moving house planning and cleaning advice

[bananasandwich]

how do you go about each of these things?

• where do you get boxes from?

• what things do you pack up first?

• any top tips for moving?

We are moving in 8 weeks so I can tell you what we are doing:

1. We saved the moving boxes the moving company gave us last time we moved. I have been supplementing by taking extra boxes home from supermarkets/shops every time I go shopping. You can also get moving boxes from places like the Argos catalogue, or at least you could when we moved last. Last time I saved space by putting soft stuff (clothes/linens etc) into vacuum sealed bags and I will do this again I think. DH put all the boxes for our appliances in the cellar/loft when we unpacked them so we have those too.

2/3)Last week I had a massive clearout and got rid of 8 or 9 binbags of stuff. I looked at everything and asked whether I really wanted to pack it and move it again. Whilst I was doing this I realised what we wanted to keep but didnt use very often and I started the packing with this. I have been packing 2-3 boxes a week with these sort of things, books, toys etc. We have wide corridors and a spare room so I have been storing these packed (and labelled) boxes in there. I have been saving anything that can be used as packing materials.

Good luck with your move. This is our fourth move in 6 years and our second international. We have much more stuff now than when we moved here so its even more of a headache.