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?

Oh and as a follow up to all the other "DH underestimated what we had" comments, so did mine, and now he freely admits that.

I didn't really go into the loft at our old house and couldn't when I was pregnant. He assured me it would take the movers no more than 20 minutes to clear it.

I was LIVID when I saw how much came out of it. As were the movers. It all got piled into DD2-to-be's bedroom and decluttered in the new house before it went up into the new loft.

We did this, similar distance, but

1. We didn't have much furniture as we were moving out of a furnished rented place
2. My parents helped
3. No kids
4. No one was pregnant so no issues heavy lifting
5. It was fucking awful, stressful, hard work, no time to clean the old place and too knackered to unpack new place for ages.

If you have the money, pay someone else to do it.

Bear in mind when comparing costs that if you rent a van you will also need to pay for fuel which they guzzle.

We moved out of a 2 bed terrace and needed the removers' big van. They had that house empty and the enormous van full in little over 2 hours.

Where is your husband thinking of dumping your items of furniture, you can't just leave them anywhere. Ring some of the charities in your area,they will usually collect items for free. However they won't take items without the relevant fire retardant labels.
And get decluttering now! No point in moving stuff you'll throw out later. Go on be ruthless!

Your DH is living in cloud cuckoo land if he thinks that moving a family and 8 years of accumulated possessions out of one house and into another is a DIY job. £1300 sounds like an absolute bargain to me.

And realistically - how much is hiring two vans, the petrol, buying the gazillion boxes and packing cases, meals etc for the two —mugs— mates going to cost? Probably the best part of £500. So all that work and hassle and stress to save £800? Madness.

We've always moved ourselves, but a few miles, not 5 hours. I'd do the packing as you can do that over as long as you want, but wouldn't do the moving bit over that distance!

Whether or not you go with movers I’d start packing and decluttering now.

There are things that you won’t need before you move and can package up, like ornaments/pictures/photos etc.

Also decluttering is crucial, don’t be a fool like me unpacking things in a new house that we don’t use/want/ need.

Put the furniture you're not worried about on gumtree. Give it away if necessary, cheaper than disposal. Use professional movers. let them pack. Its worth every penny.

We moved at the end of March, from a rented 3-bed house to a purchased bigger house. We had all our furniture apart from kitchen goods. I started packing a week and a few days before, then we borrowed a Sprinter van and moved over the weekend. My husband and a friend loaded the van up, drove the 20 minutes to our new house and unloaded, dumping everything in the living room. I stayed at the old house packing and bringing things downstairs, plus emptying the two sheds.

We started early on Saturday morning, finished for the day in the evening, started again early Sunday morning and finished at about 9:30pm Sunday night. At that point, everything we owned was in our new living room. PILs had our daughter for the two days, but we were absolutely exhausted.

No way I'd do that again. NO WAY! I'd hire people to do it, and as a PP poster did, go out for something to eat.

Plus our tenancy didn't run out for three weeks on the old place, so we could go back and clean after we'd recovered.

I use to think paying for packing and moving service was for posh and fancy folk. But when we moved out from our 3 bed semi, we had decided to pay for packing and moving and it really was the best money spent ever. The whole house was packed and moved in 1.5 days, we could concentrate on cleaning the house and have lunch.

We've used the moving and packing service few times since and I'd say it's one of those services where you get what you have paid for. Pickfords was expensive but very very efficient and professional. The last time we had to find movers with short notice so didn't have a lot of choice and went with a local company. They weren't as great, quite a bit cheaper but took longer, lot less organised and fucked up some furniture (we only found out a lot later on). And I'm still pissed off with one their packers, a pimply faced young lad, who lectured us how HE would never buy a new build, I mean look at these flimsy walls whilst banging on our hallway wall

I will also add that after one bad experience of helping a friend to move, I will never, ever will help anyone and I mean anyone to move. They can either pay for the service like we do or find another mug to do it.

I can guarantee you won't regret getting professionals in. You almost certainly WILL regret doing it yourself. £1300 will seem an absolute bargain in hindsight.

Especially if you haven't started clearing loft, sheds, cupboards etc yet. I'm having cold sweats just thinking about it, and I'm not 5 months pregnant!

We have moved ourselves maybe 8 times in the last 25 years, after the 7th time we said never again. It ALWAYS takes SO much more time and effort than you anticipate and it is such a lot to ask of your friends or family.

Time #8 in November last year we got movers. One of the best decisions we have ever made. They had two lorries loaded in a couple of hours - giving us space to clean the house in one go - and unloaded again just as quickly at the other end.

You'll have enough on your plate with a 3 year old and a 5-hour journey without making it a million times worse by moving yourself.

Thinking how much we paid 17 years ago I'd be biting their hands off at £1300. Your husband is being naive. Ask him when he's going to start packing. It's going to take longer than he expects.

And the dumping furniture thing - charities won't take it without 1. warning and 2. the right specifications. You won't get it to the tip without a van and you can't take a van to the tip these days without paying or a licence.

That sort of move only works across town.

This, very much this. We've moved ourselves with a Luton van and the help of my mum and her long suffering partner. But we were only going about seven miles or so. Making a few trips and some more to the tip with surplus stuff wasn't a big deal, as the van would be back in under an hour. And the house we were leaving was to sit empty as it hadn't been sold at that point, so no rush there. AND we didn't have pregnancy to take into account.

I know £1300 is a frightening amount and it feels like a total rip-off, but it really, really isn't. It will be worth every penny. Your stuff will be going a long way. But do shop around for more quotations, unless you already have. And listen to aaarrrggghhhh and everyone else on the decluttering first...

I have moved 22 times in my life starting often with my with my parents as a child and then everything including emptying a room in a flat to transatlantic moves as an adult .Thaton three continents and in four countries.You have 100 times more stuff than you think you have.Moving from a one bed flat is about the only time you can ask friend to help.After that it is just not fair for anyone concerned. Just don't even contemplate it.

My dh used to run his own removals company. He’d need a 7.5 tonne truck to move a house of your size. Don’t underestimate how much space all your bits n bobs in boxes will take up. Depending on when he got his licence he might be better off hiring one of those rather than doing several trips in a large van.

Also don’t underestimate how bloody tiring it will be, my dh used to go to the gym most days to keep fit enough to run up and down stairs carting boxes and furniture around. He hired an apprentice and the lad only lasted a week as he couldn’t take the physical side of the job. If your dh isn’t used to a days physical work then he will struggle.

IMO take the hit and pay the removals company, it’s far easier.

Don't do it.

If you are selling, then there is no way that you will have all of your stuff out by the agreed vacate time in your contract - which is incredibly unfair on your buyers.

DH and I used to move ourselves. For the last move (Jan) we used a professional moving firm and it was so much easier and less stressful. We packed ourselves and labelled all the boxes to show where they should go. They cleared a room at a time which meant that I could clean behind them. DH was at our new place getting everything ready. 30 mins after the movers had left I'd finished cleaning and was dropping our keys to the agent. By the time I got to our new house they'd already unloaded half the lorry. As the boxes were being taken to the rooms we'd labelled them for, it made unpacking an awful lot easier.

Moving yourself will take so much longer than you think. There's an art to packing a van correctly. The driving distance alone with be tiring - add to that loading and unloading a van several times. Plus the movers are insured if they break anything. Then there's downtime - you are going to need a break, time to eat, stopping to refuel the van and so on.

Do not do it. Trust me, £1,300 is not a bad price for the service.

If your DH wants to use this time productively, then sort through every single item that you own. Go through every room, your garage and the loft. Get rid of everything that you do not need and clear out the crap. Don't pay to move stuff that you don't need. Get all of that stuff into a spare room and then start packing it into the car to take to the charity shops and the tip.

The time it takes just to de-clutter and the number of trips it takes to get rid of it all, should tell him something about how bonkers he is if he thinks you should move yourselves.

Agree with the others. Pay.
Or get minimum 5 people to help you and make it clear you won’t be doing any lifting at all.

Having moved hampshire to scotland and back again, once with packers and one with out. I would pay for packers and movers 100% it was quicker, easier, less stressful, less tiring and much more pleasant with someone else doing it. We are moving again next month 3rd time in 3 years

I've done it whilst pregnant, with a toddler and with primary aged DC. Last time, DH was at work and I did it with the help of my Mum, FIL, BIL and three friends. I've never paid movers. £50 for a big van, decutter in advance, pack it all up ready over the preceding 2 weeks and I've never struggled. It's hard work yes but I quite enjoyed it.

Ring round don’t just try the big guns try smaller companies.

Our next move will be Norfolk to Scotland and that will be done by professionals however!