Full pack-what do I do to prepare?

[MissBetseyTrotwood]

We are moving in 10 days and are paying for a full pack. We have cleared the loft spaces and I'm going through cupboards, drawers etc to clear stuff out.

Anything else I need to do? I'm feeling a bit nervous, as though I've missed something glaring.

[magimedi]

Just make sure things ar reasonably tidy & pack anything you don't want the removers to see (vibrators? )

I would also have a small case with change of clothes in it & I would box up all my vital documents, passports, bank stuff etc myself.

Happy Move!

[MissBetseyTrotwood]

Hehe no sex toys here unfortunately

It's the first time we've had a full pack and by this stage I'm normally panicking so I can't quite believe I should be this relaxed this late

[MissBetseyTrotwood]

Sausage fingers!

It is costing an arm and a leg. I am assured by all that it's worth every penny though!

[Haribolover]

Best thing ever but they pack anything, even empty boxes in your case! When they arrive we went round and pointed out when to pack and not. Did pack underwear into a suitcase as didn't fancy them carrying drawers of my underwear out to the truck.

[ivykaty44]

you don't do anything - thats the beauty of a full pack

I would advise that you make sure you put the stuff you don't want packed into the car - i.e. coats kettle etc in a box ready for when you get to the new place, of to use if you are waiting around. But make sure you put it in the car otherwise they will pack it away to be sure...

[Rooners]

Argh. I feel for you. I could never, ever let other people pack for me - having seen the breakages in the boxes of china and glass that my poor Grandmother never got to unpack, from a move 8 years previously, I just would not trust them.

Also I have a lot of very fragile things which can't really be replaced - I'll be taking those myself. If I break them I can live with it as I know I did my best - if someone else did I'd want to murder them

Hopefully you don't have a pile of antique things though,

Hope it goes well (I am into my third month of packing. I have about 3 to go after this, before we actually move...)

[MissBetseyTrotwood]

Your poor granny rooners mine lost all her own photos in one move and it broke her heart.

And great advice re the smalls and the kettle. My huge pants could be mistaken for bed sheets I fear!

[Mutley77]

I've had this done twice. The first time I was hyper organised and everything was in the right place, the right drawer/cupboard and I had through through carefully what was going to go where in the new house (with which I was fairly familiar) therefore it was very smooth and easy!

The second time I was stressed to the max, working until the day before we got on a plane to emigrate, not even present during the packing/removal, and the house was in some degree of chaos - not to mention I had no idea of where we might end up!! It did make it harder at the other end as things weren't packed as I expected them to be - even though there was a full inventory of the contents of each box it didn't really help as took a lot of work to go through it all!

I do second the advice about taking important and urgent things in your own car - obvs I couldn't do that on the international move either, we had 160kilos of luggage which had to last us 2 weeks in England (2 degrees) and 6 weeks in Australia (35 degrees plus) - which added to the stress! But what we have always done is removed the necessary items from our house before any packing starts which definitely avoids any confusion of packing the wrong things.....

[beaglesaresweet]

Another advice: bear in mind that everything is insured by the removals co so if there aer breakages they would pay BUT you have to notice and claim within 14days (at least that's what I came across twice), and that's a pain if you have lots of boxes with fragile stuff, it's impossible to unpack so fast if you also working etc. So they should number all the bozes and write on eeach rounghly what the contents are, and you need to make sure you unpack the ones with fragiles within specified period. Of course it's only a problem if you have a lot of stuff, and if you aer not paying then to unpack everything. I coudn't use unpacking as I wanted to arrange the furniture and build storage/bring new furniture in, and clean after the removals before unloading things.

If you don't have much stuff then really nothing to worry about! and you can let them unpack in this case.

[beaglesaresweet]

*not paying them

[MissBetseyTrotwood]

They are not unpacking-just reassembling beds and shelves. I imagined that once we were all in id just want everyone to go away as fast as possible!

And that's a great point wrt the 2 weeks insurance. My dh is moving all his work stuff so he'll have to check all that quickly.

[BlueChampagne]

Pack and transport computer yourself. Our packers (worth every penny) happy to be stoked up with plenty of fresh coffee ...

[MissBetseyTrotwood]

Coffee and cake is ON!

[vvviola]

Designate one room as the "do not touch room" - we've used the family bathroom before. I put suitcases, stuff I didn't want them packing etc in there. No confusion that way.

Empty your bin if they are packing it. A colleague had a half full bin packed and shipped once! I had half a pack of biscuits in a biscuit tin sent half way around the world. They will not stop to check things.

If you have kids, try to get them to be somewhere else for the bulk of the day. Not only did mine find it a bit upsetting but they got in the way a bit (they were out of the house for most of it but still around for the last few hours)

Especially if it's a rental and you need to clean up afterwards, borrow a Hoover/sweeping brush etc from a neighbour. Ours got packed pretty early in the process and no matter how tidy they try to be, it's always dusty and messy afterwards.

[MissBetseyTrotwood]

The don't touch rooms a great idea. Dcs will be taken down to in laws that morning by dh and our cleaner is coming in that morning too. There will be tears saying goodbye to her-she's been with us ages and we've been through so much together :(

[BonaDea]

And just remember that the point of paying for this is to take the work out of it for and also so you can live normally til moving day! Just junk stuff you don't want to take and remove personal papers or anything you need for the first few days

[MissBetseyTrotwood]

You're right! With exception of big paeds appt next week with ds the diary is clear for project de clutter and move!!