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

Put kettle, cups, teaspoons and tea making equipment in car, or you will never find a teaspoon.

If you have things unpacked from last move, ask yourself, do I still need this. This is a good opportunity to decanter and start how you want to go on.

Also Facebook marketplace is good place to get rid of cardboard boxes as someone always needs for a move.

My favourite house moving tip was not really about moving. In the weeks before when you have more heads space, book a food shop to be delivered.

Include in it things you may not normally- drinks and biscuits for movers plus meals that don't require much in the way of effort or equipment to make whilst you get unpacked. Maybe some cleaning products. (Even if you are at your other place for breakfast and dinner you will need lunches).

Good luck. We had a week set aside too, though I was heavily pregnant and the house needed a very good clean.

Put a list in an envelope on the outside of the box with the boxes contents. As a military wife with lots of moves under our belts it was a lifesaver. No more unpacking boxes looking for something

Of course you can. We were done in 24 hours and we have a large 5 bedroom house and packed and moved ourselves.

I moved from a 3 to a 4 bed. Did all the packing ourselves but we had movers. The new house was absolutely filthy (it looked fine when we viewed so obviously no cleaning done since then). We were all unpacked in less than a week.

Depends how much stuff, time and help you have?

If you've got boxes in the loft from years ago, sounds like you need to declutter first, no point moving things you don't need.

Make sure everyone does their share.

Well I find a lot of things unrealistic in terms of 'property stuff' to be honest, people that decorate a bedroom in a weekend or renovate this or refurb that very quickly. Good on them but I just dont find it realistic

From memory we didnt have a loft ladder when we moved here and I cant do ladders so I had to rely on OH (most of that was his stuff) and he was at work so it was slow going and then each box needed shelving and places to put it

I also personally like to have the feel of a place before I decide how I want the space used, do I want that side table over there, or over here, do I want these on shelves or in a cupboard, what drawer for reaching over to the oven or fridge for this or that utensils, do I want the bed facing this way or that way.

Loads of other reasons.

I think you must have way more stuff that were imagingvid you think a week is optimistic. I'm not a hoarder so can't think how it could take more than a couple of days.

What are you moving?

If you have boxes in the loft from your last move presumably all you're going to do is put them in your new loft, that's noy time taking

I have moved over 32 times and am a bit of an expert now. Last move was to france and we bought 25 cubic m of cross border moving space so had to whittle down everything to fit.

And as I was moving a dismantled polytunnel within that, I really had to whittle things down.

Before moving use your dirty bedding to stuff the fridge and freezer to soak up any water and pop those straight in the wash when you get to the new house.

First evening
First things to unpack are beds, bedding and basic kitchen and cleaning stuff.

First full day
Then get every box into its correct room. Get furniture in situ and bung all clothes onto the beds, and put them away. Then shoes and coats etc.

For front rooms and dining rooms, unpack stuff for eating, sitting down and coffee tables etc. Pop rugs down before tables and sofas. Then set up tvs record players, bookcases etc and get records, cos and books into place. Makes it feel like home.

Day 2 just go room to room and unpack each box. Dont be tempted to leave any. If it was worth bringing it was worth unpacking.

Day 3 unpack the rest. Then either put all the boxes on offer to be taken away by someone else.moving, or take them to the recycling or let the cats play in them and put the rest in the garden for making compost in the spring.

If you can get round and clean before your furniture arrives then that's fab otherwise clean each room before unpacking and dont try to do too much other stuff those first few days, just concentrate on the job in hand. Make up a trug of hot soapy water and have a load of dry cloths with you at all times.

Yes, we moved from a 2 bed to a 4/5 bed (5th is an office really) this summer - we were unpacked in about 2 days I think.

We really really decluttered before moving and I suppose it helped we didn’t have all that much furniture. We packed ourselves but our movers were absolutely fantastic on the day - the run up was bloody stressful but the actual day itself went really smoothly and we were in by about 1.30, previous owners didn’t leave it the cleanest - not terrible but not what I’d expected either so that did take up the bulk of the first afternoon, but we managed to get that done and DD’s room set up plus the essential kitchen and bathroom stuff unloaded, our bed made. The rest just took the next day really.

Im not saying there’s not the odd box in the garage but it’s not really stuff we need day to day and it’s all in clearly labelled boxes so I can go and get what I need when I need it, so it’s more like that’s just where we store that stuff now - things like the fancier dinner service that only really comes out at Christmas or extra candles etc.

I'm in Scotland and it's typical to move out at lunch time and move in to the new property shortly after same day exchange. We moved out in the summer at 12.30 and in new home by 2pm. Packed and unpacked everything ourselves but paid for delivery firm to move everything. Family of 6 (including toddler) and moved from a 4 bed detached to a 5 bed detached. All unpacked in 3 days and admittedly I wasn't as organised as some posters here. So YES definitely you can do it!! Good luck 🤞🏼

My last move was a big downsize and the house was so full of boxes it took me months despite getting rid of lots in advance! It took me about a week to clear enough space for us to move in as the boxes had been blocking cupboards/needed to rebuild furniture... Still need to declutter further (went from a big 3 bed with dining room and conservatory to a really tiny two bed). Would have been so much easier if I'd put half in storage and unpacked like that, or had a third bedroom to put the boxes in whilst I sorted the rest.

Totally doable.

most people don’t but this is often because the house needs cleaning/diy/work doing to it

(and also a lot of boxes go loft to loft)

took me months but I was renovating as well.

With our last move (which was a downsize) the whole process sold up when we got a storage unit, took half the boxes there and then had space to unpack. We then collected more boxes each weekend. (Bearing in mind during this DH had returned to work and only hone weekends and O was settling two children into school and all other daily life).

Packers don't pack logically IME.

It does depend on the situation eg when we moved we needed to board the loft and build a giant shed before we had places to put everything. That was the main cause of delays. Aside from that as long as you have furniture to put things in it shouldn't take too long if you declutter beforehand.

Just to check.... are you buying and selling at the same time? If so you need tobe out of your current house before you can get the keys to the new house. Your talk of getting keys day 1, moving day 2 is making me nervous.

Im amazed at these answers, no I certainly couldnt do it quickly

Half a day!!

We were still with boxes for months, might have been longer when we last moved

Pshhhh… I’ve done a 5 bedroom house in two days with toddlers and not much help, in fact I did that twice.
you’ll be fine!

first get thee a skip.
Load with stuff, proper declutter.

pack and mark boxes.

once in:
make the beds.

i got removal men to put up my curtain piles and bunged then some cash, they were so helpful

room by room quite easyyy

If one person is the main cook, get them to do the kitchen do they put things where they want them.

Focus on getting beds made, clothes away and kitchen sorted first.

Is the house ready to move straight in or are there things like new carpets that you need to do first? If so get that done in day 1 if you can before you start unpacking so you don’t have to move it all again.

As long as you have your main furniture items in early, unpacking the boxes is quick and easy just put it straight where you want it to live long term. Break down the boxes as you go and be methodical room by room starting with the most frequently used rooms like kitchen and bathrooms. If you have kids set them general of sorting their own stuff out in their rooms while you crack in with the rest of the house.

We did it in a day and a half - started about 3pm once all the boxes were in on the day off the move, finished off the next day. Also a four bed.
We had packers which I don’t think made much difference to the unpacking. Just make sure the boxes end up in the right place.

On my last move, it took me half a day. But I packed everything myself clearly labelling what goes into which room at the new house. So it was an easy job or putting the boxes into the correct room right away during the actual move so there is minimal moving around involved afterwards.
I started with the easiest areas which, for me, were kitchen and bathroom. Then moved on to clothes, linen cupboard, boot room. Then books.
My office/studio was the only room that took longer to set up but that's because I have a lot of art supplies and needed to build custom storage for it. So that was a month-long project.