Your best tips for moving house

[shouldhavecalleditoatabix]

Hi all. So, thanks to a lovely gift and a change in circumstances we have gone from buying a home is the plan in a year or so to suddenly seeing a house, having an offer accepted and now in the process of buying a house. Looking to complete in 8-12 weeks.

So, I haven't spent time decluttering or clearing in preparation because we didn't know it was going to happen. We live in a rented house (been here 10 years) and are moving to an empty house. I've just ordered a moving house pack of boxes.

So fellow Mumsnet tees, hit me with your best hints and tips for a smooth move. We will be doing it ourselves and are moving on about 1/4 mile away.

Mumsnetters*

Wrap your plates / glasses / based etc in clothes! You have to move both anyway and it saves on packing material.

• vases 🙄

We’ve moved 3 times in the last five years, on two occasions whilst I was pregnant, money spent on letting the professionals pack is never ever wasted.

1. Declutter asap - don't move crap. It will follow you forever more!!
2. Unless you're currently in fully furnished, hire a moving company. They whip through without getting distracted.
3. Have an 'essentials' box that stays with you at all times, with loo roll, bin bags, cleaning stuff just in case, kettle/mugs/spoon/teabags/milk
4. Take lots of photos before you get your stuff in, it's interesting to see what a difference it makes once you make it 'home'.

Congratulations!

money spent on letting the professionals pack is never ever wasted

This a thousand times.

Hire a company to move the big stuff (white goods, sofas, wardrobes) at least. They're experts at getting it done quickly and have insurance in case anything gets broken.

Put clothes into bags still on the hangers. Then all you have to do is hang them back up and remove the bag.

Kitchen box with kettle, cups, hot drink fixings, tea towels, washing up liquid and rubbish bags. Also include loo roll. Goes with you in your car.

Absolutely get someone to pack and unpack the big stuff.

Clean before you go in. Better still get a cleaning company in to blast it.

Plan a week of takeaway.

I too recommend packers

Your removal company (if you use one) may provide and takeaway boxes, wrapping and tape and stuff a few weeks before your move (ours did).

Aim to pack one box you are taking with you and the same amount of stuff you will want to tip every day. It soon adds up. Book your tip slot now if you have to do that!

Pack all the clothes and beauty items you can live without now. Lockdown was perfect for this.

Book a skip if you have a lot of junk, or old flatpack furniture that realistically will not survive a move.

Invest in an electric screwdriver if you don't have one already. This has proven to be the single most valuable thing in our possession.

Measure the windows in the new place - we didn't and our first evening was me frantically curtain buying as they took the curtains/blinds and curtain poles.

Agree about PPs tips about moving from a rented place.

If you can get your completion date as close to the end of the month as possible, and you have a mortgage, this will save you money on your first mortgage payment (as this is normally higher taking into account the intertest that is payable from the previous month that starts from that day of completion, but is added onto the first payment). We saved £800 going from the 15th to the 26th!

Makes sure you are really disciplined about contacting all your utility providers/gyms/insurance companies/club or organisation memberships to get your details transferred to the new address. Make a big tick list and try and do two or three a day a couple of weeks before your move.

Be mentally prepared for frustrating, what appears to be inexplicable delay and slow solicitors. This will be stressful. You will argue.

Label boxes with which room you want them in. It saves moving them again later.

Don't overfill the boxes. You need to pick them up at the end. Books weigh a surprising amount!

Pack a travel bag with soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, etc. You'll be tired at the end of the day and won't want to be searching for these things.

Kitchen box with essentials.

Cleaning before you get in as pp have suggested is a really good idea too.

Good luck!

1. Valuables in a box - take with you.
2. label boxes with what room - be wary of labeling valuable things
3. one person at the new house door directing traffic to the right room.
4. Check things like oven, lights that everything drains, water heater as soon as possible after getting the keys
5. dont forget some clothing in the grab bag
6. read and phoograph electric and gas meters readings when you get the keys and before you hand back the old keys. Alos check the new meter serial numbers when setting up utilities.

and... relax.

Ex army brat and army wife here had over 30 addresses I can pack up a house in an afternoon!

You will need:
Packing boxes
Duct tape (don't bother with crappy "packing tape" it's not strong enough once boxes are filled)
Thick marker pens
Black bin bags
White bin bags
Hand gel and kitchen roll - for quickly cleaning hands as you go so you're not marking eg clothes with dusty hands.
Old clothes you don't care if they end up wrecked, you'd be amazed how dusty/dirty various nooks and crannies you're packing from get! I'd also highly recommend wearing a headscarf!

1 be UTTERLY RUTHLESS about clearing out as you pack! Don't be taking boxes full of crap to the new place!

Set up the boxes for the things you will be taking with you, but also have ready to fill:

black bin bags for rubbish

white bin bags for stuff you're donating to charity

2 decide what you're going to NEED to be using until last minute and will want to unpack as soon as you arrive at new place - kettle, mugs, cleaning basics, toiletries etc and set a small box aside JUST for this stuff which is clearly marked - inc warm pjs even if weather warm JUST IN CASE being too warm is easy to deal with just by stripping, opening windows etc, if you're too cold 1st night in new place and haven't warm clothes prepped and can't work out how to turn bloody heating on it can be miserable!

3 pack by room - makes it much easier to unpack and find things at the other end. Mark boxes clearly

But DON'T pack in boxes important and difficult to replace documents - if you haven't already create a folder that contains birth and marriage certificates, passports, bank books etc and that goes in a handbag/suitcase and STAYS WITH YOU. I'd also apply this to difficult to replace precious photos especially of loved ones that have now passed, if they're in photo frames take out the frame for now and pack the frame but you will be heartbroken if they are lost/damaged.

4 don't pack boxes full of solely heavy items, mix it up or else you'll have boxes that are way too heavy to move easily eg no boxes FULL of books, photo albums - have a few books at bottom of box then the rest lighter items like clothes, linens and cushions

5 yes to packing fragile items in with clothes/linens etc though as generally works better than specialist packing too

6 DON'T get distracted reminiscing, keep moving keep packing - having upbeat music on really helps

7 if possible do a clean, carpet, paint freshen up and curtains/blinds sorted in new place BEFORE you move in. At the very least as pp said get measurements.

8 Yes, re contacting all your bills companies - get onto that ASAP it can take up to 6 weeks with some companies for the new info to get through to all depts - go through last full months bank statement to create a list to call and tick off as you've called them. Request final letters sent to NEW address where possible.

Also worth paying for mail redirect especially in these times of identity theft.

Inform everyone who normally writes to you - inc birthday cards etc - of new address and ensure they've RECORDED the new address - one of my grans used to be murder for this and would be sending birthday cards with cash in to old addresses!

If you are moving white goods use professional removals as they will know the correct and safe way to move things like washing machines.

Good luck

If you can manage it, start decluttering now. It is a huge waste of time and effort packing and transporting unwanted stuff.

As your new home is empty try to clean it before you move in, or get cleaners to do it.

When you box stuff label them, either by contents or room, or both.

Put your kettle, mugs, tea, coffee, sugar, milk and some snack food in a separate bag so you put that straight into the new kitchen on arrival.

Once all you stuff has been unloaded into your new home, the absolute first job you should do is sort and make up all the beds. Trust me on this. When you get to the stage in the evening when you are so exhausted that all you can do is crawl upstairs you will be so glad the beds are all ready to receive your tired bodies.

Good luck Op, it is so exciting moving into your own home the first time.

I'd get at least a couple of quotes for someone doing it for you - including the packing. You aren't going far and it might be less than you think.

De clutter as much as you can. Fairly ruthlessly.

1. Declutter.
2. Get proper movers and pay them for their packing service.

@Kakfor

Congrats on your new home. I am just moving into an empty house too from rented. We have kept the rented place on an extra month so that we can clean and decorate the new place before we move in. It is so much easier. We can also move our things in at our leisure. I have moved dozens of times and having the luxury of moving this way is the least stressful ever.

As for other moving tips there are a ton of useful guides at www.removalreviews.co.uk

Best tip ever. It’s the only time you ever have the luxury of being able to do this.

In a chain my tip is to book a hotel for the two nights after moving day so you have something unchaotic to retreat.

It can be cheaper to move on a Monday-Thursday, everyone wants to move on a Friday so companies tend to charge more.

Oh and bedding, pillows etc (lightweight items) can normally be packed inside drawers. Keep a box for your kettle, cups, teabags, a couple of towels, phone chargers etc and clearly label so you're not unpacking everything to find items that you'll need straight away.

If bringing a cat, what we did was put plenty of newspaper in a carrier, made sure she had drunk and eaten and put her in it a few hours before we were off. We put her i the bathroom.

It was snowy on our last move, they had not even packed the other end Luckily there was a pub down the road who gave permission for us to sit in their and let our cat prowl around!

Best tip I have used is the bedding. On the day of the move wrap your current bedding in a bundle inside the sheet and put them in your own car. When you/your van/removers van gets to the other house and your bed is in place you have no hunting for bedding you can just roll out what you had in the car and you’re set for the night.

Write numbers on the boxes and keep a very rough inventory of what is in them separately so if a box does get put somewhere wrong you can be sure you’re looking for ‘box 6’ or similar.

Write the destination room on the box (bed1, bed2 etc) and when you get to the new house tape a post it to each bedroom door straight away with the corresponding number on.

Keep takeaway menus to hand!!

Run down the fridge, freezer and food cupboards and prebooked a supermarket delivery for the first full day of being there when your fridge and freezer are in and running.

Don’t forget plant pots and garden stuff!!

Oh and put a torch i a handy box (your kitchen box). Half an hour after we moved in, the lights all went out. An electrician came and said he would not touch the electrics with a barge pole and it was a danger, so dad was having to do it himself!

Oh and dont assume if they leave an oven that it works properly!

The nice looking italian oven they left behind belched out smoke. It was some time befor emum and dad could afford a new one!

Declutter.
Label every box with what's in it and which room it needs to go in.
Keep boxes for paperwork, cleaning materials, overnight bag, medication and first aid kit, tea, coffee, kettle and snacks for moving day all handy and pop in car rather than removal van. This way you have everything you need incase of delays.

Similar to @Nomorewineever re bedding but when we moved from our rental to our house, the best tip I read was to change your bedding to fresh bedding the day of the move & roll it up as suggested - then when you’re at the other end and shattered, you’re getting straight into fresh bedding.

We also focused on getting the bed set up first, followed by sofa (Ikea build sofa...) and TV so we could flop with a takeaway.

Clean all the kitchen cupboards before you start putting things away. And endless amounts of tea.