Movers/packers and moving tips please!

[LonelyTiredandLow]

We have a moving day for late September. I've today been online to get quotes for removals and have been recommended to use packing services as well. I've not used these myself and a friend has said they pack up each room at a time...so do they label the boxes and then transfer them into the similar room in the new house? Can you specify if you have a dining area that those boxes should go into a dining room in the new property (do I have to label doors?).
I'm also wondering what the 'dismantling and reassembling fees' are for movers - I get it for IKEA wardrobes for eg but what about my bed which I built in my bedroom?
I've not had any replies as it's Sunday, so thought I would ask on here.

Any other tips for a slight downsize would be good as our downstairs is currently larger than the new house but upstairs is bigger! When I last moved I got banana boxes from a supermarket...I'm assuming they still have those? Haven't looked recently !

Use the move as an opportunity to declutter.
Label all the boxes by room.
Make a box with everything you need to make a cuppa and make sure it's the first box to go in the new house.
People often offer moving boxes on sites like freegle and freecycle.

Boxes - ask stores, esp the likes of Wickes, Homebase etc if you can have boxes. You need to sort this in advance because many stores bale and shift their boxes as soon as they unpack them. If you pay a firm to move you, they may provide boxes, wrap, tape etc as included or extra. If you pay them to pack, they provide everything.

Give the movers a floor plan and label doors in new house. They will assume everything in Bed 1 in the old house goes in Bed 1 in the new, but you can stick a note on anything that needs to go in a different room so that they can pack and unpack as you want. Agree amongst yourselves first so movers get clear instructions.

We've 'upsized' and 'downsized' but in both cases, clearing out what you don't need is sensible. It is mad to pay someone to move clutter and even madder to store it in another home.

Measure doorways/windows and identify any furniture that won't fit. Sell what you can and give away the rest. As well as Freecycle, a lot of towns have local for sale/wanted/free if you collect pages on Facebook. Good for boxes and for selling what you don't need.

Take your essentials box (kettle, mugs, coffee, snacks, plasters, scissors, aspirin, door wedges, loo roll, soap, a hand towel, cloths, washing up liquid etc) in the car with you. I would also keep a suitcase of your bedding, towels and a bottle of wine in the car so you can easily find them.

Plan your food for the day, especially if eating out isn't an option.

Oh yes, thanks for reminding me about freecycle for boxes!

Does anyone have any idea if packers will take boxes to the correct rooms when they move you in and how to control areas which may not match?

Great, thanks Cyndarella - for some reason your post didn't load when I came in to check!

Yes, I need to look at the de cluttering boards but already know we can cut a lot of the craft cupboards down, get rid of some garden stuff and my old uni files can probably be slimlined as they take up a cupboard. I've already shredded old bills, put dd's art into a folder and taken old clothes to charity.

I had an electoral register letter through today which is weird as I only had one about a week after the last local elections. I'm not sure when BoZo will call his GE but suspect I may have time once I move in rather than now as IIRC it takes 60 days to prepare for a GE? So hard to know what they are doing!

I'm hoping to move either towards the end of this year or early next year. What I am planning on doing is having someone who buys second hand furniture or a charity collect everything I am getting rid of or replacing so that the removal people only have the minimum to take & getting everything new delivered to the new house. That means we would only be taking things like my bed & chest of drawers, ds chest of drawers, fridge/freezer, dishwasher, dining table, televisions, clothes, books, personal stuff & kitchen equipment. I have been saving for almost two years so I can buy new sofas, ds bed, living room furniture, dining chairs etc. I hope to have the new place decorated & carpets down ready to move in & all new furniture more or less in place ready before moving day.

Pay for packing - it really takes the stress out of things and you live normally until a day or so before the move when they start packing everything up. They dismantle and rebuild furniture like your bed if you take that option. They don't take everything apart, they take apart what they need to in order to safely move it.

Yes, they label where things are going at the other end. I walked round with the packing team supervisor and we had a system with a place for things which weren't going with us (manuals, etc.).

Eat what's in the freezer so you're not trying to move large quantities of frozen stuff. Empty bins before the rooms are packed or they'll pack and a move a bin of rubbish.

Use the time before you move to declutter, sell things, get them picked up by charity shops, etc. Packing is worth the extra charged for it and, in the scheme of things, it's not much.

Our movers gave us a few boxes before the packers came to pack 'personal items'! They labelled all
The boxes and then we had a discussion about where all the boxes should go in the new house.
As for furniture he included all the dismantling in the quote. Lots of ikea stuff but also big bunk bed and our bed.
They had one man on furniture duty.
Just keep kettle, cups, cleaning stuff out. Packers love tea so just spent the day making tea. Much easier than packing.

Big bits of furniture you can just tell them where to put it in the new house. With smaller stuff if you can organise it and ask them to label up everything on the top shelf as for another bedroom then you can do that, but don't be too fussy or you'll slow them down. If you have, say, big bookshelves in the dining room that are going into the playroom of the new house then just tell them that and get them to label them as playroom. Keep it broad brush though. If you need to move some things from one room to another after they've gone it's not the end of the world.

Thanks everyone! Really helpful info. I've already begun packing away sheets and towels and bathroom bits we won't need and working on kitchen cupboards next.
Probably a silly Q but is it not easier to take full drawers out and use the drawers as a box for clothes? It possibly stops some de-cluttering though

Also, what about trampolines/slides/swing sets?

Yes they will just move full chests of drawers as they are, generally

Yay! Thank you! Saves a lot of seemingly pointless packing here.

I need some banana boxes for books and have still not found any in the supermarkets. Morrisons used to do them I think?