How stressful was moving house for you?

[Jamoffmytoast]

It's quite a long while since I've moved and am considering it now, but I know it's meant to be really stressful. Is it harder to leave somewhere if you've been there a long time I wonder? Just wanted to hear from anyone who's moved fairly recently about whether is was as stressful as they thought or any tips to make it less stressful?

It’s not that stressful of you do most of the packing way in advance. How long until you move? Or is this hypothetical?

Just reread - you’re considering moving. Are you renting or buying?

There are so many variables and things outside your control, so the best way to get through it is to be to motivated and to be organised.

Understand all the costs in advance - to buy and sell is £££. If you haven't moved for a while the stamp duty alone may be shocking.

Start decluttering and doing minor repairs NOW so that the property is presentable.

Very stressful to be honest, we moved a year ago. It’s worth it in the end, but not great while you are going through it. I am yet to meet someone who has found buying & selling a breeze.

I moved from a house we'd been in for quite years, where both DC had been brought home to after birth.

The move itself wasn't difficult, it was selling and buying a house that was stressful. Packing up and moving actually only took a couple of days.

I am in the process now and I’ve started packing boxes of things not used every day just to avoid the stress last minute, I find the day of the move really stressful

DH and I moved quite a lot in our 20s and I didn't find it that stressful.

We moved a few years ago, this time with two DC and after being the same home for a decade. It was more stressful than when it was just us. We needed someone to watch the kids and there was all the logistics of feeding them, getting them to bed (getting their beds built FFS!). There was none of this 'keep pushing through on Maccies and red bull until 2am so it got done in one day' anymore.

My tip is definitely get organised before hand. I started sorting stuff out about six weeks before we moved. We got rid of so much crap before we moved that we refused to take with us. Pack beforehand. Get the beds in first and made up. Then your kettle and some mugs. At least then everyone can sleep and have a brew when they need it.

Packing up and moving - fine
Selling and buying houses - fucking awful, never again!!!!

We are currently contemplating moving, we are going to rent a storage unit now, move all the items we dont use, need into said unit. Then sort it from there and only take what we really need and get rid of the rest.

How stressful, in marks out of 10? About 27.
Honestly I never want to move again. However we do have a lot more stuff than average which didn't help. Staying in one place often means you accumulate more stuff, I think that's the reason it's harder. Perhaps there is an extra emotional wrench leaving somehwere you've been happy for many years.

Flylady has some really good tips for planning and packing.
Pay for a post office redirection for 12 months, to catch all the changes of address you forgot to notify.
Set plenty of time aside to deal with paperwork.
Identify fast food outlets which will deliver to your new house for the first day or two.

I moved a few months ago.

In terms of the move day. We only had a week between exchange and completion. Last time I moved was eight years ago with the same week in between and was fine. I am now 46. And the week was not enough. I was so tired. Because of all the packing and taking everything apart and the cleaning. I have had someone pull out on exchange day on a previous Move. So not a chance I was doing anything before that. So next time I would want two weeks.

In terms of the whole process. Making sure u have a good solicitor is key. Only use someone who has been recommended to you. Even asking on ur local Facebook page is better than just picking out of a hat. And most estate agents will want u to use their ones they recommend. I wouldn’t do that.

Make sure u have everything ready before u press go on the house move. The house we were buying didn’t have the proper paperwork for the extension. They had to send off for it again. They were told this could take up to six months. So make sure you have everything ready.

We made sure anything they asked us to sign was back the next day. Don’t be the ones holding up the chain.

Unfortunately there will be things out of ur control.
One thing I did this time was brilliant. I actually spoke to the people who were buying our house all the way through. I know for some people this has been a nightmare. But for us this time it worked brilliantly. We talked through dates, and small questions fhay came up.

She asked for measurements that she needed. Never at all during the sale did I have to worry they were pulling out and vice versa. Helped during the quiet months. They were first time buyers so they were so excited. I even sent them photos of the first pieces of mail fhay came through the door. Again. This isn’t for everyone and I know to can cause problems sometimes.

I found it really stressful but I am on my own and apart from my 9 year old , had no help at all.
The day the removal men came ( 2 of them ) was like heaven to me

Thanks everyone for these replies and tips. It's only hypothetical just now but likely. I'll be selling and buying, so it sounds like that is the worst part. Very good idea to be starting decluttering now and doing some repairs and things. I also do need to look at how much stamp duty is these days and things like solicitors and removal vans as I don't know.

Sounds like trying to get a gap between exchange and completion is important. That's nice that you got on so well with your buyers Paranoidandroidmarvin

I'm on my own too foxy3 but dcs older so no babysitting issues and will be moving locally so they can stay at their schools.

A lot depends on your buyer and your vendor really, and also the competence of their solicitors. The system is still just as slow and liable to fall apart as it has ever been. Unfortunately it remains the case any party can pull out for any reason at any point before exchange, with no penalty, and no recompense to other parties.

The place we were first going to purchase that fell through had awful, pushy agents and vendor who clearly would have thrown us over at any time for a higher offer and seemed to be continuing to show it even after officially accepting our offer. We had to pull out when our buyers did - I think our buyers had over-offered and got cold feet. Annoyingly, they wouldn't tell us why or if there was something that needed addressing from the survey, for example.

But our final buyer, vendor, agents and solicitors were pretty great and very low stress. Everyone stuck to the deal, no messing anyone about, not demanding or pushy. Having bought 3 places and sold 2, they all took around 11-12 weeks from acceptance to completion. I do know some people who've managed the whole thing in 6 weeks, even with a chain. But that's about as quick as it gets.

Thanks Echobelly that's useful for an idea of a timeline. If it all goes smoothly like you say - I wonder what percentage go through smoothly or fall through.

Label all boxes with what is in them but also which room you want them to go to in your new house.

That tip about decluttering up front is really , really good advice. When you declutter, build up a plan of where everything is going to go in the new house, yes even the cupboards and certainly all the kitchen.

Employ packers.

Label everything packed with its original location so you know where it is due to be when it is unpacked.

Make sure the boxes all end up in the correct room to minimising the effort used to move them around the new house.

Have a 'hand baggage' kit to cover the first night. When you are 'in', prioritise getting beds made up, toiletries and clothes ready for the next day.

Then take your time to unpack everything.

The parts of moving, including buying and selling a house, which are outside your control are the parts that make it so very stressful. Good luck.

We moved recently, we sold when our baby was only a few months old. The process with the solicitors etc was more stressful than the move. We used a removals firm to pack for us so we just had two days of upheaval. We then managed to unpack in around a week. We are so glad we moved

We moved last year after 25 years in our house. We are both early 60s, DH has Parkinson's, we had a then 16 year old and an ageing cat. Do as much as possible well in advance, get plenty of help for the move, get storage if you need it and buy some more time to decide what you do or don't want

I moved today .
First tip, get a skip.
Second tip, get a bigger skip than the one you think you need .
Third tip, don't downsize from a huge farm house to a tiny cottage.
Fourth tip, see above.

It is stressful. We moved from my favourite house after 15 years and I felt bereaved. We moved from the last one and I was so glad to go.

Declutter as much as you can. I hired 3 skips. I gave stuff away. Start packing as soon as you can, just after you've sold.

You will be selling one and moving to the next one so have an essentials box for when you get there. I always pack a suitcase with bed linen, toiletries, outfits, towels so you have things to hand. I keep all the important stuff in my work bag. These 3 go in the car with me.

Hire movers and get then to put your beds together. Then all you need to absolutely do is make the beds, eat and go to sleep!

I have a stress ranking in my head, it's pretty personal, but:

At number 3 is buying/selling a house and packing/moving yourself.
At number 2 is moving business premises and doing it yourself, machinery etc.
At number 1, most stressed I've ever been is selling the business.

Number 3 can be helped by decluttering lots and paying for packing and removals. We'll never move ourselves again!

@Jamoffmytoast ah that sounds brilliant in itself that you don't have to change schools too
I moved to a new county so was a bit more hassle and from a three bed to a two so did have a lot of things to get rid of, also I had a time frame of two weeks . What I did find handy was making lists of what was going , coming , could go on fb market place etc , I still have the notebook lol
Lots of luck with what you decide 😊

Moved a couple of years ago amd found it immensely stressful.

The actual physical move was hard work but it was the entire process that broke me: getting the house ready for sale, worrying about things that would put buyers off, building regs issues, being outbid on one property after another, buyer threatening to pull out etc etc. I used to quake whenever I saw my estate agents name flash up on my phone - it was torture. I did the whole thing singlehandedly while working f/t with two small children - more than once I just sobbed at my desk as I couldn't take any more.

Sadly the vendor died shortly after moving out - I'm almost certain the stress killed her - so sad.

The stupid thing is I don't think my move was particularly problematic - it just seemed to press some awful buttons in me! Am still fairly traumatised by the whole thing.

Getting lots of help with the move itself is useful. Also I think it helps to understand the role each party plays, eg our estate agents put huge pressure on us to exchange before we were ready. Then the solicitor pointed out they were trying to get the sale done in time for their Xmas bonus...