When do you start packing when you buy a house?

[grannyinapram]

We have just had an offer accepted on our first home. We will be moving from rented so we haven't done this before.
Should we start packing now? There is no chain but we need to wait for surveys and other bits and bobs that take time. Should we wait incase something happens with the survey or they change their mind and don't sell? I'm not sure.
We will start decluttering tomorrow but what about actual packing?

We have been in this position before but we lost the mortgage (coronavirus 🙄) So I don't want to start packing and then end up having to unpack where we are again.

We were chain free FTB. I packed immediately.

That was a VERY long 7 months without my sex toys.

Not even remotely close to yet. You're looking at easily another 6/8 weeks, depends on how fast your solicitors etc move. They may not even get a conveyancer out next week which will slow things down. You will have to give notice where you are anyway which will be a month. Wait till you exchange and move whenever you want during that month, assuming you will need Internet etc straight away. Could also get white goods delivered to new house. Going from rented to owner is much easier than mortgage to mortgage. Use the month, sit back until the exchange.

It took me a month to pack

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

Prep a "utilities" list.

Council tax details
Bank details
Gas/elec
Water
Car tax
Dig out DVLA paperwork
Vet number (any pets chipped)
Etc

List all companies, account numbers etc.

Then when you move in you have the list to had to ring round and get accounts switched to your new address

omg Amazing This has stressed me out every time I moved

We had offer accepted first week of March last year hoping for exchange by end of July and completion in August. We started packing in June. Vendors pulled out in July and the boxes have been sitting there since. I’d not start until about 2 weeks before exchange. At the moment I think conveyancing is taking about 5 months because there is such a backlog.

really? thats put a dampener on things.
we were hoping to move in for the summer and googling 'quick house move stories' whilst sneakily skimming over the horror stories.
Probably best to get my head back in the game.

God. Right. on to the decluttering

congrats, OP! You've actually started the thread that I have in mind! We'll move probably in August/September into a place that has double the space that we have now, but I don't want to fall into the trap of thinking "ohhhhh, we have a lot more space now, let's fill it with crap!".

We did a huge declutter in lockdown and planning to do one again in spring.

Anything, really, but especially:

Crappy cutlery/kitchen stuff/plates/mugs/old appliances
Books - I only keep the books that I love! I donated a shitload this winter again
Clothes & shoes - don't even get me started 🙄

@StopGuacAndRoll

We were chain free FTB. I packed immediately.

That was a VERY long 7 months without my sex toys.

I radically decluttered our whole house last summer (renovation not moving, but no cupboard left untouched). I simply can’t throw away things that still have life left in them so I used Facebook marketplace to give them away. I left things in our porch or garage with the door open and put post it notes with people’s names on individual items. If they hadn’t been collected within 24 hours and no message etc they got re-listed. It was a lot less stressful than I expected. Plus, although most things were free to a good home we were left food, bottles of wine and beer, lovely cards and even flowers by grateful recipients.

When the weather was nice we laid out small items like teddies and kitchenware with a ‘free to a good home’ sign on the grass verge outside our house. Nearly everything went.

It’s lovely moving from rented to bought. That’s what we did when we bought our first place. We actually had 3 weeks left on our tenancy! We just brought things over gradually so there was no frantic rush on the day, you’ll be fine. Three weeks is excessive but if you can afford to give yourself a week then go for it, you won’t regret it.

@BigPaperBag

It’s lovely moving from rented to bought. That’s what we did when we bought our first place. We actually had 3 weeks left on our tenancy! We just brought things over gradually so there was no frantic rush on the day, you’ll be fine. Three weeks is excessive but if you can afford to give yourself a week then go for it, you won’t regret it.

This was my suggestion, moving from rented to owner is so much less stressful than mortgage to mortgage. We luckily exchanged 3 days before our rental date so waited till then and had the month to sort things out. Took things over in our own time, got loads of stuff delivered to the new house on weekend. 2nd house we bought was a huge stress and think I'd rather stay here for the rest of my life.

It's 26 years since we last moved. We had two young children. We decided to pay extra for packing, as it wasn't a huge extra cost. One of the best purchases ever. The removal men came in the day before the move and went through the house like a swarm of locusts. They don't waste time picking something up and saying 'Oh, that's there that was! How on earth did it get there? Did you put it here?' or 'Oh, that brings back memories. Do you remember ...' or 'Not sure we still need this. What do you think?' or anything at all. They see it, pack it, move on. They bring all the packing materials with them. They're incredibly quick and they know what they're doing.

In our case, as we moved in, the head honcho spotted that the glass on one of our pictures had cracked, and he whisked it off to get it repaired, brought it back the next day. Nothing else broke. It was marvellous.

However, if you can't afford to get a removal firm to pack, I would do what everybody else has recommended, and start decluttering and using up food now, which is useful even if it all falls through (which of course I hope it won't). Good luck.

@malificent7

Watching with interest as hopefully moving and wondering how to declutter in thed midst of lockdown when things are too good for the dump.

@malificent7 Facebook pass it on groups and those charity bags you get through the door.

As you are renting you will be unlikely to be moving out on the same day you are moving in. So that gives you breathing space. You probably won’t want to give notice until you have exchanged as about 1 in 4 sales fall through I believe.

@malificent7

Watching with interest as hopefully moving and wondering how to declutter in thed midst of lockdown when things are too good for the dump.

All the stuff we want to give to Woman's Aid is currently stored in a friends garage waiting for them to start taking collections again. We had loads of pots and pans, glasses etc and couldn't just bin it so hopefully it'll go to good use