To ask how long it takes to pack a house?

[Chuckthefucklebrothers]

Well, a two bedroom flat, to be precise. I have 2 weeks to decorate & carpet our new place (3 bed house, although I don't get the keys til Tuesday), pack all our stuff & move. I'm doing most of this on my own - have had some offers of help with painting & have teenage DS & his mates to help with the actual move. I am also dealing with a very recent relationship breakdown so feeling utterly overwhelmed & panicky at the moment! I need to do this on a very tight budget & we need more furniture (neither me nor DS1 have a bed, for e.g.)
Help! Organise me please! (And maybe hold my hand a little bit)

It can be done in a morning if you are organised and have sufficient boxes.
Re the furniture. Go to your local charity shops. We moved to the UK from Malaysia and had nothing. We are maybe fortunate, but we've furnished our house from the Heart Foundation and Mind.
AFAIK, most charity's have a furniture dept. Not just beds and sofas, we got a cooker and fridge freezer, table and chairs, rugs etc.
The only new things we bought were matresses.
Good luck.

The British Heart Foundation charity have great furniture shops if you look online for your nearest.
We will be moving house soon so I understand the stress involved! Make sure you get a big marker pen and label boxes so that you are not scrabbling around looking in boxes for essential stuff like your re cups and kettle as soon as you move in! Good luck and don't panic!

Get on free cycle for boxes and for getting rid of stuff to. It's easier to give away than to throw sometimes.

You need a plan - each day - what needs to be done?

Accept any help you can get. You can repay the favour back another day.

Facebook groups in your local area are popular for selling now, search selling / sales / wants / swaps. I've given, sold and swapped on my local one.

Start packing the non essentials now, boxes can stay in a corner of each rooms. Just a little bit everyday 2 weeks is plenty. Books/summer clothes today ?
Prepare in your head a suitcase for you and a box for last minute (2 plates,2 mugs, a bit of cutlery, kettle...)
If you need a list make a list.
2 weeks is plenty.

Have you ask around for 2 nd hand beds?

It's extremely doable! Packing a house actually isn't that bad a job. A good day at it would do it. You need to be organised so its time for lists.

Source plenty of boxes! Many more than you think you'll need. Wrap kitchen stuff in towels. When you get to the other end you won't need to wash everything like you would if using newspaper. Put bedding, clothes etc into bin bags.

If you have mattresses sleep on those until you get to your new place then start looking at places like The British Heart Foundation for furniture, local churches and charities. You will probably find that it's actually not that hard to source furniture. Try your local sale rooms and see if they have anything from house clearances.

Congratulations on your new place! A new start is exciting. Try and focus on the good stuff and you'll get through it much easier

We are moving soon and I've had a few removal companies come to give quotes. One of them said to me that you need to allow as much time for the kitchen as the whole of the rest of the house, which I think is a useful tip.

Otherwise I'd say having everything to hand will speed up the process a great deal, so getting boxes, bubble wrap, paper, parcel tape organised first would be worthwhile.

Yes to packing yourself a bag for a few days just as you would if you were going away. Pack a box with tea/coffee, salt, pepper, mugs, plates etc.

Just like camping

(Also moving house with two v young children and a husband who's strangely working more hours the more work there is to do here)

Thank you all! I have some boxes, donated by a lovely lady on a FB buy & sell page. I've been hunting around for second hand furniture - transporting it is more of an issue than affording it. I'm attempting to fit a (dismantled!) bed frame in my car later today...
The tip about wrapping plates etc in towels is a good one, cheers!
I'm trying to be excited about the move (for the kids as much as my sanity) but it's hard. We were all meant to be moving together & had been looking forward to it for a long time. The break-up was at least a 50:50 decision, but I was the one that instigated it, so I feel horribly guilty, even though it would have had to be done eventually. I think DH would have let things drift forever but it wouldn't have been right. Having said that, he didn't put up a fight... At least it's all amicable, best anyone could hope for really...
I've written loads of lists, will start allocating tasks to days over a cup of tea in a minute.

Moving guys can do it very quickly, I think because they so much practice! Rather than look for furnitue now, can you wait until you are in? Emmaus (furniture charity near me) deliver for a very small fee so you could get stuff taken straight to your new place.

Use it as an opportunity to have a good old clear out - don't take anything with you that you don't love or need. Put everything else on your local Facebook Freebay site (then when you realise you need x y or z for your New house you can ask on there too)

Our local one is amazing - they really go out of the way to help when people are stuck :-)

Not a bad idea, didn't realise that some charity places deliver. Will see if any around here do. the bed i've found is lovely & a bargain but i have no idea where i will put it for now! And as someone else said, DS1 & I can sleep on mattresses on the floor. DS2 has his own bed but I'll be very surprised if he actually sleeps in it to start with! (He's used to sharing a room with me)

Cheers Bob, yes, decluttering is definitely in order! I'm feeling more fragile than ruthless but I'm going to give myself a kick up the bum & get on with it today. Got rid of a couple of things via FB & got some boxes for free that way too. Have also signed up for freecycle.

I think it depends on how much stuff you have. I'm a bit of a hoarder (probably have 6 wardrobes worth of clothes) so packing for our move took a long time and we only had about 4 hours sleep before the removal men came. I helped a friend of mine move from a room in a shared house to another, and I'd say that was probably a day of packing and car loads.

It's definitely do-able and I'm sure you'll be fine. I was cross that I didn't allow enough time for the keep/charity/bin decisions.

I found suitcases really useful as they're easier to nice than boxes. Maybe see if friends have any you can borrow for a few days. If you have a lot of books, don't pack big boxes full of them, you'll never pick them up!

I expect this is a really tough time for you, but I think you need to have a picture in your mind of you and your boys all happy and settled into your new home. This upheaval will be worth it.

We had to do a move on the cheap too a few years ago.

Go to all your local shops for boxes. The one that was most helpful for us was the co-op, they were the only one who was kind enough to give us them.

Outside the local estate agent they have a stand with property newspapers, free. I just grabbed 5 every time I passed for packing plates/ cups/ photo frames.

Do you have anyone you can rope in to help?

Once you get the keys make sure beds are sorted before anything else - made up with bedding and everything.

Have a provisions box with your kettle, tea etc, drinksvand snacks, a toilet roll, jarmies and teeth brushing stuff. Shove a bottle of wine in there too for when the kids are in bed!

Dedicate a notebook to the move - lists etc, addresses to pick stuff up if you're offered anything. Meter readings from the old place. Take readings as soon as you get to the New house too :-)

Lots more great tips, thanks ladies! I have just picked up a bed frame that I found in the small ads of the local paper - who knew that a double bed could fit in such a titchy car??
The mental image of us all happy is a good suggestion - trouble is I've spent years imaging the four of us happy, somewhere big enough for us all... And now there'll only be three & I feel horrible. I was so convinced this was the right thing to do but it hurts so much, actually physically hurts, that I'm questioning my judgement.
Trying to keep DS1's words in mind - "Cheer up Mum, we'll be alright."

Do bits and pieces each day, as others have suggested. Keep telling yourself that yes it is going to be busy and stressful but, it's all very doable.

Def accept all the help that's offered to you. How old is your youngest son? Are there any friends that could take him for extra play dates to give yourself a bit if extra time?

We moved twice with dc in 18 months. One big move from London to Kent (into a rental) and then into our own house once we bought. I was so grateful to school mums who offered to take ds for tea and play etc when we moved the 2nd time (just before Xmas a couple of years ago). I now make a point of offering play dates if I hear of one of dc's friends are on the move. So much can be achieved in a couple of hours.

Chuck your DS1 (bless him) is right. You will be alright

Pack bit by bit - When I moved last time I did an essentials box - loo roll, kettle, etc and packed an overnight bag. The first thing I did at the new house was stick the kettle on! (although, do remember to empty the kettle as you leave the old house )

It'll be an adventure - hard work and probably bittersweet, but you will be bloody marvellous!!

We moved recently and due to us dh having so much stuff shit we needed a removal company. The guys told me they had never moved so many boxes of books ever...

You need:

Boxes. Ask around. Local shops may give you some.
Newspaper for wrapping.
Marker pen for labelling boxes.
Start packing now.
Bin bags for clothes/duvets/towels etc.

Donate stuff to charity.
We found a very reasonable second hand shop that delivered. They also sold new mattresses.
Charity shops for furniture/gumtree/local papers.

Our move (of 30 miles) was done in a half day. We unpacked loads the first day, made up beds etc and then went back to clean the old house the next day

When you label the boxes, as well as writing down the contents, write which room you want them in when you arrive as well.

Good luck OP!

I have moved twice with 3 dc on my own, fortunately for me I have a great set of friends who helped me

As others have said loads of boxes, and go through each room now packing up non essentials separate box for each room, if you can take them over to the house and put them in there then great, you will be surprised how quickly the house empties and also at how much stuff you actually have

have a look on ebay set the search to distance, furniture often goes for very reasonable prices as posting is not possible

I used a removal company that charged an extra £250 to pack my 5 bedroom house in 2 hours. I was amazed watching the three men. My house looked completely normal at lunch time and by 3pm everything was packed.

Thanks Rach, I really do hope so!

Proper removals company is right out of my price range, unfortunately. But if they can pack that quickly I'm sure I can get our little flat done in a couple of days!

I want to leave the new house empty for as long as possible so I can get it painted & carpeted - it's a bit of a state at the moment. Also needs a few other bits & pieces doing.

Maybe once I've got in there with the boys & shown them around (they've only seen it from outside as yet) I'll be able to get excited about it again rather than just viewing the whole thing as an ordeal. I hope they like it!!

I'm quite looking forward to measuring up & ordering curtains (saddo)

I once (a lifetime ago) decided to pack a two bedroom flat myself ready for when the removal men came. I gave myself two days and worked at it really hard although there was a garage (not very full though) to clear and several trips to the tip. I thought 9-6 both days would have sorted it. It took far longer and I think I did one day of 9-7 and the next day I finally finished at about 3am on moving day. Never ever again.

Next time the movers packed but three bed house and it took them a good 6 hours and there were two of them I think and all the clearing out had been done. They also packed the non essential stuff on the van that day and came back for the rest the following morning. Worth every single penny.

Have done it again since - just don't ask.