To believe that we can unpack from a move in under a week, and ask for your best tips to be able do so?

[OptimisticReindeer]

We'll be staying in a local holiday let for the week of the move, and I really want to take advantage and get as much done as we can at the house.

Much preferable than to be living amongst the boxes, and we can dedicate a fair amount of time to it each day.

We have movers and opted for the packing service, so hoping that the boxes will be better organised than if we had done opted DIY. We've never had packers, or movers before so have no idea what to expect.

Is it manageable for a four-bed? How long did it take on your last move? Any tips also very welcome.

Easily. I’ve bought/sold about 7 times.
Always got the keys Friday lunchtime. Been totally sorted by the Monday. Unless obviously it was a restoration type house.

Haven’t felt the need (but then haven’t had the funds) to stay somewhere else while unpacking.
Good Luck

When I moved into our 5 bedroom house, I think we were unpacked within a day, you definitely shouldn't need a week! Presumably you got rid of anything you didn't need when you were planning to leave?

What on earth are you unpacking? I've always been unpacked and totally sorted by the end of day 2. I plan ahead for what's going to go where and don't move any junk or clutter with me

Really easy in that time. Last time I moved I had one box left to unpack by the end of moving day.

À week....

You could do it in 2 days!

Get the boxes in the right rooms and work through each room in turn.

Declutter and chuck out what you don’t need before the packers arrive. They pack absolutely everything.

On my last move, it took me half a day. But I packed everything myself clearly labelling what goes into which room at the new house. So it was an easy job or putting the boxes into the correct room right away during the actual move so there is minimal moving around involved afterwards.
I started with the easiest areas which, for me, were kitchen and bathroom. Then moved on to clothes, linen cupboard, boot room. Then books.
My office/studio was the only room that took longer to set up but that's because I have a lot of art supplies and needed to build custom storage for it. So that was a month-long project.

I unpacked in less than 4 days.

day one
beds bedding etc. clothes into wardrobes.
day 2 and 3 focused on kitchen
day 4 rest of house

we had people stay 5 days after we moved.

tips.

Mark all boxes with the room they are going too. Stack against wall.

get all kitchen boxes put in one place in home. Mine were all against a wall in the dining room for the kitchen and living room.
have a dedicated area for storing boxes and the paper once unpacked
flatten paper as it comes out of boxes
flatten boxes too.

human Chains work well if you can.
one person opens box
and unpacks
other person puts away.

We did it in a day and a half - started about 3pm once all the boxes were in on the day off the move, finished off the next day. Also a four bed.
We had packers which I don’t think made much difference to the unpacking. Just make sure the boxes end up in the right place.

Is the house ready to move straight in or are there things like new carpets that you need to do first? If so get that done in day 1 if you can before you start unpacking so you don’t have to move it all again.

As long as you have your main furniture items in early, unpacking the boxes is quick and easy just put it straight where you want it to live long term. Break down the boxes as you go and be methodical room by room starting with the most frequently used rooms like kitchen and bathrooms. If you have kids set them general of sorting their own stuff out in their rooms while you crack in with the rest of the house.

If one person is the main cook, get them to do the kitchen do they put things where they want them.

Focus on getting beds made, clothes away and kitchen sorted first.

Pshhhh… I’ve done a 5 bedroom house in two days with toddlers and not much help, in fact I did that twice.
you’ll be fine!

first get thee a skip.
Load with stuff, proper declutter.

pack and mark boxes.

once in:
make the beds.

i got removal men to put up my curtain piles and bunged then some cash, they were so helpful

room by room quite easyyy

So pleased to read these, though I now feel like the only person with boxes in the loft still unpacked from our last move years ago. 😮

Day 1 we get the keys and the removal company is in to pack. We've booked carpet cleaners for this day also. Day 2 is moving day.
House is ready to move into, no major work needed.

We've booked to stay locally in order to have somewhere for teens and pets to hang out for the duration.

Im amazed at these answers, no I certainly couldnt do it quickly

Half a day!!

We were still with boxes for months, might have been longer when we last moved

Just to check.... are you buying and selling at the same time? If so you need tobe out of your current house before you can get the keys to the new house. Your talk of getting keys day 1, moving day 2 is making me nervous.

It does depend on the situation eg when we moved we needed to board the loft and build a giant shed before we had places to put everything. That was the main cause of delays. Aside from that as long as you have furniture to put things in it shouldn't take too long if you declutter beforehand.

With our last move (which was a downsize) the whole process sold up when we got a storage unit, took half the boxes there and then had space to unpack. We then collected more boxes each weekend. (Bearing in mind during this DH had returned to work and only hone weekends and O was settling two children into school and all other daily life).

Packers don't pack logically IME.

Totally doable.

most people don’t but this is often because the house needs cleaning/diy/work doing to it

(and also a lot of boxes go loft to loft)

took me months but I was renovating as well.

I understand what you mean, however, we're moving into a long-term rental. Collecting keys from the Estate agent on day 1.

@soupyspoon I'm glad you've posted, I now feel slightly better as we do actually still have boxes from years ago in the loft.
It also took as a while last time, though can't recall exactly how long.

I thought a week was optimistic too.

My last move was a big downsize and the house was so full of boxes it took me months despite getting rid of lots in advance! It took me about a week to clear enough space for us to move in as the boxes had been blocking cupboards/needed to rebuild furniture... Still need to declutter further (went from a big 3 bed with dining room and conservatory to a really tiny two bed). Would have been so much easier if I'd put half in storage and unpacked like that, or had a third bedroom to put the boxes in whilst I sorted the rest.

I'm in Scotland and it's typical to move out at lunch time and move in to the new property shortly after same day exchange. We moved out in the summer at 12.30 and in new home by 2pm. Packed and unpacked everything ourselves but paid for delivery firm to move everything. Family of 6 (including toddler) and moved from a 4 bed detached to a 5 bed detached. All unpacked in 3 days and admittedly I wasn't as organised as some posters here. So YES definitely you can do it!! Good luck 🤞🏼

Yes, we moved from a 2 bed to a 4/5 bed (5th is an office really) this summer - we were unpacked in about 2 days I think.

We really really decluttered before moving and I suppose it helped we didn’t have all that much furniture. We packed ourselves but our movers were absolutely fantastic on the day - the run up was bloody stressful but the actual day itself went really smoothly and we were in by about 1.30, previous owners didn’t leave it the cleanest - not terrible but not what I’d expected either so that did take up the bulk of the first afternoon, but we managed to get that done and DD’s room set up plus the essential kitchen and bathroom stuff unloaded, our bed made. The rest just took the next day really.

Im not saying there’s not the odd box in the garage but it’s not really stuff we need day to day and it’s all in clearly labelled boxes so I can go and get what I need when I need it, so it’s more like that’s just where we store that stuff now - things like the fancier dinner service that only really comes out at Christmas or extra candles etc.

I have moved over 32 times and am a bit of an expert now. Last move was to france and we bought 25 cubic m of cross border moving space so had to whittle down everything to fit.

And as I was moving a dismantled polytunnel within that, I really had to whittle things down.

Before moving use your dirty bedding to stuff the fridge and freezer to soak up any water and pop those straight in the wash when you get to the new house.

First evening
First things to unpack are beds, bedding and basic kitchen and cleaning stuff.

First full day
Then get every box into its correct room. Get furniture in situ and bung all clothes onto the beds, and put them away. Then shoes and coats etc.

For front rooms and dining rooms, unpack stuff for eating, sitting down and coffee tables etc. Pop rugs down before tables and sofas. Then set up tvs record players, bookcases etc and get records, cos and books into place. Makes it feel like home.

Day 2 just go room to room and unpack each box. Dont be tempted to leave any. If it was worth bringing it was worth unpacking.

Day 3 unpack the rest. Then either put all the boxes on offer to be taken away by someone else.moving, or take them to the recycling or let the cats play in them and put the rest in the garden for making compost in the spring.

If you can get round and clean before your furniture arrives then that's fab otherwise clean each room before unpacking and dont try to do too much other stuff those first few days, just concentrate on the job in hand. Make up a trug of hot soapy water and have a load of dry cloths with you at all times.

I think you must have way more stuff that were imagingvid you think a week is optimistic. I'm not a hoarder so can't think how it could take more than a couple of days.

What are you moving?

If you have boxes in the loft from your last move presumably all you're going to do is put them in your new loft, that's noy time taking