Last minute moving prep tips? What have I forgotten?

[KitKat1985]

Moving house on Thursday. Due to a cock up with a solicitor higher up in the chain, we should have moved last month whilst I had leave from work, but instead having to do it now. We only exchanged last Weds and I've been working full time, and I've only really got a couple of days off work to move in, so all feeling a bit hectic and I've got that 'I've forgotten something important' feeling. Not helped by having 3 and 1 year old DD's too who are both adding to the general chaos.

We have packers coming on Wednesday (thank God) to do most of the packing for us, but I've packed up some essentials to put aside before they arrive (mugs and tea / coffee supplies etc, and some cleaning stuff so I can quickly blitz clean each room once all the stuff has been removed). Packed some clothes, toiletries, nappies etc in a case for me and the kids (DH will do his own) so I have some essentials for the first couple of days so we don't have to wade through boxes to find bare essentials.

I've set up post re-direction. DH is off work tomorrow so I've asked him to call the utility companies we use to tell them of our move / finalise accounts etc.

But yet I feel like I've forgotten something. Is there anything glaringly obvious I've missed. Any little tips to make the move run easier?

Broadband? Presumably you've insured the new place from exchange as is the norm. Place an online shopping order for delivery the day after you moved. Run down the food in the freezer. Anything left you can pack in insulated bags with cold packs. Do any laundry now and get it dried and put away.

Do a box for the car with a plate, bowl, cutlery and mug/cup each, plus a chopping board and sharp knife. Nothing worse than getting to the new place and having to search through all the kitchen boxes just to have fish and chips that night or a bowl of cereal in the morning.

Make sure you all have appropriate shoes kept out. My BIL got moved and the kids school shoes got packed and couldn't be found on monday morning!

Agree re:kids shoes etc. I’d also Leave all your duvet covers on your bedding, pack all current bedding together and ensure your beds are assembled before anything else once in situ. That way, you can collapse into bed should it all be a bit overwhelming. Take cleaning equipment, hoover etc in the car with you so that should the house you are moving into inevitably be left in a worse condition that the one you just left clean, you aren’t waiting for that box to be unloaded. Make sure you take all valuables and passports in the car with you too. Good luck with the move!

Ooh thank you for these tips. Definitely good advice about the shoes, and our important documents like passports etc!

Food shop ordered for Friday.

Broadband / phone was sorted for our previous moving date last month and we've had our phoneline subsequently cut off since then.....

Hey @KitKat1985
So pleased you are finally on the move! I know from the other threads it's been very stressful!
In addition to all the good advice you've been given:

• Check with your removal company for their policy on liquids. We only found out on the day of our move that ours were not insured to transport open liquids (think alcohol and cleaning fluids) so suddenly we had to pack up our car with lots of bottles. (In fact we had to leave a lot with neighbours and collect later due to lack of space!).

• Depending on where you are moving to it might be helpful to give the movers a copy of your new floorplan and then get them to mark up boxes from certain rooms correspondingly with the new house. That way they know which room in your new house to put everything. This is especially useful if you are moving to a property with more/less rooms than you currently have.

• Having moved with two small children as well - get the packers to pack up the kids stuff that you need for the first night in a clearly marked box. That way you can get their beds set up with their covers/favourite teddies/night light at least.

Good luck

Thank you OneDay. It's been a long, stressful process to get to this point (nearly a year!) and I'm so itching to get this done now!

Interesting point about the liquids and removers. Will have to check our T&C on our removals company on that one.

Will definitely make sure to keep the kids teddies out. DD1 loves her toy sheep at bedtime and DD2 her toy cat, so must make sure they don't get shoved in a box and not found for days or we will have lots of tears. Lol!

We were also a year from start to finish. For a few weeks after we moved I kept thinking someone was going to knock on the door and tell us there has been a mistake as we'd need to move to our old house!
Almost 5 months in now and all the pain has become a distant memory!

Put aside some toys / books to amuse the kids in the car and while you unpack, along with drinks and snacks.

Also tips / add crate of cold beer for the movers to food shop delivery to arrive at new place!

Make sure that the food delivery is to the new address as recently recommended on another thread.

Thank you for these tips. They really are awesome. Thankfully the DDs are in nursery on Thursday (as it's normally a work day for me) so we don't have to worry too much about entertaining them on the day.

Our ahem personal items have been put in a plain brown box in DH's car so they are out of the way.

Got to go and do a double shift now (14 hours). But will check in when I get home. Will also attempt to declutter tomorrow a bit whilst packers are here (although that may be optimistic)...