To consider getting a removal company to pack for us?

[mrszimmerman]

I have friends who have considered this an absolute necessity, also, some of them have the serene expression of a Buddha and some of them are fairly loaded.

I have other friends who don't even use removal companies. They are very fit or have strong relatives and not that much stuff. They are not quite as serene as the above category but there are other factors too.

I have a two year old and an older child and a ton of stuff and I have not done very much packing yet.

Any advice either way? I partly wonder whether getting the movers to pack for me is an admission of defeat. Or whether you'd have to be super organised to get them to do it for you anyway.

All advice on this subject would be gratefully received particularly as the whole thing is making me want to hide in a cupboard and never come out.

It is good BUT :
Have a good clear out first as they do pack EVERYTHING (rubbish swept up from the garage floor, empty pickled onion jar containing left over vinegar (beautifully wrapped in several sheets of white paper by teh way!)
Be clear about what you want them to pack and what you want them to leave so you can live in the house while they're packing - our move took 5 days - Mon - Wed packing - Thursday / Friday unpacking. So tehy packe dup most of teh kitchen on day 1 and I had to hover over them to make sure stuff we would need to cook with / eat etc was left.
They will want to pack your bed early on leaving you with the mattress to sleep on unless you are quite forceful.
Check how they plan to unload - they unloaded big furnitire (1 couch, tv and mattresses) together with garage stuff on the first unpacking day but nothing else - meant we had to remake beds with dirty bedding and reuse dirty towels.
Be prepared to make lots of cups of tea / coffee - even if you are actually meant to be working from home.
When it comes to unpacking, dh's employer had actually paid for that service but they convinced us it was a bda idea - so left us with 300 boxes to unpack. It would have been a help to have got at least the kitchen stuff unpacked.
Oh - if you are doing teh unpacking, try and persuade a friend to help by flatpacking all above cardboard boxes - and make sure teh removal company will collect them!

If you can afford it, then do it.

Moving is difficult even without children.

Definitely have removal men pack and unpack they do it so much quicker, not least because they're not compelled to open every second photo album and reminisce

The last three time I have moved it has been within days of giving birth and frankly I couldn't have done it anyway but there is something utterly joyous about an army of men arriving to pack, telling you to out out for lunch and returning to your new house to discover that your bottles have displayed in an identical manner in your new bathroom to how they were in your old.

Yes another vote for the packing service if you can afford it.

The first time we moved we didn't have that much stuff, no kids and an easy schedule, i.e. guy buying our house didn't want to move in until two days after completion so we had a bit of leeway and also family help, therefore we hired a van and did it ourselves.

Last time we moved the situation was quite different and it would have been a nightmare to try to do it ourselves. We used Pickfords and they were absolute pros, we didn't have to lift a finger and nothing got broken.

As an earlier poster said it might pay to have a clear out first as they do move every last thing - even the very out of date jars in my cupboards.

Would never have considered it in the past, but having moved myself & 2dd's post divorce twice in quick succession I'd say YES now!

My darling sis leant me some furniture they had in storage being expats & it arrived with a 4 man team from Pickfords (other firms are available)

FAN-BLOODY-TASTIC
.
Only tip from my sis is pack any valuble/precious items yourself for peace of mind, the packers will let you have vast quantities of bubblewrap & boxes. Also they will lable which room each box came out of so on moving day all you do is stand by the door with a clipboard doing traffic direction! Oh & tea quantities of tea needed so make sure the kitchen box is unpacked first! (or taken in your car!)

Good luck :)

Everything TeacherWith2kids said, plus - they will come and take away all the empty boxes once you have unpacked, too, if they supplied the boxes. This is more of a benefit that you might think - the stack of boxes from our move was HUGE.

Packing seemed v good value added on to the costs of moving.

Worth every penny.

Make sure they understand what things are very very precious though.

You'll never pack yourself again.

Agree with everyone else that it's well worth it. Our last move was nine years ago but the extra £200 we paid for them to pack was an absolute bargain.

You've no idea how many hours can be wasted looking through all the stuff you find as you try and pack it into boxes. The removal company don't care, they don't have to look at every photo, every keepsake etc. they just pack.

It's definitely worth doing.

We moved earlier this year and DIDN'T get the movers to pack us. It took weeks for us to pack - I hated it. If we ever move again, I'd get the movers to pack for us.

I agree, do it!

I just have a few suitcases/boxes in the car containing the contents of my knicker drawer and anything else I don't especially want strange men packing for me. Also sentimental value stuff that would I rather be responsible for.

Also prefer to do our own unpacking for the reasons above.

Finding the random things the movers have packed is one of the joys of moving :grin:

We've had the contents of a fridge when moving from Moscow and all the logs out of the log basket (individually wrapped) when we came back from Belfast :grin:

I don't plan on EVER moving again but if we did the packers would be the first thing I book. YANBU at all.

Do it, but be prepared for things not to be packed as you would do it.

For example, we had a random assortment of plates etc in one box with some other stuff. Took us ages to find the rest of them, in a totally different box. Personally I'd have put them all in the same box. The large Estonian man doing the packing didn't apply the same logic!

And don't get me started on the box they packed with...empty boxes. They will literally pack whatever you have and use loads of wrapping to avoid breakages. But it does get done FAST.

Make sure you declutter as much as possible before you get them in. I spent days unpacking crap that should have just gone to the tip from our old house.

Can you afford to get them to unpack too? Wish we had done that! We visited friends just after their move, after they had been unpacked by the movers, and the house looked like they'd always lived there!

We paid Pickfords to do it for us as our children were 2.6 and 6 months at the time. Our family don't live locally so we didn't have anyone to leave the children with while we packed so it was an absolute godsend for us.

Cannot recommend it highly enough.

Also worth remembering that many companies won't insure things that weren't packed by them.

Another one voting for having them pack (we also had Pickfords) - all we had to do was empty loft and garage. Last move I was 7 months pregnant (and had 2 older children). They were fantastic - I love the wardrobe packing - would never consider DIY move again (have done that when had only DD1 and we had luxuray of only moving a couple of miles and having several days to do it - even then it was much harder work)

Just in case you are not convinced yet

YES get the packers to pack up.

So worth the money

If I had time and money I would declutter and then pay for someone else to pack. We did our own packing earlier in the year and it was hateful.

Another vote for getting the removal company to pack for you! I will never pack for a house move myself again, it's so much less hassle when someone else does it. Have moved twice recently (UK -> NZ, once within NZ) and used Pickford's both times - they were fab and I spent the moving days playing with my boys instead of stressing. We're moving again (for the last time!) middle of next year and I will be using Pickfords and their packing service again :)

Another vote for getting the removal company to pack for you! I will never pack for a house move myself again, it's so much less hassle when someone else does it. Have moved twice recently (UK -> NZ, once within NZ) and used Pickford's both times - they were fab and I spent the moving days playing with my boys instead of stressing. We're moving again (for the last time!) middle of next year and I will be using Pickfords and their packing service again :)

Another yes here. Last move DH deposited me and DD (then 2) at my Mum's. Went to the old house and supervised removals, picked us up and drove us 300 miles to our new place, all our stuff was delivered, put in the right rooms and we unpacked at our leisure. Totally stress free!

With the possible exception of your knicker drawer, do it. If you can, you should.

Oh God, yes, yes, yes! Worth every penny!They're like locusts moving through your house, even packed my used j cloth! They take so much of the hassle out of moving.

You should definitely do it. It will be the most value-for-money item in your moving budget.