Moving house in 5 weeks

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Ok, completion date has been given as 20th December, I've never done the whole moving house thing as I literally emptied my one tiny room at my mum's house and moved in with DP 8 years ago.

So help me? Where do I start?!

We now have 8 years worth of stuff in 3 bedrooms and 3 reception rooms, with a 15 month old DD and a DP who works long hours - I need to do the majority of the packing myself.

Also where can I get cheap boxes from?

I would take this time, first of all , to go through everything you have at the moment to see what you want to take it with you, making use of all the suitcases, boxes and other bags you already have to pack things in. You might also find that you have things like bubble wrap, rolls of brown tape and other wrapping stuff already that you can use. Remember to label everything and if you want, use a particular colour for each room. There will then be companies near to you where you can buy any other boxes you need or try Big Yellow Box

We found this thread very helpful when we moved into our current home 1yr ago.

forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?p=36196317%23post36196317

Good luck with move

If you are anywhere near East Sussex I have a whole garage full of boxes you can have! I can't get the bloody removals company to come and get them

If you can afford to, pay for the packing service. We moved recently and the removal company sent one of the guys the day before to pack up valuables and the kitchen. Couldn't fault the service and they took away the stress of the hardest part. They delivered boxes about 2 weeks before we moved do I'd packed all books etc in advance, meant I could focus on clothes and DDs bits nearer the move date.

Good luck!

Lots of good ideas! Thanks all. I just need to get organised and make a start with packing what we're taking but don't necessarily need right now.

rhubarb if I was closer I'd snap them up but I'm "up north" so a little too far away! Thanks for the offer though, very kind of you

worth keeping an eye on freecycle for boxes - people sometimes put them up and it will save you a fortune. Also Tesco are quite happy to give away cardboard boxes. I used a combination of this and paid nothing for packing material apart from a couple of rolls of bubble wrap, and then I freecycled it all again after the move. (Rhubarbgarden -try freecycle, the boxes will be snapped up!) Shredded paper is also your friend for packing frangibles.

boxes must be full (or they collapse) but not too heavy. If you can't lift it then what makes you think the removers are superhuman? There are some good packing tips online; for instance, plates go end-on, not in a stack.

if your contracts are exchanged then get to the post office and arrange your post redirect, 3 months to start the day of the move. Also start making a list of all the people who will need to be notified of the move so you can get on that once you have shifted. I've moved twice this year and found three months is the right length for the redirect, one month is too short.

the main checklist goes: council for the council tax, gas/electric, phone/broadband company, water company, insurers for house and car (if you've exchanged you should now be insuring the new house), DVLA. All else is detail.

good decluttering tip - do you REALLY love the object enough to lift it, pack it, unpack it...

it is worth it when it is all over. ;-)