boxes into one room upstairs and one room downstairs then you have moved from a tiny flat into a huge mansion, with rooms the size of football pitches, i would colour code boxes... and then still write whats in boxes (loosely!), best way to identify and easy for removal men. AND start packing now.... i started about 2 months before we moved and i wast still packing as the removal men were hauling stuff out... like i said, you are always surprised by how much stuff you actually do have!

good luck!

www.helpiammoving.com/

a useful site for all you need to know!