When to start packing and in what order?

[Dizzylizzie29]

Hello
We have had offer accepted on property, mortgage offer and survey done. Searches have started. Just wondering when others started packing up and what they did first?I'm thinking seasonal/loft stuff first?
We are time poor, both working full time with husband working away every other weekend,and two young dc and not much leave left this side of financial year. We will be doing man and van (moving a few miles away)and we have plenty of boxes ready to go
When did everyone else start and did it work out ok?

I would start week before as you will need most stuff still surely. Pack seasonal clothing, plus surplus. Pack decorative stuff like vases and candles and pictures you don't need as such. Pack up all kitchen stuff expect basics ie just eat basic for a week, so can pack all baking stuff, blenders, pans etc. Just keep enough to eat and basic prep for a week.

I think in the interim then I should start culling stuff. New house is bigger but if we haven't used used it then we probably won't
Would be ideal time to eBay/Facebook sell but I bloody hate it and will probably end up giving to charity to avoid the stress

I would charity unless making a huge amount selling. The small profit isn't usually worth your time and effort (pictures, waiting,selling, packaging, posting). Bag and dump at charity or bin

Start now by getting rid of as much as possible.

Week before..... I packed up a three bed house, two adults, heavily decluttered (or so I thought) and it took best part of two weeks full time to do it properly! This did include shifting garden kit to new places and sourcing boxes.

You dont know you are definitely going yet, but never too early to reduce.

I'd start packing up stuff you don't really need now just so there's a bit less to do, which I'd include summer clothes and stuff in.

We did the garage and loft first. Then the books (we had 6 tall bookcases ). Then moved on to things like surplus duvets and towels - just keeping the bare minimum unpacked.

I'd start decluttering now.
Be ruthless, I ditched my wedding dress, it had been in suitcase for thirty years, was a size 8 and no one wants a late seventies Princess Anne style frock.

The man cave (garage) took a week to pack, I wanted to hire a skip and bin the lot but DH vetoed that idea.

The big blue Ikea bags are great for bedding, towels, clothing, etc.
Those big woven plastic zipped laundry bags are just as good If you don't have any Ikea bags or live too far away from an Ikea store.
You can find them in hardware shops for around £2 or £3 each.

I left clothing in their drawers, removed the drawers from the chest and taped a bin bag over the tops to stop the contents falling out. Made it easier to sort out at the other end, remove the bin bags, put the drawers back into their chests, job done.

Those vacuum bags are good for bulky stuff like pillows, duvets, soft toys, you don't need to get expensive ones, the ones from the £ shop are fine for the length of time you'll be using them for.

Ah wedding dresses
There's a company that make gowns for sleeping babies you can donate them to, just need to remember the name of them.
Will start decluttering today.

I start as soon as mortgage offer and searches have started. I start with the office and pack up books and paperwork that isn't important and we don't need, then I do pictures and ornaments, I cull the kitchen and everything that isn't necessary gets packed. Next the loft comes down and everything is packed away, kids rooms leaving clothes and 1 or 2 toys to play with and our room, everything that isn't necessary is packed.
This usually takes us up to around 1-2 weeks before and I start packing everything away. Once we have a moving date I keep only the clothes the kids and we will need, a favourite you and we ear off paper plates and plastic cutlery.
All beds are taken down the night before and we sleep on air beds, all furniture and boxes are bought down into a designated room the day before and upstairs is cleaned and a no go area. On the morning we literally pack the van, do a quick sweep cleaning down stairs are are out. Everything apart from a bag of toiletries and the clothes we need is packed the day before.

....I've been told I'm a bit too organised though our last house move, the van turned up at 8.30 and we were out by 10am.

I remove drawers and wrap in clean by film so I can just put them back in the unit when we move in. Take apart any furniture you won't be using, we took apart dining table and just had meals on our knees. For anything you take apart out all screws etc into sandwich bags and then tape onto the furniture it is for.

I'm.packing non essential stuff now. I started as soon as I instructed the solicitors and got the mortgage offer. I'm still doing it at a leisurely pace; box a night type of thing but will step it up when we get a date to work towards. At the moment I've only done books, media, collectables, china and glass. I'm also giving back everything I've borrowed and sending stuff to charity as well as filtering the contents of the loft. This is my first move since 1987!

I'm getting there! Charity and tip run today. The new house is bigger but I have so much stuff that I just don't want or need any more. Would rather it be bare with only a few things I love than lugging around boxes that make me frustrated when I open them

Managed to make it into the loft. 4 years of stuff we haven't used are slowly coming down. Trying to not get gooey and sentimental over things 👍

No point in spending money on moving stuff you don't want.

A lot if kitchen stuff can be packed away too. Will you need cake tins, bread tins, pastry cutters etc? All but the essential crockery. Pack the spare stuff and the stuff you keep for best.
Pack all books except for the ones you are reading (although not in the same box)
All DVDs and CDs. Out of season clothes. Out of season bed linen. Shoes that you won't need, like dress shoes or walking boots.

Omg one week before! It took me weeks and weeks and In the last fortnight I was on my knees trying to get it done in time for moving day.

I was seriously downsizing though and I did it all single handedly (single parent.)

I sold a lot of my furniture about 6 weeks before. I used gumtree and it was simple as people just called to collect it and gave me the cash. I gave loads to charity and chucked loads too.

Agree re packing up things like kitchen things you can do without, books, Christmas stuff, photos, ornaments etc.

Also try to be ahead of yourself with cleaning up eg kitchen cupboards. I left all that till the end when I should have done it as I went along.

write what is in every box on every side, you can guarantee if you only write on the top and one side, that is the side that is tucked away from you. If you have a fragile box make it the top box in the stack, lots of bubble wrap and tape.