Moving House Tips

[Panicatthegarden]

I am picking up the keys to my new flat in 7 days time and then have a further 7 days before I need to hand my old flat back to the landlord.

It's just me and DP moving and the two places are not far apart, moving from the outskirts of a city to the centre. We have help from his mum on at least one day as she has a large van and we don't have a car ourselves.

Can anyone share any tips they have to make moving as easy and stress free as possible? I'm trying to write a list and prioritise what we need to do but I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed!

I have moved before but many whilst I was at uni so there wasn't quite so much stuff involved and this time I've got about 4 years worth of accumulated belongings

Box.everything up by room and label them.
Go to the tip I’d possible.
Keep what you need to make the bed a silly accessible, same for kettle and mugs etc.
Meter readings at both properties, mail redirection, council tax notification

Tip if possible
Accessible

Have a decent breakfast

Label every box on more than one side

Make your bed up as soon as you can and hang bedroom curtains if necessary

As soon as you get the keys, one person needs to clean the kitchen cupboards and hoover

When you bring stuff in, try and get it in the right place as much as possible.
Avoid 'double handling'. If you have a load of clothes on hangers, hand them in a wardrobe rather than dumping them on the kitchen bench.

Know where your screwdrivers are in case you need them.

So happy you posted this thread as I’m in the exact same situation!

I used to have enough belongings to fit in a car, now we need a full large moving van🤦🏼‍♀️

So far we’ve colour coded the boxes by room and created a spreadsheet inventory, for easy unpacking. In the interim have donated several bags of clothes to charity and thrown as much clutter out as possible.

On the day, I plan to keep important stuff like immediate clothing/bedding/toiletries in a suitcase for fast access. Will probably get a takeaway in on the night and order a grocery delivery for the next morning.

Highly recommend ordering boxes and packing materials from Amazon. You get through a lot trying to pack fragile items like dinnerware/glassware/vases etc securely

These are great thank you, please keep them coming!

At the minute on key collection day we are planning on going to the new place, filling out the inventory, doing any necessary cleaning and setting up the bedroom with bedding ect. New bed comes with the flat that's one less thing to worry about!

Take photos of meter readings at old and new property.
Have a box of cleaning products ready for new house and box at old house to clean each room as it is empty.
Set up mail redirect ASAP

Wow, timely thread for me too...will be moving by the end of the month hopefully, downsizing from 3 bed house to 2 bed bungalow, council so very little notice..in tier 4 so will being doing it ourselves mostly...or more precisely me..DH in poor health so won't be much help!
Keep the tips coming!

Okay this thread has inspired me! Today I've packed the majority of my normal day to day wear in suitcases, we're picking up the keys on Friday so let's be realistic I'm not going to be wearing anything other than leggings any time soon

On Friday I'll take these over and unpack (built in wardrobes) and then use the suitcases to pack up the rest of my summer time and more formal clothes which can just stay in the suitcases until the end of unpacking.

Good luck to everyone else on this thread who's moving soon!

If you're renting one or both places please video the whole place as a condition report. You never know what grumbles may arise in the future especially if you're handing back a rented place

Spent weeks arguing about a carpet stain which eventually I was able to prove was there when I moved in. Nearly cost me hundreds for a replacement carpet

@FatherChristmad I will definitely be doing that! Current landlord has always been a bit of an arse and I'm fully expecting a fight to get my deposit back even though most of the problems in the flat are due to his cost cutting botch job ways

post redirect!
meter readings on departure and arrival

if England, fact landlord is an arse makes no difference. Either he protected your deposit in one of the schemes (and gave you the appropriate info) in which case you raise a dispute should there be any sillybuggers. If he didn't protect it, check Shelter website for procedure to sue.

We're moving on Friday and we're packing and cleaning as we go.

Pack a bag as if you are going away for a few days, that way at least you have clean clothes, toiletries etc rather than having to dig through boxes.

Ikea bag for bedding - just take off the bed, bag it and its ready to be made the other side

Box of stuff including milk, coffee, kettle, biscuits, we've got disposable cups (recyclable) for coffees on the day.

Box of cleaning stuff etc.

We generally tell the movers that we will put anything in the bathroom in our car, so its not at risk of ending up buried on the van.

Pre-chill a few beers for when you get to the new house.

Good luck!!