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.

Have only used packers once and it was worth every penny. Would definitely do it next time we move (which will hopefully be shortly if somebody will buy our house )

We moved recently and I was too disorganised to even have a removal van. We hired a box van and since dh had just had surgery I moved everything myself (well had a bit of help with the sofa) it took me 2 weeks and my back nearly gave up the ghost. I have vowed never to move again, they will have to carry me out of here in a box.

Grumpla I was being charitable and assuming I would take DH and the boys too!

Here is a list of things I would do myself before I ever considered packing myself:

1. Killing and butchering my own meat.
2. Unblocking solids from my loo.
3. Teaching myself quantum physics so I could help the DCs with their university assignments.
4. Leading a kindergarten excursion to the Glastonbury Festival.
5. Minor to mid-range surgery.

Everyone has economies they simply will not make, and in my view, if we can't afford packers, we're not bloody moving.

ninedragons I just laughed out loud at that and agreed with every word!

Pickfords have packed and moved us twice. It has been a totally wonderful experience both times, esp considering last time we only knew that our move was actually going to happen 7 days in advance (it had all seemed to be off), we were both working ft up until the day of the move (and straight after), ds was 14 months old and we were moving 150 miles to somewhere we didn't know.

You do need to pack a suitcase with clothes for a few days, and put that, sleeping bags, blow up beds and basic eating utensils in the car. Cos as someone said, they pack everything with ruthless efficiency. Last house they took 5 hours from a totally normal house to everything in the lorry - and they had had to ferry everything by van as a lorry couldn't be parked in the road

We didn't when we last moved and I would never do it again myself! It was really stressful, and we didn't have children then either.

I can't believe how cheaply some of you have managed this! I was desperate not to move myself last time (pregnant, 2 yr old and 4 yr old in tow) but the quote from the packers was £800. I hired a van for £96 and did it myself with DH and two brothers-in-law. £700 isn't something I can pay for a job that (crap as it is) I am capable of completing. If I could have got it for £300 you can bet we would have!

Wow toddlerama we used a company called JAMES in London - they were amazing. The whole move including the packing was £1,200 iirc and the packing was only £200 of that.

We moved from London to the East Midlands 4 years ago and needed 2 of the HUGE lorries - the massive ones that take up half the street

Getting the packers in for our last move was the best £400 we have ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever (you get the picture) spent.

We used Six Keys (Acton and other branches in the London area) who were totally wonderful, held a slot as long as possible while our sale took forever, working from 7am to 9pm for us and refused a tip.
Family have had bad experiences of Pickfords who we found too expensive.

We did moving into our last flat with just a man and van and some friends and family, and sadly the man was useless compared to the previous one and it took four days of stress - whereas with movers it was under a day of calm.

Should you own any embarrassing personal items though, don't forget to pack those yourself (though I'm sure movers have seen it all...)

I've moved twice in the last two years and used professional packing both times - wouldn't want to do it any other way. But we did have a bad experience with Pickfords and I will never, ever use them again. I'm interested that so many people have had good experiences with them, though. Perhaps we were unlucky - but I am still never using them again.

DH's company always use Pickfords for our moves, we have had many over the years.

They are moving us this time as well, though as I said we are packing.

We had a removal company pack up all our stuff before moving abroad, and I can honestly say it was BRILLIANT!!! We have 2 very young DSs and these four blokes came in and packed everything whilst we went to a playcentre. The only thing damaged was a plate I dropped whilst unpacking in our new kitchen. If you have anything really valuable/sentiment or just rude (think dressing up clothes hahaha!) then you can always put them to one side or to a friends house.

Do it - it makes such a difference and they are professionals and will get it done faster than you'd have thought possible. First time we moved we did it ourselves - took all day. The second (and last, so far) time - we hired removal men (we packed ourselves though) and it took them about 3 hours from start to finish - we weren't moving far to be fair. I was astounded at how much they could lift too - my DH isn't unfir but it would've killed him to lift some of the boxes of books, these guys just heaved them around like they were lifting an empty box.

Moving is stressful enough without doing all that yourself. We had a firm where we paid by the hour so it wasn't that expensive (and we could afford to give them a big tip!)

We used Whitewoods (SE London), they were great, they also took apart & reinstalled DD's trampoline in the pissing rain for a bit extra and we were able to return boxes to them as we unpacked them, presumably for re-use, which I liked.

I quite liked the unpacking-in-my-own-time bit (I'd have only moved everything around after they'd gone anyway) and chose to do the decluttering / chucking then rather than before.

Make sure you specify what time you are aiming to be out so they have absolutely no excuse for not sending the right number of people to get you out in time.

Do it, but moving is a great reason to declutter. May be worth going through a few cupboards first?

We also had a really cheap company do it and they literally threw anything and everything in boxes and was difficult to unpack. However would do it again just not with the cowboys we used.

Packers are brilliant, but I usually do my own unpacking - I prefer to put things where I want them rather than find stuff at the back of random cupboards weeks later. Last time I also had tons of books, but had to wait for a carpenter to come and do built-in bookshelves.

Freecycle is the best way to get rid of boxes if you unpack yourself - there are always people moving, so every batch of removal boxes I offered on freecycle was snapped up within minutes.

I've been quoted 445 (before VAT) for them to come and pack the day before the move.
That's for a three bed extended semi. stuffed with stuff (which I have been decluttering as much as possible.)
Next to the amount we're spending to buy a place it seems a relatively not massively amount and gives me time to organise everything.

That's just for the packing, the removal is about 500.

I had the packing AND removal done.

IT WAS SO BRILLIANT, AMAZING, AND WORTH EVERY PENNY!

I'd do it again.