tips for a smooth house move?

[itshappenedagain]

in 2 weeks!!!! with Ds 4, and DD 9 months!!! on my own have to pack with them here and am rubbish! help please!

Drink this...

and get a decent removal company in to pack for you. Totally worth the extra hundred quid or so.

Agree, don't even think about doing your own packing. Last time we moved, I took the children to stay in a Marriott near our new home and left the packers (and dh) to it. I had a lovely time hanging out in the jacuzzi etc for a couple of days.

DH's company paid for all the relocation expenses, though.

tip 1: smooth, house and move are never going to happily live with each other in a sentence, lower you expectations and rephrase the question to "anyone got any tips to help make my move less hellish?"

tip 2: label boxes and write lists of exactly what is in each one... when you need the cheese grater in a hurry the last thing you need to be doing is rummaging through boxes of photos reminicing!

tip 3: when you've spent all your tip worrying about tip 1, and doing tip 2, and you run out of time: the free plastic bags that the council provide for recycling are a godsend for flinging everything into

we moved nearly 6 months ago... i'm still recovering!

oh and before i forget tip 4: win the lottery, most expensive thing we've ever done! enjoy! you'll survive it!

Ah it's not so bad - what you need are some willing volunteers/conscripts. So team 1 is on cleaning duty - as soon as you get the keys, get over to the new house and clean everything before you move in. Then when they are finished they swap to the old house to clean up there.

Team 2 is on packing - and I'm going to fly in the face of convention here. Don't itemise each box, just pack things from the same area they were from in your old home and label the box accordingly - so "Bedroom shelves" "Kitchen drawers" etc. Label the boxes with coloured tape and then you can see at a glance which boxes should be in which room. Team 2 should also visit the new house and put colour coded tape on each room so the removal guys can carry the boxes into the right rooms. Tape has the added benefit of being able to be slapped on sofas, chairs, tables etc as well so all the furniture ends up in the right rooms.

Team 3 is on child care. They pack as if going camping for a week before anyone else does anything. Favourite toys, medicines, loo roll, the kettle, phone chargers - this is stuff which stays with you!!

teams i had a few burly removal men... 9-3 when the kids were at school.... and my pensioner SIL making cups of tea- clearly that's where i went wrong

Oh yes - we recruited my niece and pals who were delighted to do it in return for a tenner and pizza.... Slave labour - hurrah!

In terms of moving house, more is just more. You can never have too many people (except when it's your MIL of course!)

thankyou all! other than my uni moves...where itwas a case of shoving stuff in to suitcases and getting my dad to do all the work...i dont have much experience. when i moved in here i had nothing so things got delivered the week before i moved in and family helped me move my clothes and a few other bits across the road. I now have 3 removal men and a van and my mum is coming over at the weekend to stress me out help me pack...thinking about it id best get cleaning!!

im very much liking the team idea, although get keys to new house next week and have recruited a team of painters to help decorate before we move in...wonder if they could stay on for cleaning duty???? best not push my luck. i'll keep you all posted!!!

Get as much packed as you are physically able to! Especially all the kitchen stuff. I was a bit in denial about moving and thought I'd leave the kitchen till the day. It took me hours to clean out the cupboards and the removal men were not impressed. They were expecting boxes to be ready to move.

Bit dim of me obviously, I realise that now.

Get more boxes than you think you will need. Nothing worse than 'being in the zone' and packing loads then running out of boxes.

I always marker pen each box with the room of the new house that it needs putting in. Each box is numbered and there is a corresponding list in a spiral bound note book of what is in each box. I am very clearly a sad individual...however most of my house actual moving days been fairly stress free (there have been a lot).

If you can, on the day have a couple of freinds who are happy to 'do' the kitchen for you, if you don't like where they put things you can re-arrange later but a least you can get breakfast the next day and find plates for your post move takeaway.

Try to get rid of as much junk as you can before then.

I second the 'packing' service provided by the movers - well worth the extra money. But they only pack - they don't de-clutter so any junk you have in your drawers will also be carefully packaged!!

Good luck

am numbering boxes and listing as i go! that way i know what is in everything befroe i ask someone else to unpack it! yes lots have junk has gone. plus i find it good to see how many boxes i have done as oposed to how much there is to do...right im back to it!

Just don't do what my mum did and leave it tip the night before and then just put everything in cheap bin bags!

I would star by having a ruthless clearing out session no point packing a moving shite you don't need. Then star packing up all the non essentials like books pictures lamps etc. Don't just label boxes with what's in them also Mark what room you want the boxes to go in at the new house.

I didn't find moving day too bad as we were able to off load the ds's for the day and the first night.

Having just moved while 7 months pregnant and with a 3 YO in tow I would definitely go for proper removals men and a full packing service. We have moved many times over the years as our family has grown and we have accumulated more stuff, hiring vans and DIY ing it to start with, but this time we used a small independent local company and it couldn't have gone better. I dont know where you are in the country but their checklist is pretty transferable www.vanmanexeter.co.uk/removal-checklist-exeter-and-devon-from-van-man-exeter/
Ruth

I've already started and we haven't put an offer in yet.
I've spent ages decluttering as much stuff as possible, selling all the kids stuff we won't need anymore (3 year old and 7month old) and getting rid of junk, paperwork etc. I've sorted all the paperwork in the house into folders so we don't lose anything important and so I can find everything I need for mortgage, solicitors etc.

I've also packed non essential kitchen items and ornaments and pictures we took down to neutralise our current house for viewers.

There are loads of good, space and time saving tips on Pinterest. Found some great ideas on how to pack clothes and kitchen equipment.
I also have as many things already in labelled boxes or baskets.
I have my linen cupboard all in baskets so bath towels are in a basket, hand towels etc and they're labelled. I can just lift those boxes and put them straight into the car, to the new house then straight into new linen cupboard at new house without actually packing and unpacking.
The kids clothes are the same. They're all in IKEA drawer organisers and labelled so they can just be lifted out and put in boxes then straight into the drawers on the other side without having to take everything out then resort everything again.

Good luck x

Totally agree with getting a removal firm to pack - we're moving in 3 weeks and I intend to do no packing at all, for £250 they are packing every last book!

Oh but if you do decide to pack yourself our movers also had these videos which anyone can use www.vanmanexeter.co.uk/faqs/packing-plates/
Love the ?? Suggestion too!

Keep kettle and drink making stuff handy.
Unpack and make up beds first.
Keep a Yellow Pages/Thomson Local handy. If something goes wrong, and you have no wifi at least you'll be able to look up who can help/contact numbers etc.