Packing/ moving tips please

[AmethystMoon]

We are due to move in the next few weeks and it is dawning on me the scale of the operation!
I have a small baby and dog to look after so not any time on my own to sort things out. I am panicking a bit so wondered if anyone has any tips to make the practicalities of moving easier?

Turned on!

Anyone?

Contact all the gas, electric etc suppliers before you move in. Tell them your move date and arrange for them all to turn on on the day you move in. You'll need to tell the suppliers at the old place that you're moving out too. Remember to take meter readings as you leave the old place and arrive at the new place so you don't get stung for paying part of the new/old occupiers' bills.

Also, my fave moving tip is don't wrap china/glass in newspaper as you'll have to wash it all up once you unpack which is a complete ballache you can do without. You can buy tissue paper from a hardware supplier (or "borrow it" from Ikea's packing stations)

We moved from a house we'd been in years, to a rented house, whilst we waited for the new "forever" house - had 3.5yr old twins at the time and I was 5 months pregnant. We packed everything up ourselves, moved ourselves (just hired a van and roped in a couple of friends) and unpacked / stored boxes we were unlikely to need in the short term in the cellar. We had numbered boxes, 1-100 or whatever and then we wrote a list of everything that was in that box. We then wrote on the boxes whether they were going to a particular room (eg kitchen) or storage. My top tip would be to label each box on each side and the top, so no matter how it is stacked / stored, you can still see what number box it is.

Agree that you should be ruthless if you're packing yourself, no point in packing, carting and unpacking something you're never going to use again!