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.

If you haven’t unpacked it, do you need to keep it?
whenever I’ve moved I’ve used it as a good time to get rid of anything we didn’t need.
our last move we had bought all new bedroom furniture and we built that (including the beds) within the first 2 days (got the keys 2pm on day 1 and an additional ikea run on day 2 whilst we had the van) and by day 4 everything was sorted xx

Moving into bigger places is fairly easy. It’s the sideways or downsize that’s more tricky

I think OP mentioned that it was a long-term rental property that they were moving into? Hopefully it will be clean and well-maintained prior to move-in (by the landlord).

@OptimisticReindeer Do leave enough time in your schedule to thoroughly go round the house in the first day (before your stuff is moved in), and check that you agree with the inventory (ie the condition of everything that is in the house). I think you only get approx a week to challenge anything. Take photos of things that you feel need to be amended on the inventory, and note it all down in an email.

When moving, I have found it works best if you really plan where and how things are going to be stored at the new place, before you move in. So then you don’t need to spend ages deciding, or working out how to make each room work, when what you need to be doing is unpacking really fast.

So I will plan out where everything goes in the kitchen (take photos of the new kitchen to help you plan). And on moving in day, I will put post-it notes on all the drawers and cupboards in the new kitchen to identify what will go where, so that it is really quick to unpack, and if someone is helping you then they know where to put everything.

I also work out where furniture will live (and draw a plan of the room with proposed furniture locations in, so that things can be placed in exactly the correct place). I also work out beforehand if any new storage furniture is needed and try and get that beforehand.

The last few times we have moved, we got the removals company to pack, and also to dismantle and re-build things like beds and wardrobes - that really helps save time, especially if they can re-build them into the correct location. They bring clothes on hanging rails during the move, so they can go straight into the wardrobes that they have built.

I also organised our things before the move - so, a trip to ikea to get lots of drawer dividers and storage boxes (that will be used on an ongoing basis) - it becomes really easy to just unpack a box that contains clear storage boxes full of things in, that then just lives on a shelf in the utility room, for example. (So I have shelves in my utility room and they are full of small, clear plastic boxes - for example, one with sewing kit and ribbons and buttons etc, one with a whole load of different greetings cards, one with shoe cleaners / polish and insoles, one with pens/pencils and school equipment). It makes life so much easier when you move if everything has been planned and organised!

Realistically, what on earth have you got still packed from before your last move?

Bin them. Biggest hurdle to any move is bringing shit with you that you don't want or need.

I've usually unpacked the same weekend. A week would be mental - I've not known anyone ever pay for a hotel to avoid living with a few boxes.

Very easily we did it in a long weekend with 4 kids, just get on with it.
We were lucky in that my mum had kids fir 1 day and the house had been deep cleaned before we moved in so didnt need to clean anything.
If you need to shampoo carpets , clean cupboards etc it would take longer.
But you really dont need to stay in a hotel whilst you do it

It is tricky when renting. Because your grannies dining table might not fit this house, but it might fit the next.
those fancy mugs you got as a wedding present, don’t have a home here. But they may the next.

so you’ve a layer of sentimentality as well as not wanting to have to rebuy stuff.

I took about a day to unpack. But I’d spent nearly a week packing and decluttering so I already knew where most stuff was going. The teens will (presumably) do their own stuff which will help. A week is doable unless you have loads of clutter to sort through imo.

I frequently want to declutter but the minute I reach for something to chuck out, I kno w that Im likely to want it at some point in the future

Classic examples are clothes and bags, I fall out of love with something for a while and then rediscover it some years later and then its got a new lease of life. recently happened again with quite an expensive handbag which I could have chucked out on the basis of 'not used for a year', started using it again the other week and now have used it a lot it will go round the houses for a bit and then another bag will take its place.

This thread has made me look at our books, shelves and shelves of them, CDs and DVDs, who plays these anymore? But some of them are collectors items, even though they dont seem to have a purpose, do we chuck them?

Another example is 'old towels', I dont have any old towels for DIY jobs becuase Ive chucked them all out. I have a pile of old tea towels but they take up space so Im contemplating chucking them and then I wont have my stash of old towels at all

I dont have any old sheets either, having chucked them.

@OptimisticReindeer If your teens have capacity to help out too, that might shave a day off!

Still unpacking 10 years down the line.

Be very careful with packers. If you leave half a sandwich on your table while they are around, you will find it at your destination. I moved from the US to the UK and found my paper rubbish at the other end!

I left one house in the morning for school... By the time I got back to the new house, my Mum had already unpacked everything and put it away. Three bed detached.

I think we managed ours in a couple of days.

The secret is labelling the boxes accurately and knowing where things are going to go in the new house. Make floor plans of each room. Label boxes Dining Room 1, 2, 3 etc and put the numbers on the floor plan.

All to do with prior organization. We have moved roughly every 18 months throughout a 35 year marriage. A week is definitely viable.

I was completely unpacked on the day in my bedroom house. I ruthlessly went through every cupboard and drawer the move and got rid of about a third of my belongings.
We had packers who packed the whole house the afternoon before the move and they put all the boxes in the right rooms and we did the rest that evening. Clothes arrived on rails so were mega easy and we knew where all the furniture was going to go. It’s a new build that came with curtains and carpet and after a day looked like we’d lived there a while.

Crikey!
My husband was working abroad and came home for a week to help us move. I had to go to work. Within a week all furniture was up, all boxes unpacked, attic boarded, curtain poles up and shelves put up in airing cupboard. You just work like crazy. And we had 3 teens! We had late nights, working into the early hours. But better just to get it done.

Depends how much stuff you have. We are family of four in four-bed and I’ve never taken over a week to unpack. I’ve moved house on a big scale twice.

It all depends on what your current house is like. We were moved and unpacked in 2 days for our 4 bed house, and that was only because when we got into the new house we realised it was really filthy so the first day was completely cleaning.

However, I am someone that keeps e.g. the Christmas decorations in the loft in boxes labelled Christmas decorations so it was very easy to know what went where, what needed unpacking, what went straight in the loft/ garage.

My MiL has so much storage that she never needs to sort - when she had her kitchen done it took us 3 days just to work out what to keep / chuck. She still had junk paperwork from her old job despite being retired 10 years and tins that were best before 1994...

I think we've only got two boxes left to be unpacked. They're n the garage behind other stuff though.

Mind you, it was 17 years ago we moved.

Easily. We moved 6 weeks ago and used removal company and their packing service, we moved on a Wednesday and started unpacking immediately that evening then carried on over the next few days. We were fully unpacked and had the boxes collected by the Monday. It was hard work and we were knackered but it felt so good, I’ve had friends with full boxes still lying around 5/6 months after moving.

We are quite good at not keeping unnecessary stuff though and also hired a skip prior to moving to just throw stuff away.

I could not cope with boxes from previous moves or unpacking for weeks.

I am afraid I’m bish bash bosh. Get it all in and out. Furniture can be rearranged over time. The only room that needs more consideration is the kitchen as you don’t want to manoeuvring that round. I can usually unpack and be running a home by day 2. You certainly do not need to be staying in a hotel. My kids were 16 & 20 last time we moved and we gave them £100 each to help on moving day. They were absolute stars.

It's easy as long as you pack properly. Label kitchen .. cupboard on left etc

We did ours in a weekend. Just got to keep going.

I did it alone in 3 days, DP rebuilt the beds etc and I unpacked every box, 3 days taking my time, regular long breaks. Non stop would be a day or two

We moved six months ago and still have quite a few boxes… but that’s because we are getting built in wardrobes but need some other building work to happen first, etc etc.

I would advise thinking carefully about where you want boxes to go when you move in - for example we had all the kitchen boxes in the kitchen, but that meant we had to move everything out of the kitchen first before we could clean it and start bringing one box in at a time to unpack. Would have been better to put them in the hallway outside!

We had most stuff done within a couple of weeks but in some cases it took longer - for example, we needed new furniture in one room but needed to get new carpets fitted so had to wait for one thing before we could do the next etc.

A couple of days I would imagine unless you have no storage sorted. A week should be plenty