Moving house soon. Share your tips with me!

[wheresmyheeeadat]

We're moving house soonish (in 4-6 weeks). Been in our current place for 15 years.

What advice would you give me when getting ready to move? Packing tips? Advice or tips when moving out of our current place or into our new place?

At the moment we've not really packed a thing, but I'd like to get an early start. But where do I start with the packing? I don't mind boxes piled on top of each other sitting in our rooms, but sometimes I'll think about packing up my winter clothes into space saver bags and it seems a bit pointless because they're in away in wardrobes not not taking up much space whereas they would be in boxes sat in a room.

Where do I start? Do I start emptying junk drawers one at a time? Clearing toys? Help 🫣

Who's in the household? You mention toys - young kids? Do you have pets?

OK.

Week one: go through every room, and storage location, and donate (sell if you can be bothered), recycle or bin stuff you definitely don't want to take with you. Go to the tip.
Week 2: get all the boxes, tape and packing materials you need - hint, it's more than you think, and pick a room to store boxes. Pack or relocate everything in that room.
Week 3: pack everything you wont use in the next few weeks. Keep donating/recycling/binning if you can. Label boxes clearly!
Week 4: pack everything except essentials - like down to minimal plates, clothes etc. Dismantle any furniture no longer needed.
Day before you move: pack a "holiday" suitcase of clothes, bedding, lightbulbs and other first night essentials. Fill van with everything you can except the suitcase, valuables and paperwork.
Day of move: pack last bits, takes beds apart, fill rest of van. Clean, and drive to your new house.

DH, 2 children (primary and secondary ages) and a dog.

DH is a bit of a hoarder and holds onto the children's toys and other bits of love to toss for sentimental reasons, so I'm slowly trying to work on that.

We've been going through the children's shelves this weekend finding books and other bits to donate.

The children and I have quite a lot of clothing. I've sold a lot on Vinted previously but not for a few months. I could really do with the extra spending money from selling on Vinted, but I'm wondering if I just put everything I've not had a chance to list in bin bags and donate for ease rather than spending time photographing and posting it all. There's a couple years worth of bits to sell, so could potentially make quite a lot of £ but it will take time

I moved house about 6.5 weeks ago. Like you, I have piles of clothes to sell but I didn't have time to do that before we moved.
It's definitely a good idea to declutter, but focus on the bulky things - eg any furniture you don't want or need to take - and the quick wins; stuff you can take to the dump or the charity shop.

I measured up in the new house and measured our furniture, then did a plan of the new house and worked out where everything was going to go. This was helpful as it meant we got rid of some stuff before moving (as we knew what we wouldn't need or wouldn't fit) and on moving day I knew exactly where everything was going.

When you're packing the essentials, don't just pack for 24h, pack the things you'll need for the next few days, as it will take you a little while to find and unpack your stuff.

If you can, book annual leave for after the move so you can blitz some of the unpacking.

I paid the removal company to do the packing as we just didn't have the time to do it ourselves and it was definitely worth it, although a bit stressful to see the packers chucking things in boxes indiscriminately! So if you have time to pack and don't mind doing it, it's obviously better to do it yourself and you can also declutter as you go (although it's slower that way as you have to think).

Do you have a plan for the dog, will a friend or neighbour look after it on moving day, or will you take it to a kennels or something? I don't have a dog so I don't have any tips about that. I have cats and they were extremely stressed out by the whole thing, but hopefully a dog will be a bit less stressed!

I’d spend the next couple of weeks doing a serious declutter and book packers and removals, they are incredible but will literally take bags of rubbish if you don’t dispose of them quick enough!
Well worth every penny imo. So stress free and you’re not living in a limbo of boxes wondering where you packed xyz that you didn’t realise was essential for day to day living.
Good luck!