How do you actually move house?

[pastarses]

AIBU to ask you, in your infinite wisdom to explain something to me?

We have just bought our first house after years of renting (hurray) but will have an overlap of two weeks where we will not have to vacate our rented house (long story) but will have completed on the new house.

So how do we move? Should we keep the new house mostly empty in those two weeks and clean/ paint the new house (it doesn't need much done to it). Should we buy the new appliance and furniture (we don't have much in our current place as it is part furnished) and get it "ready" while living in the rented place? Should we just move everything all at once into the new house and get it into shape while living there and forget about the rented place for two weeks? I have been so stressed out and caught up with the contractual process of buying the bloody house, I can no longer think straight.

Can anyone give me some advice? How would you do it?

You are very lucky OP. Two weeks!!

Having read Zeeandra's post, I agree move all big stuff first, and then do a room at a time for bits (like clothes and kitchen).

Yes, do your sorting out in the new house before you move, decorating, cleaning, buying things you need. With 2 weeks you could start moving your things bit by bit as well, anything you won't need for the next couple of weeks can be taken over and unpacked in the new house. If everything is done before the 2 weeks is up just abandon the rental house and move into your new home!

Having moved recently I would deffo make the most of the 2 week overlap and get the new place ready & take things over bit by bit!

I wouldn't leave the main move till the end of week 2 though. Start moving things earlier and slowly.

If you do the big move at the end of week 2 and then have to deep clean the old house you will be completely knackered by then.

I moved house loads of times with young children and even now many moons later still wonder why the fuck I didn't shell out for professional removers and cleaners to sort out both houses. It's hard work and worth outsourcing if you can afford to.

Congratulations on your new house though, very exciting!

We had a week's overlap. Moved into the new house and only went back to the rental to collect the last bits, clean and return keys. Fortunately the house was left immaculate.

I wouldnt start madly painting and carpeting unless really scruffy. Live in it for a while to see how it works for you first.

Thank you, you are all fabulous. I'm actually starting to feel quite positive and excited about it now! And yes coming around to the idea of keeping the new place empty and doing all the cleaning/ painting/ jobs before moving our stuff. Brilliant advice on here and stuff I hadn't thought of like curtains! Holes in the walls! Carpet cleaners! All great to think of.

Clean upstairs and move anything you can live without over, properly unpack then work your way to the front - this way you don't end up with boxes everywhere and don't trail stuff around as the move itself causes it's own mess. Also you halve your box requirements as you unload and then pack downstairs into those empty boxes

We had a cross over of a month when we bought our first house but that's what we wanted so we could have a less stressful move. Once we got the keys we spent nearly 2 weeks painting and cleaning the new place and then moved in properly on the second weekend. We then had two weeks to unpack and clean the old place thoroughly letting agents still tried to screw us on cleanliness though

IMO the priority is carpet cleaning. So hard to do with furniture vs a doddle without it.

I agree with all the other suggestions too though!

We had a month's overlap (were messed about so much by solicitors, we didn't dare give notice until we had exchanged contracts). It is infinitely easier to clean and decorate without furniture/stuff. We slept in our old house until a 4 days before we had to hand it over.

We didn't realise how long it would take to get carpets fitted (i.e. how long you needed between booking and fitting). We still have the carpets that were here when we moved in!

A colleague very kindly lent us a small fridge for the new house while we were living in the old one. Having a fridge at the new house makes life much more pleasant (it had a cooker already) as it meant we could have meals and coffee there.

We hired a van and moved ourselves with the help of lots of friends (pre DC). MUCH cheaper, but having friends at both ends to help with loading and unloading really helped. We didn't have much furniture (only a bed) - we were only moving a mile.

Cleaning the old place wasn't fun, and we still lost some deposit (which DH managed to negotiate down). Professional cleaners would have been easier - and we had friends helping.