Removal day help.

[Iloverobinhood]

We will shortly be moving and are luckily enough to have a full packing service with the removal company. Could any of you lovely people give me any tips on what is necessary to get ready before the packing day. Our flat is a bit chaotic to be honest. We are already throwing/ recycling things but I am unsure as to how much other sorting I need to do before hand.

Grateful for any advice

The packers will pack everything so it's a good idea to really work on de-cluttering now so that you don't end up carting junk from one house to the next.
The day before your packers arrive, allocate one kitchen cupboard for things not to be packed - then fill with tea/coffee things and biscuits(the removal men will undoubtedly want lots of cups of tea), plus breakfast things including crockery. Also have a small box of cleaning things left unpacked so you can give your house the quick once over before you go - and because the new house might not turn out to be as clean as you might like. The hoover shouldn't be packed, either.

And do a suitcase/bag of stuff you will need for that night/morning - towels, bedlinen, PJs toiletries and clean pants. Tomato Ketchup and Tartare sauce for the fish and chip supper you will undoubtedly end up having. Depending on how it goes you quite possibly will not have time/want to unpack anything so if it is kept clearly separate (and even in your car) you will not have to dig around boxes to find your night stuff when you want to collapse into bed.

Good luck.

Thankyou . We are moving into rented and may not unpack everything or possibly event store some stuff e.g books. How specific are you with the packers about what you want where etc or do they always leave it to you to unpack at the end?

Pack an overnight bag as if you're going away for two or three nights. Also pack bed linen, towels, any baby/child stuff you might need such as bottles, snacks, toys, nappies etc aswell as linen and clothes for them. Also bring cleaning supplies and Hoover, lots of black bin bags, loo rolls, a few tea towels. I think I also packed some important stuff like passports just in case everything went missing!

You are going to have to go through your stuff at some point even if someone else is packing it. In advance have a whiz through cupboards and throw away out of date dry goods, half used condiments and cleaning products that you never use. If you can be bothered it's worth going through clothes, bed linen and so on and donating stuff to the charity shop or take it to the tip. There will inevitably be stuff you unpack at the other end and wonder why on earth you brought it with you but you can always have a charity bag/tip bag on the go when unpacking.

I bought some soft drinks and snacks for the removal men and didn't worry about tea and coffee for them. You can always pack some boxes that they can move for you but you know what's in them and so can unpack them first on the day.

Also empty out the fridge and freezer in advance. I just stripped our beds on the morning of the move and put them in bin bags to be washed at the new house. Lastly I had a cleaner booked to come and clean the house after the removal men had been so I didn't have to worry about that too!

Good luck.

Oh another tip is to have an online delivery arrive at the new hose maybe on the morning after you move in. You will need loads of stuff due to throwing away lots so can do a huge shop online in advance and then it is one less thing to worry about when you move.

I would second the fact that the movers pack EVERYTHING, so it depends on whether you want to sort out "that" drawer in the kitchen pre or post move .

The other thing we were advised to do by our movers is to take certificates and passports with us in person - we had a week between packing up old house & the movers moving stuff into the new house and the house was left in a right state. Luckily as we had certs we had proof of ID to hire carpet cleaners etc.

Our movers were lovely, and helped DH to rebuild the bed etc. We had 2 days of packing up the old house (2 people one day, 1 the second) and then 3 people to unpack. They were really methodical and knew where stuff was and moved really quickly. They labelled the boxes themselves as they packed and moved stuff upstairs here when they needed to, DH was here but was more of a tea maker than anything!

I would also check whether the boxes are "yours" once the move is done, we were given our boxes as we were moving a decent distance and it wouldn't have been easy for them to collect them, but some of the companies charged for the boxes on top and that did add up and would have added to the moving pressure to get stuff organised. Could just have been a local thing to us, but all 4 companies we got in to quote did it. Which was odd......

The new house was left in a state, btw! Wasn't the movers leaving the old one in a mess!

Two things I always say on these threads
Make sure the packers label things specifically
We had about 20 boxes marked kitchen and couldn't tell tins from pots from the outside. Annoying.

Also save yourselves making x beds when you get there.
On the morning of the move, make bed as usual.
Reach down and untuck mattress protector near pillow and roll the whole bedding into a sausage and wrap in bin liner or similar.
Then when you get to new house can just unroll and beds are made.

"that" drawer seems to be the whole flat. A good de clutter is on the cards. Great tips everyone thanks so much.

Second the passports etc separately, I'd also pack any financial stuff, bank statements, savings, pensions etc myself.