To think moving ourselves is a crazy idea.

[havingiraffe]

Planned move date is around middle of August. Haven't started any packing or even decluttering yet. We currently live in a large 3 bed with garage and massive loft full of stuff moving to similar sized 4 bed. We don't have much furniture, no wardrobes for example. Most of our furniture we do have is cheap IKEA crap but we do have a couple heavy oak living room furniture items and massive corner sofa. I feel like we do have a lot of stuff though as we both have hobbies that come with lots of kit and we also have a 3 year old....oh and I will be 5 months pregnant at the time of the move. It about a 5 hour drive to our new house (moving from Midlands to Borders Scotland) so looking at a 2 day moving plan.

My husband is baulking at the quotes coming in for a removal company. Cheapest has been £1300 and that's us doing all the packing and breaking down beds etc. His plan is hire a couple of sprinter type vans and move ourselves with the help of a couple mates. We moved ourselves 8 years ago from a 1 bed unfurnished flat to here but I think he has massively underestimated the amount of stuff we have accumulated since then. He also thinks if we can't fit the furniture in we can just dump it as it's not worth the cost of moving it.

I don't disagree that this will be cheaper (although if we have to replace most of our furniture with new it won't save us money but we get new furniture iyswim) but I think it is completely impractical, friends can be unreliable and it's a big ask, having a little one and getting anything done is difficult (and she won't be in childcare at that time) and I'm going to be having kittens about getting everything packed and loaded within the timeframes. My husband doesn't have the best time management skills, I can just see us up all night the day before the move and then on the day frantically trying to stuff things into a van with the buyer waiting for key handover!!

Just need a reality check am I right in thinking this is just not possible!!!

How do I persuade my husband?

If you can afford the mover people, use them.

Your DH is absolutely bonkers.

Read every moving thread on here.

Cost out how many boxes you will need. How many man hours. Insurance for all the stuff you break.

PAY THEM TO DO IT.

Seriously - even paying for packing is worth it. They come the day before, pack 90% of your stuff in boxes that they have provided, with appropriate packing materials, they insure everything they have packed, they store it overnight thus leaving the house free for you to clean, they come back, get the rest and then you will have a clean and empty house by say 11am on moving day. Then they will put together your furniture at the other end and put all the boxes in the right rooms. YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO RECREATE THIS YOURSELVES.

We did it ourselves from a 3 bedroom house. However we didn’t move all furniture on the day of moving - we were lucky enough to have the loan of a waterproof outbuilding to store furniture in a couple of days beforehand so the day of the actual move was just loading lots of boxes into a van.

Just explain that you will not be lifting a single box.
£1300 sounds quite good.

Use the professionals - i can understand if you are moving from a 1 bed flat across town but youre not - DH is mad to even consider this and you will not be lifting anything!

Get professionals! You’ll have 10x more stuff than you imagine. My in laws are moving from a large 4 bed to a much smaller 4 bed and are doing it themselves with One van doing multiple trips. It’s only a few miles but they really don’t see what they’re getting themselves in for. To move that distance definitely get professionals.

How does this 2 day moving plan work in reality though? Are you doing 2 trips over 2 days, so 4 x 5 hours driving emptying the vans on the first day to leave your stuff where?

If I were asked by a friend to give up 2-3 days of my time driving 10 hours a day, physical work and then having to get myself (and your vans) home again at the end of all that, I’d be busy washing my hair.

We did it BUT it was a couple of miles, we left lots of built in furniture behind and borrowed a garage or two to store most stuff in beforehand and had no kids plus extra relatives/cars to help.

No way in your situation - too far, too dangerous for you, too frustrating with a kid in tow. It will be money well spent.

We had packers and movers. We agreed to pack the loft up and they did the rest. Yes it was expensive, but it was also 1% of the cost of the new house.

We did declutter but still had loads to move. No way could we have done it ourselves.

Absolutely bonkers to do it yourself if you can afford not to. Having been the mate who helped move I can say it's far more knackering than you think. Moving one heavy box is easy, but solid weight training for two days is not for me. Removers have the right tools (trolleys, tail lifts, proper boxes) and the experience to get furniture in / out easily. Pay the professionals.

Who's going to drive the vans? Do people have that class on their license?

We filled 2 of the small lorry van things and they packed it like a game of Tetris.

The sprinter vans may be a little hopeful.

We moved a few weeks ago.

We moved ourselves.

DP did hire a storage place and we moved most of our stuff out to that in the month ahead of the actually move.

In the actual move we ended up hiring a van plus using three cars and relatives to move the rest of the (crap).

It was so so so stressful.

DP has been hauling boxes about himself for weeks to get stuff into new house (I’m also pregnant so can’t do much heavy lifting).

If I could do it again I would definitely get movers in and not do it ourselves. It was super stressful and exhausting. I’d spend the money to cut down on the angst to be honest.

Moving is difficult enough

The two day moving plan is what the movers have suggested as they will need to have a break down that length of drive. Schedule would be: day one load the truck and begin journey. Overnight sleep in trucks then day two finish journey and unload.

My OH has suggested hiring a van or 2 making one trip up with her stuff then bring van back empty the next day. I think he is banking on doing this over a weekend but I think even then it's a too big an ask for a friend without proper compensation.

Also professionals will be insured - what if a friend drops a heavy furniture piece or expensive hobby tool? Could be the end of that friendship!

We’ve always done it ourselves, never had a problem, BUT haven’t been pregnant and have had family helping

In reality, whilst you can help with some advance packing, at five months pregnant you won't be lifting or carrying much, and you'll have a small child to watch over.

So your DH will be doing it pretty much alone. He's crazy.

I've ever heard of people paying someone to move them before!

We've moved five times in the last ten years and are (hopefully finally) moving again next weekend.

We've always done it all ourselves. I don't know anyone that doesn't.

First time we moved ourselves, second time, we paid for professionals to pack and move us. The first time round, it took ages to get everything out of the house and clean - new owners were there waiting outside.... (we were still out early afternoon) and it was very stressful.

We had more stuff second time round but it was SO worth spending the money. We could concentrating on the cleaning and the kids, whilst they packed and we were in an empty house waiting for the call to get the keys by 11 am....

At the new house, they were amazing... They shifted the boxes whilst we got the kids beds set up etc. Worth every single penny!

Your husband is nuts. Sorry. Get packers and movers.

So will you have the new property to unload into whilst still owning the old property?

If this is a two day move (what are the distances involved), that is a bargain. We paid £600 to move 2 miles. I did all the packing, getting charities to take the unwanted good stuff. Lost half a stone doing it. I did have a quote for £1400 from another firm for the same service.

We've always moved ourselves, but we always have help from other people as well. There's no way we could do it without the help from another 5 people at least.

Next time I move (hopefully not for 30+ years!!) I will probably hire someone just because I simply hate packing boxes. Hate. It.

He is crazy. Pay to be packed and moved, it's worth every single penny.

Is heavy lifting not discouraged when pregnant? Aside from this I think moving is exhausting enough without doing the lifting etc yourself. Even if you have to save to be able to afford it go with the movers. We moved from London to the North a few years ago. Did it our self with family help loading and unloading. It was utterly exhausting. I couldn't manage with a 3 year old and whole pregnant.

Oh my we did it ourselves (3 bed to 3 bed) only 5 minutes drive away. We both have hobbies and jobs with a lot of kit.
It was horrendous, we had both sets of fit active parents helping, DH labourer from work, the ‘man and van driver’ and my sister all helping. And it’s was so awful. Did so many trips. And I might add, that all the helpers are fit, hard working, sensible and orangised people who can pull together as a good team. It’s was still hell and we were moving stuff at 9.30pm still. I would without hesitation chuck a grand at a removal company next time.