Moving day tomorrow - any last minute tips?

[Sinkingfeeling]

So the boxes are packed, the house looks like a storage unit and not at all like our lovely home, and the removals van is coming at 8.30 tomorrow morning. What have we forgotten?

To keep a kettle handy for when you get to the new house, with emergency stash of tea/coffee/gin in your car?

Emergency change of underwear/washbag/etc to save hunting through boxes at some ungodly hour?

Number of local takeaway because no-one is going to want to or be able to prepare a meal?

If you prepare like you're going camping for a couple of days you can't go wrong.

When you get to the new house make sure all water is running and is hot, the electric/gas works and you've got lightbulbs. When we moved we had no hot water and then no water at all as it had been turned off and due to the rejigging of the kitchen layout the stopcock was not where it should have been, ie anywhere near the sink.

Label all the boxes so they go to the right rooms, otherwise tis a nightmare redistributing stuff when you've started unpacking.

It will soon feel like home, eventually. Don't sit there on your first night surrounded by boxes in a strange house after a stressful and emotional day, on your own because your dh has forgotten something, and sob that you want to go home. You are home.

Good luck!

Toilet roll!

Thank you, Ilove that's very reassuring - must remember, gin and toilet roll, gin and toilet roll, gin and gin! :) Have been very calm and collected throughout the whole process but feeling very emotional and tearful now, having said goodbye to our lovely neighbours and feeling sad to be walking away from a home we've loved and put our hearts into. :( Hope I can keep it together in front of the removals men tomorrow ...

Even my dh got a tear in his eye as we looked around our empty house. It was our first home, our children had been born there (not literally) and it was so emotional not only leaving but seeing it empty.

And it was me that sat and sobbed at the new house. I was knackered, dh had popped back to the old house for the last few things as we still had the keys for another day, and all I could think was I want to go home and sleep in my bed. My bed was up, but not made up, and in a strange room, and I wish I'd remembered about the gin.

What I should have done was have a drink and just gone to bed instead of sitting there worrying.

We've been here two years now and it's lovely. It's been redecorated, we've got all the rooms as we want them, we've put a woodburner in so it's cosy in the winter, new windows, made the garden really nice, the kids love all the space out here and it was so worth it. Looking back we were so ready to move, we'd just outgrown the old house. I love it here now. I hope you love your new house too.

Ah, now that's made me even worse! This is also the house where our dc were born, and has so many happy memories. We're moving to a total renovation project, having just got this house exactly as we want it - and I'm fully expecting to get there and weep! I guess I just need to pull myself together and remind myself why we're moving though (secondary schools and a fourth bedroom) and hope we can make it lovely eventually. I'm hoping we'll feel like you, that we've outgrown this house and that we'll love the new one. Thanks for holding my hand - better get myself off to bed!

Put a set of clean bedlinen in a bag to take with you in the car. The minute the beds are in the new house make them up. Hours later, when you are knackered, you will be SO glad you did this.

Hope it went well!

Also another tip I quite like - if you can find a vase or jug or something, buy a nice bunch of flowers for yourself. Will feel a bit more homely and cheer up the chaos.

oooohh thanks for the flowers tip Ilove! I'm moving next week but I have the luxury of already owning that house already so its being done up slowly - but surely! I've already taken some stuff up, but I have new furniture coming on Friday so over the weekend I can take a lot up myself, then have a van to take the wardrobes etc. Can't wait!

Hope the move is going well OP!

Thanks everyone - some really good tips there! Move went well, though I did sob slightly in front of the burly Polish removal men . Still have mixed feelings about leaving our lovely old house, but feeling much more optimistic that we can make the new house lovely too - in about 10 years' time or after we win the lottery. Will definitely try the flowers tip tomorrow too.

Well done sinking that's the spirit.

You can change that name now.