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Original poster

Who does all the house moving arrangements and admin in your house?

14 replies

etoiledemer · 03/07/2015 08:03

I work nearly full-time yet I have arranged all the estate agents' viewings, valuations and negotiations, organised and liaised with solicitors, arranged the mortgage, removals, change of address stuff - absolutely everything.

My DH is a willing participant in the move but gets away with delegating all the hard work to me. Is it the same in everyone's house?

OP posts:
sianihedgehog · 03/07/2015 09:35

I work full time and am 8 months pregnant and it's me who does it all, too. OH is useless at remembering to do admin and complains bitterly about having to make phone calls and stuff during work hours, and loses interest very quickly in tasks like house hunting.

Bragadocia · 03/07/2015 09:40

DH did it all for the two moves we have done together. He'd owned twice before he met me, so he knew all the processes, and so he just got on with it. We viewed a dozen houses together and he arranged all the viewings. I will try to contribute more next time, but it just seems to make sense to have one informed person run it all rather than two of us doing bits and pieces.

BitterChocolate · 03/07/2015 09:46

I did it all last time, but I was a SAHM. It was a complicated move, to another country but keeping the flat we were in. I had to divide every room into things that were going and things that were staying, and write a list to stick on every door so the packers knew, plus post-it notes on drawers and cupboards with whether the contents had to be packed or not. H had two tasks, firstly to go through his paperwork, edit it down and divide it into a pile to take with us and a pile to leave in the flat. Secondly, to take the DC out for the day while the removal men were packing.

He spent hours reading through his paperwork, and then left it all there. I didn't bother having it packed. He came home an hour after he'd left on packing day saying that he'd forgotten something, then he sat down at his desk and started making business calls. Shock In the meantime the packers couldn't do anything because the DC were running around. He got short shrift from me. Grin

If we were moving again I would still do it all myself, in a way it's easier for just one person to do it because then you know that it's done. Asking H to do anything just means that it gets left until the very last minute and then done badly.

Belleview · 03/07/2015 10:05

Asking H to do anything just means that it gets left until the very last minute and then done badly.

This is the case in my house too... Or in fact the situation has morphed into The Next Stage now and I should say
" asking H to do anything just means that I hear a sigh and I know it won't get done for months, if at all"

Original poster
etoiledemer · 03/07/2015 10:13

Yes, you know that old joke where the husband says: "Stop nagging, I've said I'll do it and I will. You don't have to keep asking me every six months". That's definitely true for our house.

OP posts:
ladyanne · 03/07/2015 10:19

We've only moved house once but DH handled most of the official side, though I dealt with viewings as I was at home. We each dealt with our own change of address, and I organised removals.

DH tends to do most of the household admin and bills, but as I'm at home during the day it's often easier for me to do things that need doing during the working day.

Belleview · 03/07/2015 10:27

Grin I'm going to use that joke, etoile, Thankyou. Made me laugh.

PlainHunting · 03/07/2015 11:12

Dh - arranging mortgage and ensuring money is in the right bank account at the right time.

Everything else - me

Apatite1 · 03/07/2015 11:26

DH does all the boring things. I do fun things like picking the colour for the walls.

nickEcave · 03/07/2015 12:13

My DH is full-time and I am part-time with 2 school aged children. I got the valuations done, liaised with estate agents, organised all our viewings and decluttered and prepared our house for sale and am organising the removals. He organised the mortgage which meant a lot of time on the phone during working hours which he can get away with as more senior and he does most of the liasing with the solicitors. I think it was split quite fairly given that I'm at home more to do things like getting removal quotes, cleaning and meeting EAs etc.

ReallyNotAMorningPerson · 03/07/2015 12:14

So far we've been somewhat equitable with our house moving tasks though if I want something done really quickly and DH has been allotted the task I do feel the need to check up / prod him, IYSWIM.

220hawthorn · 03/07/2015 16:18

Me. While he waxes lyrical about how stressful it is!

SpecialHandsMummy · 03/07/2015 21:22

We've moved recently and it was probably quite evenly split. We both decluttered and fixed up things and painted ahead of putting our house on the market. My dh arranged valuations and we were both present for 2 out of the 3. I did the 3rd one on my own. We then put our house on the market and went away for 2 weeks hols. EA did all viewings and we'd accepted an offer by the time we got back - that was brilliant and we avoided having to keep house spotless all the time. Dh then arranged most of the viewings of new houses and we both went along. I did all the liaising with the solicitor, arranged our survey, and he dealt with both EAs. We split the packing, cleaning (old house), unpacking and yet more cleaning (new house) 50:50.

Tbh, I couldn't have managed it all on my own and would probably resent dh if I'd had to. We both work parttime.

arnieschwartzsnogger · 03/07/2015 22:12

All me and I work full on full time...

I sorted out the mortgage, got the estate agents in to value our property, sorted out viewings on our house and houses we were looking at. I arranged the removal men.

I can't hang around waiting for DH. We'd still be in our old house otherwise...

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