How do you SENSIBLY pack to move?

[charitygirl]

We are moving from ouer two bed flat in a couple of weeks. I am a speedy 'do it now!' type who isn't perhaps, as well-planned as she might be. DH is a super-organiser, but also a huge procrastinator who likes to plan, plan, plan some more...and do nowt, until the last minute. Don't want either of these approaches.

So does anyone have any tips for getting packed up in a sensible way which makes sense for unpacking, packs stuff in the right order (i.e. not the kettle and mugs first!), minimises rows and tears? Or am I asking for the moon on a stick?

Thanks in advance!

My top advice is to pay the extra (it's not a lot) to get the movers to do it.
They will pack a box for you with necessities.
It just removes that level of stress. All you have to do is get rid of clutter you don't want first.

Really? That's tempting. What about things like clothes? Do they take less or more time than you would take, do you think?

Get the packers in! They do it day in day out and will get so much more out of a box than you will.

They packed my entire house in a day and unpacked the next in our new house.

I just gave them instructions in the morning of:

Kettle, tea, coffee, sugar and mugs for everyone were last in the van so first out next day.

I'd already packed personal stuff such as jewellery, paperwork, underwear basically stuff I didn't want the packers thouching each night for the week before - only took about an hour a night.

To them packing a house up is just stuff to you it is your stuff so you are more likely to go through papers, look at old photos, talk about memories blah, blah, blah! They will just do it.

So worth the extra pennies if you can.

There will be two or three of them, and they will just shove stuff in boxes IME, room by room.
Whereas you will sort it and that isn't really necessary but you'll feel like you have to tidy.
Much better to tidy at the other end when you are sorting it out to go in new cupboards anyway.
You can pack your own pants

We used packers too - they weren't that great at labelling the boxes, and some boxes had about two cups in them. But it did save a lot of hassle moving when I was 7 mo preg.

Packers!!!! We had to get them in - we had nowhere to put the boxes once I had packed them, so for us it was £200 well spent!

Another vote for packers. They will bring sufficient quantities of boxes of the correct size for each type of item eg small ones for heavy stuff like books, giant boxes with hanging rails for clothes straight out of the wardrobes. And wrap the contents with tissue paper etc. And label and seal them.

It's a tiny percentage of the overall cost of moving, and worth every penny.

And you won't believe ho quickly they do it! We had a big 2 bed flat with 2 massive lofts filled to the brim and they booked 2 days to pack - 1 day to pack and the next to move - but they did it by 2pm the first day, they were amazing!

The packers are the best thing ever - have done two moves like that. Just go to the pub Starbucks while they do their thing. Last house took 4 hours from scratch to lorry loaded. And I had done nothing at all beforehand apart from pack a suitcase

We used packers too. It was fantastic, I didn't pack so much as a tea spoon. I left them to get on with it and they worked solidly for 2 days. Cost less than 1% of the new house.
What I'd do if I were you is to chuck as much stuff as you can that you don't want/won't need in your new place.

Packers! They have special wardrobe cartons, and just empty your wardrobes into them, and they ca be used until you have wardrobes, or just hung straight into your new ones.

They do tend to pack everything, so I opened a boy to find the note to the new owners in it!

Another vote for packers, I have packed (and moved) myself too many times. Although it's a good opportunity for a sort out, sorting also takes more time than you think. last time I badly underestimated time and ended up only about half way done at 7pm the night before the move was due to take place. It was all packed in time but boy was tired by the end of moving day!!!

Tips:
use cardboard moving boxes if you can, plastic crates and other boxes are easy to overload, hard to carry and often break.

Work though room by room. when that room is clear and boxes stacked, close the door so you know it's done.

Label the top of the box with the room it's going into in big letters and rough description of whats in it. If you're really thorough, Do the same with the sides of the box too. really useful if the boxes are stacked

Start with spare bedroom, books, dvd's videos all of which can be done a few days before the date. If your doing the whole move yourself and have access to the new place prior to moving day move these early.

Use up as much food as poss prior to the move.

As well as kettle mugs coffee etc. keep handy hoover cleaning stuff cloth etc.

Good luck

oh and I have found that regardless how careful you are when you move you will:

1. Lose one random item and one piece of important paperwork. (even though nothing is left behind and the rest of the file arrives fine)
2. Break something

but if, for whatever reason, your budget does not stretch to packers - flylady has advice:

www.flylady.net/pages/Flying_MovingTips.asp

Another vote for packers! I used to work for a removal company and there a couple of top tips I used to give to customers.

If you have a chest of drawers, clothing can be left in the drawers for moving. Nothing heavy or thing likely to smash. The movers will likely wrap it in a blanket and straps, so the drawers aren't going to spill open and show your new neighbours your smalls!!
Ask your movers for hanging boxes for your wardrobe clothes, all you have to do at the other end is hang it up in your new wardrobe.
If you have things in boxes already (under the bed etc), as long as they can be secured, they can be moved as is.
If you want to know where everything is from the kitchen, number your cupboards and ask the packers to number the boxes in the same fashion. You might have 2 or 3 boxes per cupboard, but it's easier to look through 3 boxes than a whole kitchen full when youcan almost guarantee what you are looking for will be in the last box!

If you want to do a sort of everything you don't have to have the unpack service, and you can sort everything at the other end.

Have one box that is your "on the day" box.

Phone chargers

Mugs

Tea / coffee

Pens

Address book

All that goes in the box and that box goes in the back of your car

When you get to your new house make the beds first. YOu will be knackered and knowing that at bed time you can just collapse into bed is a huge relief.

If you use movers already (instead of renting a van) you will find that they don't insure on breakage if you pack yourselves. let them do it.
If moving yourself Lunarrose has it right.

Well, this seems pretty much unanimous. Thank you very much everyone.

I'm gobsmacked at how little it costs for someone to pack up your house!
I spent £60 on cardboard boxes and £400 for a van with 2 men.
If I had known, I would have got the packers in as it really does take weeks to pack (a few hours each evening and all day weekends). I've moved 3 times in 2 years and had 2 DC inbetween!

Where do you find these miracle men?
(We'll be off again soon, I imagine)

If you do pack your own boxes I would recommend buying lots of bubble wrap and a "gun" type thing to seal the boxes with tape.

Another one to recommend getting the packers in - we have done it twice now - once when I was very heavily pregnant and then last year with 4 children. We put what we needed for the moving day in my car and they packed EVERYTHING else! And when they arrived, they unloaded and built the beds first.

The only disadvantage I found was that sometimes they didn't pack the boxes up with the same logic as I would have so it took a few box searches to find some crucial things.

Oh and we were told that the last thing packed/frist thing unpacked would be the kettle etc...

as a woman who spent a very nomadic 4 years moving from place to place (2 houses, 1 flat, 5 house shares) here is my best tip ever.

Pack non-essential things first (i.e stuff thats in the attic)

and ALWAYS label your boxes with whats inside them, even if the box ends up looking like its had the dictionary scrawled on it. its invaluable for when you unpack!

if you want to pass time, make a list of what type of things you will pack on what day. I did this when i was waiting to move in with dh!

if you can not afford packers and are using a friends van or hiring one

buy loads of bubblewrap off ebay about £20 for 100metres, buy sheets of labels too, ( newspaper works too but can mark china and /or glasses if going to be stored rather than unpacked immediately

get twice as many cardboard boxes as you think you will need and 6 rolls parcel tape for most cardboard boxes are just folded and the bottoms might collapse if have books china in them label every box as to room at destination and if not going to be unpacked immediately label with tax returns, dinner service

as you pack have containers for rubbish/ recycling/charity you will never sort it as you unpack it will go in loft still in box, shred unwanted old bills etc

start with sparebedroom pack in boxes use suitcases for clothes and dustbin bags for duvets do not use bags for other stuff things fall out, pack everything that belongs together together, ie music centre with all cables and remote, if you unscrew things put screws back in the holes or in a sealed labelled envelope and attach to that item

packing takes twice as long as you think

if you have a mathematically inclined friend to help pack the van as 3D jigsaw the tighter it is packed the less likely things are to break

watch weight limit on van we overloaded a van got stopped by police and had to offload some stuff at weighbridge and go back for it ( on the other hand could dodge them ) van must be evenly loaded so all weight not on front axle apparently the springs should still be smiling not straight or worse sad!

as said before have box in car for essentials medicines water spare light bulbs toilet paper fairy liquid and some food coffee sharp knife mugs wine etc you will need sharp knife to slit all the parcel tape and when unpack do beds first

if you have kids let them pack a small case box with favourite toys etc you do not want to lose teddy/blankie on route or find its in 1 of 78 boxes then try and get rid of them for day unless about 8 when they will help quite a bit perhaps