To ask for your "moving house" top tops?

[WestrayWife]

Moving house in the New Year - big move in terms of quantity of "stuff" (4 bed house, been here for 14 years, 2 primary age kids) but only a local move a few streets away.

AIBU to ask for your top tips for moving house?!

We'll be moving as part of a chain and I genuinely don't know how I'm going to have time (or, more likely, the movers are going to have time) to pack up an entire house in one morning and allow for enough time to clean up and get out before the new family arrives at (I assume) lunchtime?!

What do you recommend I do in advance to help make the situation easier for all involved? We'll try to declutter as much as we can between now and then, but are there any things I won't have thought of which would help?

Maybe also worth mentioning I'm in Scotland so Scots Law applies.

I think it cost us £600 on top of moving fees 5 yrs ago. Well worth it.

I was moving everything into storage so the movers packed on the Friday and then on the Monday took everything away in the van. They just left out what I needed for a few nights, I stuck post it notes on things to not pack. They dismantled the beds, wardrobes and garden bench and reassembled them in the new house.

They literally pack everything though, rubbish included if you don't either get rid of it or stick a don't pack note on. I went out when they arrived and came home hours later to everything I owned packed. It was amazing and would pay three times the price for the service!

You have to ask them what it entails, but my packers packed it all and did take apart and reassemble furniture (they don't unpack the boxes though). It cost a few hundred.
I did have a cleaner do my old place, and I got the oven cleaned. And if possible I'd get the new one done if there's a bit of time between the sellers vacating (and they haven't done it themselves). Much easier and quicker to clean an empty house and your husband is wrong - I've moved into so many 'swept clean' places that were disgusting on closer inspection and I had no desire to clean up someone else's dirt.
Packers will pack EVERYTHING though! Rather than put notes in things you don't want packed put stuff you need in your car (change of clothes, bed linen, toiletries and kettle and some cutlery/plated for first night. Also school books and uniforms if needed - sorry can't remember if you have kids). Anything else not moving put in a room closet by themselves if possible or if something like a piano a big sign on it! They will pack up your rubbish and half dead plant etc - really they will just grab and wrap and stick it in a box! So be ready for them!
Give them some donuts for them AFTER they've packed the van. I also gave mine a case of beer.

Have a lot of cable ties for tying up cables and tying together bed frames and that sort of thing. Plastic sheeting to wrap mattresses and other soft furnishings (lots of parcel tape). Plan meals carefully in the run-up so you eat the last of your food a day or two before moving and get the freezer unplugged and defrosted and the fridge empty and ready to go. And do whatever it takes to get someone to take the dc and any pets off your hands for at least a day and a night.

So the message about paying the movers to pack is coming across loud and clear - thank you all for confirming this and for all the other really helpful contributions.

I'm also convinced we need to investigate storage for a few days rather than try and do it all as one big moonlit flit. Hopefully when we speak to the movers next week they will be able to help with this.

I've also emailed some carpet cleaners this afternoon - they've generally come back to say it will take them 3-4 hrs, plus drying time. So that also suggests staying in a hotel for the night and having things stored would be sensible.

So basically I need a week off work and to start with the declutter now!