To believe that we can unpack from a move in under a week, and ask for your best tips to be able do so?

I think getting a holiday let is a brilliant idea, that means you don’t need to set up beds on the first day, you can clean the house before moving in as well which will feel a lot nicer.

For unpacking 7 days is no problem provided you have a place for everything to go in the new place. I’d be tempted to do a bit of painting while it’s empty too.

Love this suggestion. It really is a great motivator.

Ha! That is indeed what my house resembles 😂

Also remember to take photos of your meter readings at old house and new house.

My best advice is to invite someone over for a weeks time. It’s a good motivation to get it all done and ensure the house is ready.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it's extremely unlikely that the OP is moving a bookshop and didn't mention that fact 😁

I have quite a lot of stuff, and I’m wondering how if would take a week to unpack.

One box per kitchen cupboard, then they’d take maybe an hour to unpack. Most other stuff is in drawers which will move still packed so they just need to furniture putting in place which presumably the movers would do.

Clothes from wardrobes we’d move on portable rails so again straight out and straight back in.

The offices and TVs would take a bit of setting back up, but there’s now way I’d need a day, or most of a day, to unpack each room.

But if you still have unopened boxes from the last move, you might have more stuff than you need… and it might be harder if you’re leaving fitted storage behind so there’s nowhere to put things you currently have stored away, but honestly with two of us plus movers putting the furniture in place, I can’t see how how unpacking our 4 bed would take more than a weekend. Even less with teens to help.

In your case, I’d write off day 1 as getting the furniture in, then day 2 carpet cleaning and getting the kitchen/non carpeted rooms unpacked, then smash the rest on days 3-4 (I think doable in a day but you have time).

I am assuming you have the week off work though.

Totally agree with this question. All members of the family should be involved. It’s their home too. If not, you’ll spend all your time after the move in constantly answering questions about where their things are. I would also make sure that their device chargers are at the bottom of boxes (or in my handbag to miraculously appear after all the boxes have been emptied) but I’m mean like that 😈.

A PP mentioned keeping the kettle and toaster in your car. I’d extend that to include cutlery, a few plates, plenty of mugs, tea, coffee, sugar, milk, cutting boards and knives, rolls of bin bags, suitcase/bags of a couple of days clothes for everyone, hair brushes and toiletries, towels and a box of your important paperwork.

And finally, don’t change your duvets on the move out day. Change them a day or so before so they are relatively clean, and get some new, very large clear plastic bags to put all your bedding in and night clothes in. That way you can just put on the sheet and lay the duvet and pillows on the bed.

Yes, and this! Have a box of "essentials". We took this in our car with us so it didn't get wound up with everything else, with the kettle, tea bags, mugs, cleaning supplies, snacks, a handheld hoover, chargers, and anything that might be needed straight away. We also had the best new neighbours who brought round sandwiches and drinks for us and the movers, which made me cry 🥹

I wouldn't bother with thr packing service. Moving house is the best time to go through everything and chuck everything you don't NEED. We got rid of so much stuff before our last move, and as we packed, we boxed things that would go into the specific room in the new house, and labelled the box, so the movers knew where to put everything. We did pay them to take apart and rebuild furniture which was a god send as they were so fast and while we were downstairs unpacking the living room and putting kitchen stuff away, they rebuilt all the beds, cot, and wardrobes and large chests of drawers, so upstairs was pretty much done by midday! This move was with a toddler, baby, two cats and three dogs in tow, so wasn't the smallest of moves. We were all unpacked within a few days, the only boxes I had sat around were full of things I decided didn't fit the new house, so ended up at charity shops.

Have moved around 15 times, family of four and always mostly unpacked in around 3 days.

Prioritise decluttering and organising things before packing. Make sure all child x’s toys are together, all kitchen stuff is in the kitchen, etc.

Movers will pack everything but I tried to be there when they packed and label everything myself. Be really specific with labelling - I.e. Kitchen - drinking glasses, Johnny’s Room - Lego.

I always had a box or two I packed myself with the essentials - soap, scissors, tape, hand towel, phone chargers, etc- which I opened first and that would give a basis for starting to unpack.

Then just unpack in an organised fashion - don’t open all the boxes and take a few things out of each box - as its overwhelming and takes longer.

Ive always given each person (including kids) a room to unpack themselves. Multiple people unpacking one room can be chaotic and takes longer longer as you’re working around people.

mHope your move goes well!

Moving boxes from one loft to another is madness. Bin the lot (Christmas decorations aside).

I've been in my house for two years and still haven't unpacked all the boxes!

Very possible, pack logically and unpacking is easy.

If you still have boxes from your last move in the loft, you don’t need that stuff! Decluttering is the key.

If you have teens who will do their own rooms and then help with breaking down boxes etc maybe a day?
Two max. I think the longer you have the longer you drag it out tbh.

100% possible. Movers are a great idea, we are in the armed forces so have moved 3 times in the last 5 years. Tips are as follows:

• Keep your kettle and some tea/coffee/mugs/biscuits in your car for unpacking side. Also the movers will really appreciate a brew
• Which ever room is your priority, ask the movers to pack it last so it’s offloaded first. You can start unpacking this while they offload into the other rooms
• Pack personal/valuable/sentimental items yourself & move them in the car for piece of mind
• The more you can unpack while they’re there - the more empty box’s you can send back with them
• keep a little bag of tools in your car to rebuild beds etc
• get some duck tape and when you take your beds etc down, stick the screws/nuts to the frame itself. Tape the smaller pieces together like the longer pieces so you know it will all arrive together.
• Keep Hoover & cleaning stuff in your car and go early to the new house to give it a once over before your stuff arrives.
• have some plastic sheeting & tape handy or ask the movers for some of the carpet protector so you can cover any items you need to put in the garden while you unpack in case it’s rains!

Our last move was in May. It’s worth 1 adult being there with the movers to help/oversee packing of the old house and everyone else being out the way. We slept in the new house the same night (with a 3 year and 7m old) and I would say we’re unpacked fully in less than 3 days. 3 bed house, shed and 2 lots of military kit.

edited typo

Our last move was downsize and despite decluttering and selling stuff, it took ages to be sorted. We had no wardrobes, so the packing wardrobes were in use for far longer than I wanted, which meant there was a storage difficulty too. The garage was crammed and we found we still needed to sell things and replace with more suitable items.

Why aren’t your teens also unpacking?!
if you’ve boxes from the last move, don’t move them again unless it’s to the tip…

It depends how much stuff you have of course but I would think its realistic if you are moving into a house with enough storage space and you are organised.

However, watch the packers like hawks and supervise everything they do. We had Pickfords pack us a couple of years ago and I nearly had a breakdown. They had no idea what they were doing. I had to get them to repack things. I saw one guy literally throwing books into a box. After the first day we stayed up half the night packing anything valuable ourselves. It was a nightmare.

It took 2 days to find the kettle as they had packed it in a box labelled 'coats'. We moved in August and had no reason open a box of coats.

I would never, ever pay for packers again.

Bloody hell! It takes me way longer than you lot! Just unpacking, sorting, and properly shelving my books can take a week or so! So they get started usually a month or so in, and I’ve usually got boxes lurking a year or so later 😂

Key is to ruthlessly declutter before the move and the packers so you take nothing to the house that you don’t need and you’re not distracted by sorting and reminiscing. For boxes from your previous move I would check there are no essential documents in there and then get rid of them - you haven’t needed anything in them in your current house, why would you suddenly need them in the new one? Also make sure your removals folk are assembling all furniture at the new place as that saves a lot of time - bedrooms first then kitchen table, other rooms after that.

Last time me moved we had been in our house for 11 years and had a child since we bought it, we were doing a fast move for various reasons and we spent all the preceding weekends (about four of them I think) decluttering etc (sooooo may trips to the recycling centre). Packers came Wednesday, we had boxes in the new place by about 5pm Thursday and we were fully unpacked by Saturday lunchtime with a friend helping set up dc room on the Friday.

I think it’s easy to get the house habitable quite quickly - bedrooms, kitchen etc. But there’s always those last boxes that don’t have an obvious home or are not immediately needed that take a lot longer. (And they’re the ones that are still in the loft 10years later - looking at your CDs DH).

DH unpacked in about a week - mostly 2 days - whilst I was at work but we are not stuff people. 1 medium van to move - the normal for a house our size was the larger van and often a second small van. The removal people made comments that they were glad because it was a rural move and the big truck gets tricky

we didn’t need to decorate or clean much