Moving House - any good tips??

[fruitandbarley]

I'm moving house to a different part of the country in next few weeks and feeling rather overwhelmed with the amount of stuff we have, starting new job, sorting kids in new school and everything else that comes with moving.
Does anyone have any good tips? Things you wish you'd done, or not done? How to cope on moving day etc.. thank you..

The best tip I can give is - hire a skip. When we moved last time I tried my best to do the right thing and give stuff away to charities, both shops and online. The amount of hassle involved was unbelievably stressful, on top of everything else. When we moved, we found we chucked away almost as much as we wanted to take with us.

We did a move few years ago from one city to another part of the country 3 hours away. We paid for movers for all the big stuff. Hired a van for other stuff and had 2 cars, which we had to take. Luckily for us, we moved during lockdown so kids weren't in school, so we dropped the kids off at grandparents near the new house whilst we did the move and unpacked over a few days. Label every box you pack for which room it needs to go to. If you starting new schools/job, have a suitcase/box just for those. Uniform/bags etc so it's all together and easier to get to.

Once we got to our new house we set up everyone's beds before we done anything else and set up one bathroom. Then I started to unpack the kitchen. Luckily all our clothes were all in suitcases so we just lived out of that for the first week. Whilst we waiting for the movers to get their one of us popped to the local shop to get the essentials....bread/tea/coffee/milk etc etc to get us through the first day or two.

When we move next which will be an hour and half away from hwerw we currebtly live, whenever we find a property I'm paying the premium and having the movers take everything.

Good luck with your move.

Oh, and in my car, I took all cleaning things, including vacuum. The plan was I give the house a quick once over before we strat unpacking the van, etc. But luckily for us the house was spotless and there was cover on the carpet protecting it! The carpert had also been cleaned! The previous owners were lovely, so that saved me a few hours of work too!

So maybe as you pack up one room. Give it a good clean before starting on another.

Start clearing and packing now. Better still get a packing and moving service if you can afford to. We did but I cleared out every cupboard beforehand and put everything back.

YY to a skip

Run down supplies of everything as far as you can.

If you can get documents and valuables to a safe place then do so.

Get a deep clean booked for the new place if possible

Pack your car with all the immediate stuff you will need. Kettle and tea/coffee, snacks chargers,toothbrushes, toilet rolls, cleaning stuff, tool box, iPads, laptop, hoover one set of bedding for all of you and a set of clothes for the next day. Warm clothes too as you'll be figuring out heating, timers etc.

If you can send the kids somewhere overnight then consider it.

Pay for them to pack. Worth its weight in gold.

Get a skip far bigger than you think you'll need.

Leave kettle and microwave for the end for hot drinks and microwave meals (assuming you'll drive and can take the microwave in the car).

Pack enough clothes for you all for a few days in a suitcase so you’re not scrabbling looking in boxes on day 3 and have a box you take in the car with kettle, tea, mugs etc.
If I had the money I’d of paid for people to pack my house.
Cardboard wardrobes are great for transporting clothes. Also label every box as specifically as possible - not just kitchen but baking stuff or pans etc

We almost had to spend moving date not in new home. But next time I’d pack weekend bag just in case!

Put pets in kennels/cattery and go back for them after the move.(One of our cats went AWOL about 15 minutes before we were due to lock up and leave for the final time).
Sort out the shed/garage/loft first. You don't want to be digging stuff out on moving day and thinking why the hell you kept some of it.
Run down your freezer fridge and store cupboard.
Take meter readings otherwise the utility companies will issue apportioned bills.
Set up a mail redirection for a year.

Label things fully and make sure chargers and remotes are in the same box with gadgets.
Pack weekend bags. Don't assume you will unpack everything straight away, so it's a good idea to catogorise things into essentials you will want straight away and things that can be stored for a while (summer clothes for example). I really wish I had done this.
Look at your layout and try and decide where everything is going to go before you move. Removal people are only human, if they don't know where to put things they will put them in the nearest spot.
Be very kind to one another. The stress of everything being new can really creep up on you, especially with new job new area new house all at the same time.

You won't need a skip. You can easily sell/donate/recycle stuff if you are organised about it and give yourself plenty time to do it.
Give yourself plenty of time for everything. And buy more tape than you think you could possibly ever need.

Write as detailed as you can about what's in the different boxes.

Do not just write "Mixed things from the living room" or similar.

Made a list about change of address to all important places. Noted if it could be updated by app/ online/ email or letter. Wrote the letters and draft emails ready to go. Updated the apps shortly after moving in.

Ordered room name stickers for the boxes and bags. Bought a load of giant laundry bags which were ideal for packing soft things like bed linen, soft toys and clothes.

Lots of packing tape and scissors.

Have a big declutter beforehand selling on FB or donating as much as possible. We made around £300 doing this.

Use the Royal mail redirection service, and as pp has said, write a list of all companies you will need to send the new address to.

Pay for the packing service. 100 per cent the best thing to do. Wish in hindsight I'd done that for every move, but only felt we could justify the cost after having kids when the stuff was just overwhelming. But they know what they're doing. They pack it well and it saves SO much time and energy

Put your teabags, kettle etc in a separate box and that comes with you in the car. Don't bother cooking the first night, get a takeaway.

Declutter, declutter, declutter before starting to pack

Don't overpack boxes by weight, if you can't lift it on your own it's too heavy. A moving company once suggested big IKEA bags to me for bedding, clothes etc as you can tape them up and lie them flat

Label boxes by room

I'd you have time, list what's in each box

I've moved A LOT in my life and personally I'm a huge fan of Really Useful Boxes

Sort out mail forwarding before you move

You can never have too much tape

Also agree with packing a couple of "first night" bags including sheets, clothes etc so it's all in one place in your car. Include some kids toys, bedtime books etc( if relevant)

If you do go for packers (cannot recommend highly enough) then designate one place in the house as "do not touch" - for us it was the bath. We put things we didn't want them to pack in the bath (overnight bag, box with tea/coffee, phone chargers, laptop etc) so it was easy for us to keep control of.

With or without packers, an overnight bag with essentials will be invaluable because you just don't know how the day will pan out!

If you have a goldfish put the bowl in the freezer 24 hours before moving.

This will prevent the water sloppIng around.

Copyright Viz comic circav1990.

Stop your in-laws turning up the day after you move in. It was an absolute nightmare having them hang around whilst I was unpacking. They think they are helpful amd have FOMO but they were just in the way.

Great advice!

Thank-you everyone

Why do certain? My skip ended up full of things from the shed. For example half tins of paint/ varnish that no one would want and we had no donation places nearby. A mattress that was old and I didn't want to take it to my new place. When you've lived in a place for years, you build up a great amount of stuff that you keep for a rainy day, but of no use to anyone else.

Skips aren't always bad and charity shops aren't there to replace skips...

REALLY useful thread, we are moving countries in two weeks! So overwhelmed.

Empty one room in the house (not a through room) of everything and clean it it.
Throw out anything you don't want to take with you.
Pack into clearly labelled boxes each saying which room you want them to go into at the other end.
Put boxes and furniture you don't need into the clean room.
Work your way through the house putting each packed box into this room.
Clean each room as you empty it and stop using it. Kids may need to share bedrooms etc.

Leave out kettle, teabags, coffee biscuits hoover and cleaning materials until last. When the house is emptied on moving day, quickly clean the last places and put these items in the boot.

When you arrive in new house, quickly clean rooms. Put boxes into one room if needed while you do this.
Move furniture and boxes into the room clearly written on it.
Unpack the dc stuff first so they are out of your hair.
Make beds for the night.
Unpack other boxes.
Get take out for tea.