Packing up a house - your tips please?

[Tillymintsmama]

My house sale is at enquiries and draft contracts stage and altho I feel like I'm jinxing/pre-empting things I just have got to do something so I've started decluttering and packing.

I have just become aware of what mammoth task this is!

I have so many silly q's - will I need to fully empty fridge/freezer (if so I can start to eat the stuff in it from now....), do I have to take clothes out of wardrobes and chests of drawers? If stuff needs dismantling to get down the stairs, like my bed, do the removers do it on the day?

I feel like I need a system but at the moment I am using scattergun approach! Would appreciate any tips.

My best advice is see if you can afford packers. They will do everything except the decluttering.

Have a thorough clear out, getting rid of stuff you no longer need/want. Then pay removal guys to pack.

They prefer it when they pack as all the boxes will be uniform sizes so easier for them to stack, they will know what's in them so heavy/light, they won't overload them, they will pack breakables better than you would.

It's makes the whole job easier for them if they've packed so it's really not that much more expensive and so so so worth it.

They will pack everything though, rubbish too, absolutely everything. You won't need to empty drawers/wardrobes/cupboards. They do it all.

If you're anywhere near bucks/Oxon/Berks I can recommend a good company

Are you going to be packing yourself and just having movers on the day or are you going to get the movers to pack for you? If I were moving again I'd definitely pay the extra and get them to pack.
If that's not an option, one thing I found very useful was to get a little notebook, number every page, and then number every box and write in the notebook a brief summary of what is in the box. it's very helpful in the days and weeks unpacking. Also anything you stick in the loft to deal with later, it can save you hours hunting through every box, as you just refer to your notebook and find the correct numbered box.

Packers? See I didn't even know they existed! Would they literally pack up the tins in my kitchen cupboards and my underwear??!!

I've had a quote for £300 for removals - moving from 2 bed to 4 bed 1/2 mile down the road. Do packers cost way more than this?

£300 is very cheap. Is that a man-with-a-van type service? Are they insured?

We paid an extra £300 for the full packing service but the full removal cost was a grand

But yes, they will pack everything from tins to knickers
The only thing ours wouldn't do was the fridge and freezer contents because they didn't want to be held responsible for food getting warm
We just ran down the contents and put everything into a freezer bag in the boot of the car

If you can afford it get packers, it's one less thing to worry about at an already stressful time. Run down fridge and freezer. Also go through every room and check everything to see if it's really needed (my rule was if it hasn't been used in the past year it went, except sentimental items).
We discovered a box in the loft that hadn't been unpacked since 1990, 3 moves ago! It was full of broken bits and bobs, including a sony walkman, I suppose if we kept it for another 30 years a museum may have been interested.

I'm in the NW and only moving 1/2 a like down the road. It was a quote from a "proper" removals company not a man with a van.

A like? A mile .... bloody autocorrect!

Get someone else to do it 😂
Packers all the way

You have to prepare for the packers though.
Stick post-it’s on anything you want to do yourself to avoid unpacking a bowl of rotten fruit 2 weeks later

I hate using packers! There's no organisation to it in my experience. We were unpacking my husband's socks from the same box as the roasting trays. Far more stuff was damaged than has ever been when I've self packed.

Ours were great. Labelled the boxes as per each room and left them in the correct room at the new house, even all the junk for the garage. Took beds apart and reassembled them.

I hate using packers! There's no organisation to it in my experience.

Total opposite of my experience! They were incredibly methodical (and terrifyingly fast) and everything ended up in a box in more or less the right room (allowing for the fact we were moving to a house with double the number of rooms).

We've moved twice. I am never moving again!!! But if I do, I will get packers. We did for our second move and they were brilliant. They packed absolutely everything from the contents of garden shed to the food. I wish I had thrown stuff away before they came though as the contents of my kitchen drawer e.g. Elastic bands, random clips, pens, Lego pieces, were all packed, and if I had done the packing, I would just have chucked all that. But it was so worth it.

its the best time to get rid off things that you don't need. pack yourself and label boxes. you will have a fresh start at new home.

Get packers if you can. Everything packed by location in the house and labelled, nothing broken.

They were thorough, little bundles of odds and ends in bubble wrap.

Good boxes and all the heavy lifting

I'd be v surprised if the extra for packers was £300. We moved 7 years ago and I remember it being about £600 difference even then (so we packed ourselves).

My tip would be the label each box on every side and the top - so no matter which way it's stacked, you can still see the label. We just put the room and then one word - so "kitchen - crockery" or "front bedroom - toys" etc. Put the kettle / coffee / mugs etc in a box in your car so its to hand (with essentials like matches/ toilet roll / cleaning supplies). We also arranged for the beds to be the last thing loaded onto the removal van (so they'd be first off at new house), and had all the family's bedding in the boot of my car so that we'd be able to make up everyone's beds as a priority and whatever else happened, we'd all be able to go to bed!

namechanged
I've just checked our quotes and to move a 4 bed house in London this summer, the difference between the move-only and pack-and-move Service was between £300-400

For that, they did all the packing with their own materials, and then came back a few days later to collect the boxes and bubble wrap

I couldn't afford packers so did I it all myself. (I moved last month)

Ask the removals company about mirrors/paintings sorts of things. I spent ages wrapping them all but I'm not sure I needed to as the movers had special padded bags for all that sort of thing.

We had to dismantle beds but not drawers. We didn't have wardrobes but I'd expect those would need dismantled. DH forgot to empty his drawers from his chest of drawers and they moved the whole thing! But I emptied all the others as I think as a rule they do want them emptied.

For breakable stuff I wrapped in bubble wrap and then scrunched newspaper up to pad the boxes. Nothing broke at all!

we emptied fridge and freezer, took shelves out and wrapped them. Turned it off the day before as that's what I read when googling house moves!

Label every box with a chunky marker pen. I had the room in huge letters but often added more detail in smaller writing so I could find the pots and pans or the box with all the extension cables easily.

Good luck with the move (however you do it)!

I moved in SW London in 2013, the pack-and move (only 500 metres down the road!) was £200 more expensive than self-packing for a (large and cluttered) 2-bed flat.

Completely worth it.

OP, the other thing to check will be whether your movers will disassemble/reassemble furniture for you. Ours did and it made the move a thousand times easier. The toddler’s cot was ready when he got home from nursery, our bed only needed the sheets putting on, our massive desk/bookcase was ready for unpacking. Total dream and they were so fast.

If you can possibly afford packers it really is worth it IMO.
If not my top tip is to label the sides of boxes so that when they're stacked up you can see the label. Oh and label them with the room you want them to end up in, take pre-prepared labels to put on the door frames so the movers know which is Bedroom 3 etc so the box goes in the right room.

I moved last year and found a company who charged by the hour for packing, so I could pack as much as I could mange without stressing as I knew they'd finish off, but the more I did the less it cost.

If you can it's worth buying some sheets of sticky labels for the printer and printing off whole sheets of labels e.g. 'Books - living room', then when you've packed a box you can stick labels on each side and the top, it's much quicker than writing on with pen.

Amazon sell good sized packing boxes 12x12x18 for under £1 per box if you buy in bulk, they're much easier to stack when they're all the same size. Get double walled though. They also sell large rolls of bubble wrap. I found a packing tape gun great for sealing boxes, much easier than constantly looking for the end of the tape on the roll!

Having just moved - packed myself and hired removal men for the move itself - my tip is to label the boxes as I forgot this bit. Unpacking has been a nightmare.

Regarding fridge and freezer - eat empty, switch off ,clean and dry. Both need to stand for a while before being switched on again. Run down all food stocks.

Get rid of stuff.