How long to pack - help resolve an argument!

[LittlePickleHead]

DH and I are in disagreement about the reality of packing ourselves for our (theoretical) house move. We live in a 2 bed flat with a garden shed and have a newborn and a 4 year old.

Opinions/experience on how long for one person (DH) to pack on his own, and also comments on ease or stress of doing it in our circumstances (versus professional packers)

Packers every time. A team swoop in and do it all for you on the day (or in our case the night before). Minimal stress. Worth every single penny.

I'd never do a move without them again.

DH doing it by himself = weeks. Professional packers = 3 hours.

I'm packing our house - slowly but surely. It's a 5 bed but we're not moving until mid July. I've chosen to pack it rather than use packers so I can go through 9years of accumulated stuff and only take what we actually want rather than cart junk across the countryside with us.
I guess if it's dedicated packing it takes less time than a bit here and there. A week?

We packed our 2 bedroom semi plus shed and moved last year. It took DH and I weeks and weeks to get it done. I am never doing that again! Nor am I schlepping couches and a king bed and and and etc ever again. DH convinced me it would be easier. He was so very wrong. [bitter]

I would expect to take weeks about it (both of us working other jobs).
Cannot imagine paying someone to do it.
Suppose we have enough stuff to fill the average 3 bed semi 3x over.
How much would movers charge to pack all that?

It depends on how much stuff you have but I'd say allow at least 2 weeks.

I had to pack a 3 bed house + shed and garage. I started packing 25 days before the move and it was about right, so I'm guessing I did approx 2 hours packing per day = 50 hours. I'd already decluttered and also cleared out the garage and shed. I estimated about 2 hours per room so 12 hours total - I think I got that wrong. The other things you might be doing whilst moving house, such as sorting out utilities and phone, take up time, so I'd start asap.

I've never used professional packers but would use them if I didn't have time to pack. I would avoid them if you've got lots of stuff that needs sorting out and decluttering first and can manage to do it.

We packed our own house a few times. Easier with less belongings but we have only ever had a 2 bed house worth of stuff. Pack a box a day over a three week period.

Thanks for the replies. So it would seem that the consensus is that the 1-2 days my DH is proposing is a little unrealistic?

Any experience of packing over a few weeks with a small baby and a preschooler? I'm worried its going to be a complete nightmare.

You can probably tell I'm thinking we need to get packers in, DH doesn't want to spend the money. He even wants to hire a van and move the furniture himself (with the help of a friend). I really don't think he's thought it through at all!

I'm moving back to the uk - movers are doing most of the packing. But I wanted to organize my 4 yr olds toys etc as currently everywhere (open plan apartment) and we will have a playroom in the next place. It is taking me forever - 4 yr old is here as coughing and not in nursery.

My advice if you can do it is get the removals to pack and do not self move / self pack - not worth the stress (got the t-shirt). If you need to pack yourself then let your husband get on with it and get out of the house to the park with baby & 4yr old.

Good luck with the move!

TBH the bedrooms are the least of your worries. The kitchen stuff is the main fiddly bit. As is gathering all the boxes and packing materials.

I think it took about two weeks, without going to work or looking after a child.

We moved from a 2 bed house all by ourselves, with a van we'd borrowed. It was hell. We had so much more stuff than we'd imagined. Even though we were only taking the stuff to storage, the loading and unloading was really hard work, I was heavily pg at the time... Would have been far worse with a newborn.

If he wants to take it on, let him learn the hard way... I'll bet he won't be so keen the next time!!

If you get packers you won't regret a single penny.
We moved twice, once from a 2-bed house when DC1 was a few months old, and again with 3 DC under the age of 4, and the packers were the best money I spent on the moves.

Rather than trying to do it all in one go, I've always started early and packed a box a day. Keep a box in each room and start filling it with the bits you'll not be using for a while. 1-2 days is not practical

OP, it really depends on how much stuff you've got. But I think it's one of those tasks where you should assume it will take you longer than you expect and that you'll have more boxes of stuff than you anticipate.

The last time we packed ourselves we had a 1 bed flat and no children- packing took ages. We started a few weeks earlier, but just a couple of hours a night as both working. It was the wrapping up of plates and glasses etc. on the day (we only moved half a mile) we had 3 extra helpers and we didn't finish till late in the day (by the end things were being chucked in bin bags all jumbled up as we were running out of time.

The next time (from 3 bed house, no DCs) we got packers. It was so quick and efficient I nearly wept for the hours my past self had spent trying to do it! I def felt that the money (about £1,000) was worth every penny. (As opposed to other moving costs eg estate agent or mortgage fees!)

I would never contemplate not using packers now with a toddler - but a friend with 3 DCs recently did (she is made of sterner stuff - and they were a school age so she had some dedicated time each time)

Good luck persuading DH!

No question - get the packers in! I think the previous poster is including the actual removal costs in the £1000 as our removals was less than £1000 for a very full 3 bed including packing (I think the packing added about £300, so £900 total instead of £600 if that makes sense) - it was not a long distance move.

My friends moved themselves but they owned both houses and therefore could do it in stages. If you need to literally be living in one place up until the morning of the move then be up and running in another place by the end of the day with 2 young children I actually am not sure it is physically possible without some professional help. Removalists allow for you to have your essential belongings out at each end of the day at your respective homes so that you can actually function normally. You could maybe sell it that you would save money on a hotel by using packers and removalists!!

we moved last month. i spent a couple of hours per week for 3 weeks decluttering and one afternoon packing breakable stuff and books. Dhaka packed the rest of the house in 2-3 hours the night before the move. we moved from a 2 bed to a 3 bed with a toddler.
we did 3 van loads in a morning (moved locally) with 3 people.
packing and moving was fine but my dh and dbro did not follow my instructions to put the furniture and boxes in the right rooms and so unpacking has been a nightmare and the house has been chaotic for way longer than needed

Get packers - don't pack anything yourself. Everything the packers do is insured. You don't need to do anything except declutter and utilities.

The thing with packing is it starts off really easy - you put all your books in some boxes, then realise you can't lift the boxes and pack them again into smaller ones with some DVDs/CDs thrown in and it's taken maybe a couple of hours...there's a few empty shelves and you smile smugly and think this is going to be a piece of cake.

...but then you look around what's left which let's face it will be about 90% of your stuff. These are the things which aren't convenient rectangles, are fragile, distract you as get start looking at them and reminiscing and in the next couple of hours you've done maybe one more box . Perhaps with a couple of piles of things to 'sort out later' or to 'squeeze into other boxes' and now it looks like you still have 95% of your stuff to pack. This bit will take forever and then about double that original forever. Also you'll find that even if you start say 4 days before you move, on day 3 you'll realise that a) you've packed something essential and you have to get it out and b) there is no way you are going to get the rest done by the day you move...

...and that's without realising that bubble wrap never goes as far as you think and costs a flippin fortune.

Seriously - get packers in - they come the day before and last week our 4 bedroomed house (with a utility room and storeroom full of other 'stuff') took them about 5 hours. Nothing got broken in the move and it was (as it was the time before) the best money we spent on the whole house move.

Get packers - or at the very least get the removal company to quote for a move and a move+pack. It is worth the extra money - moved 3 bed house twice in 18 months - packers both time stress free!

1-2 days will be fine. Provided you do NOTHING else all day and don't go through stuff, just shove it in boxes.

It might be a little stressful, however.

I've moved several times and we've packed up an entire house in two days before now.

Once you've got the stuff - boxes, etc, just shoving everything into them is easy.

We've moved a few times now, each time to a bigger house. Last time was last month, family of 5 to a 5-bed house. First time I've ever used packers (cost about £200 extra) & I can't say this loud enough - I will never ever move without them again

They came in the day before for the whole day (team of 3), then finished off the next morning & we were out by 11. I had a fully functioning kitchen until about 10.

Take the advice of everyone on Mumsnet who has had it done

I did a 3 bed semi in 8 days.

I put kids in cm & friends for whole time. Don't do otherwise !

Get movers and packers. And pack the 4yo with fave toy off to family or friends for the day.
Pack as much as you can in boxes supplied by movers, then they will be able to move them and finish the job faster, ie cheaper.

Best money I spent in years.