When do you start packing?

[LillyBugg]

I'm in a short chain of only two properties, three parties. I'm therefore hopeful that things shouldn't take too long to go through buries head in sand. When should I start packing?! DH said wait for exchange just in case. But don't some properties complete within like a week of exchange? Isn't that fairly normal? I feel like I'm waiting for some kind of cue to start packing up my life all our crap but I don't know what I'm waiting for?

We started packing when we had the offer accepted - started with all the stuff that was around that was rarely used and could happily sit in boxes for a few months. We stacked everything in the spare room and it meant that we didn't have a mad panic at the end (because packing up your entire life takes waaaaay longer than you ever anticipate)

We decluttered very well before marketing the house and hired a small storage unit for all the excess stuff.
Had four weeks between exchange and completion, removal company are delivering boxes 7 days before the move and bringing wardrobe boxes on the day. If you dedicate a couple of full days to packing and don’t have the faff of sorting as you go you can easily power through it without having to live with boxes everywhere, not being able to find stuff etc for weeks.

I literally have no space to be storing boxes unfortunately. Also we are now on offer number two after the first chain fell apart so I'm glad I didn't start packing straight away!
Four weeks sounds quite reasonable! And I am having a clear out. Trying to sell all the baby stuff on Facebook. What a joy that is.

My answer would have to be.... don't! Get packers to do it for you instead. Paying for packing does not add that much on to most removal quotes. These guys are experts, can do it way quicker than you will and won't get distracted by looking at the stuff as they pack. They also come and do the packing in the day r two before completion, which means ou can live pretty normally until then.

The main thing to do at the moment is declutter. Get rid of anything that you don't want to move. Tip, charity sop, sell it, whatever. And if you can tidy out and organise your cupboards that will make professional packing go even faster.

As for the time between exchange and completion, that is for all parties to agree. If the others in the chain want 1 week, you don't have to agree to that. Two weeks is actually fairly common too, which gives more time for arranging stuff.

We exchanged on Monday and we're due to complete today. Sat here waiting for that phone call saying we can collect the keys! We're still not packed! but then we do have a 3 week overlap with our current tenancy. Obviously not everyone has the luxury of overlap, but it definitely makes things easier: plenty of time for cleaning and decorating before we move our crap belongings in.
If we didn't have the overlap I would probably start packing 5-7 days before completion, starting with all non-essentials.

We exchanged on Monday and we're due to complete today. Sat here waiting for that phone call saying we can collect the keys! We're still not packed! but then we do have a 3 week overlap with our current tenancy. Obviously not everyone has the luxury of overlap, but it definitely makes things easier: plenty of time for cleaning and decorating before we move our crap belongings in.
If we didn't have the overlap I would probably start packing 5-7 days before completion, starting with all non-essentials.

We exchanged on Monday and we're due to complete today. Sat here waiting for that phone call saying we can collect the keys! We're still not packed! but then we do have a 3 week overlap with our current tenancy. Obviously not everyone has the luxury of overlap, but it definitely makes things easier: plenty of time for cleaning and decorating before we move our crap belongings in.
If we didn't have the overlap I would probably start packing 5-7 days before completion, starting with all non-essentials.

We exchanged on Monday and we're due to complete today. Sat here waiting for that phone call saying we can collect the keys! We're still not packed! but then we do have a 3 week overlap with our current tenancy. Obviously not everyone has the luxury of overlap, but it definitely makes things easier: plenty of time for cleaning and decorating before we move our crap belongings in.
If we didn't have the overlap I would probably start packing 5-7 days before completion, starting with all non-essentials.

Sadly DH won't agree to a packing service. Or removals for that matter.

How are you planning on moving then? And how much stuff do you have to move? Why does your husband object to removals? If you are moving out of a fully furnished rental and only have your "stuff" then it may be do-able but "self-moving" anything more almost always ends in disaster (plenty of "moving day disaster" threads are testament to that). If you are the middle party in the chain (so selling and buying) you'll need to be out of your old house all in one go. There won't be an overlap so you can do multiple runs in a small van. People always underestimate the task of moving. Unless you genuinely have minimalist possessions, I think your husband might need to give his head a wobble.

I agree with Caroian. All very well objecting but is he going to do his share? It is 1. horrible and stressful packing things and being surrounded by boxes; and 2. bloody hard work moving yourselves. It always takes longer than you think. Paying for removals is a no brainer. Paying a bit more for them to pack for you is a smart move.

You honestly don't need to convince me. I agree with all of your arguments. But he's got two friends willing to take time off work. Two vans and a small truck/lorry type thing. So he reckons it can be done. I have agreed as long as he takes full responsibility for the move and over plans in the time we will need as he is notoriously shit at estimating how long things take.

We are the middle person in the chain. So a first time buyer is buying ours and we are moving into the last property of the chain where the family are moving to rented.

We were second in a chain of 3 houses and our sale had gone through shortly after 11.30am. The buyers collected the keys from us as we were leaving at 11.45.

It's a long, hard and sweaty job moving belongings from one house to another. It takes much longer than you think.

Does he realise that professional movers usually pack up and load a very significant proportion of the average 3 or 4 bed house the day before completion because it is not possible to load it all in the morning before you need to be out? They then store your items securely overnight. So where does your husband propose to securely store most of your worldly possessions overnight before you move?

Does he also realise that the average household contents insurance policy does not cover you for self removals? So all of your worldly possessions will be uninsured whilst being loaded, stored, moved and unloaded. Professional removals have insurance to cover your stuff. I suppose you could find insurance to cover them, but the cost would be a chunk towards just paying someone else to do the hard work!

However if he is determined to pursue this rather daft plan then your question is not when should you start to pack, but when should he start to pack.

One time we packed before we exchanged.
Buyer pulled out.
Unpacking in the same property is really depressing.

So I'd tidy up, have a sort out, but not pack boxes until exchange personally.

We had packers. We have tons of stuff and it was around £700.

We had a potential date in May so started packing, but that didn't go ahead, in the end we had 2 weeks from final date being proposed, but it was about a week confirmed.

Exchanged Mon, completed yesterday (wed)

I had a quote for packing and removals that came in at just over £1000. That was the cheapest I could get. Removals are about £700 where I live. To be fair to DH that is a lot of money. I have gone through with him pretty much everything you've said apart from the insurance issue which I wasn't aware of. Obviously he won't be loading up the night before, it will all have to be done in the morning.

Get packers! Find it in your budget for packers..we recently moved packers came in the day before, we went out to lunch came back enjoyed our last night stress free and the next day moved.

Just make sure you declutter before they arrive.

I am sitting here surrounded by boxes. Started packing seriously about a month ago, moving next week when building work is finished in our house, lukcily the house we are leaving is a family house so no massive need to get everything out on the day, if we had to I would have gone the packers route

We exchangd and completed in 48hrs! Not recommended.

It was the worst move I've ever had. Took two big vans and we packed ourselves starting weeks before. I learned:

Declutter like hell. Get rid of allthe junk asap.
Get professiobal packers in
Keep a bag of key documents, precious items etc with you on the day
Label ethg and make sure removal people know which rooms etc they will go in
Don't marry a hoarder (DH retro games took up the whole 2nd van and now occupy our massive double loft). Casettes, videos, 1000s of copies of old magazines were among his hoarde. Never again would I be OK with bringing so much when I was ruthless about getting rid of baby items

I’ve been packing one or two boxes each day for two weeks and we’ve got 8 weeks until settlement (we’ In Australia so the system seems slightly different). I am trying to organise and declutter as we go!

48hrs from exchange to completion

We started packing about a month before, we were buying a new build so had a fairly definite completion date, we just packed stuff we knew we wouldn't need. Then the week leading up to moving we packed everything else.