Can anyone who has moved themselves help?

[Everywhichway2018]

We are going to move ourselves as the quote for removals was more than the value of our stuff - leaving a lot behind.

Can anyone recommend what I need and where to get it please?

Our buyer wants to exchange and complete next week so I am totally overwhelmed with how much now needs to be done.

Why not try hire a van and 2 men rather than a removals company? Would be a lot cheaper.

I have just moved last week. We were going to do it ourselves as it was only 5 mins up the road, but that was insane. It was hell, even with a van & 2 men!

We hired a van for a week and did lots of journeys. We paid some of my sons pals to help lug the heavy stuff. Try to borrow or buy a sack barrow for white goods.
If you can hire a van with a tail lift that will help.

Yeo - man and van. I found a good one through word of mouth, and now I wouldn't move without him. It will be knackering to do it yourself.

Whatever you decide - get proper boxes. I've done it before with a random selection of bags and boxes nicked from Sainsbury's. doing it that way means that you fit a lot less in the van and things are more likely to break.

When you say leaving things behind... you don't mean just abandoning them in the house, right? Caus that would piss off your landlord/ buyer no end!!

Last time I actually bought 20 of the strurdy 39p Aldi bags and used them for kitchen ware, ornaments etc
Got a load of pop thingy pouches to wrap delicate stuff in
Hired a van with tail lift and paid 2 blokes to help dh
House was empty so did a garden run the day before to get plants and garden furniture in place which helped.

How far are you moving? I've only ever moved myself and done it 3 times! But have only been moving a few miles away.

Hire a van either for the week or weekend. Get the biggest one you can drive legally (DH is a HGV driver so can drive massive one!) Make lots of trips. Take the largest items first. Have every thing packed and ready to go prior to moving day. If you can get friends and family into help you. But only pick people who will actually help, not just mill around and be nosey like my in-laws did the first time we moved.

We just bought lots of cardboard packing boxes, bubble wrap and tape from a firm that supplies them and hired a lorry for a few days. I think Argos does the boxes too.

We moved on a Monday and hired it from the Saturday so that we had loads of time to put stuff on the lorry. There were two of us packing and four unloading. It was absolutely fine. We did start the decluttering and packing weeks before, but it was a case of fitting it around other things. I quite enjoyed it.

We just wrote in pen on each box roughly what was in each one. It all gets unloaded so it didn't really matter that we didn't know exactly.

I would just get going as soon as you can and don't worry about it being neat or perfect a professional packing service would just ruthlessly put everything in and not attempt to sort anything.

Ask on your local Facebook group if anybody has moving boxes or packing materials to pass on, rather than buying new.

Otherwise try this company to order boxes, we found them really good: www.eco-boxes.co.uk

Use linens/towels etc to wrap your valuables.

Don’t overpack your boxes - eg you may need to put in some books, then fill the rest with clothes so they’re not too heavy.

Have an “essentials” box that you pack up last thing, and unpack first - eg loo roll, kettle, biscuits, mugs.

Clean your new place before you move anything in.

Hire a van yourself and get some friends to help. Done that a few times myself and never an issue. Even friends who can't lift heavy furniture can still help, either with the light stuff or just watching the van to protect it from opportunist thieves.

We did this twice with quite a lot of stuff! It was really hard work but we saved a lot. We hired a van sat morning until mon morning and we must have made about 12 journeys back and forth about 20 mins each way.

I bought lots of those laundry bags, square sturdy checked ones and put as much as I could in those. Bought a big pack of boxes, huge roll of bubble wrap and some packing blankets.

I always seemed to have more stuff than I imagined I had.

@hiacynthia all of our white goods are intergrated, we are dumping our sofas (old) and selling our wardrobes (new property has built in).

We are moving 200 miles away so I think a man and a van will work out expensive being a 400 mile round trip.

@PalePinkSwan I have put a request on fb and will also check out that site. Thanks

@MissTulipan the laundry bags are a fantastic idea! Can you remember where you got them?

To add to the stress, our house won't be ready for a least a month so we are moving in with family and keeping our stuff in their garage!

I got them in one of those shops that sell loads of random things, cheap stuff and mend mobile phones etc.
I think I also got some in Morrisons too. Check pound shops as well.

Yes she done it entirely ourselves with no friends or family around or willing!

Clean new house before moving boxes in if you have time.

Don't underestimate how long it takes to unpack. if there dust around you might not want to unpack clothes so keep a few days of clothes handy.

Keep one box or bag for everyday things like your toiletries, chargers etc

Definitely ask the van hire people if they have one of those trolley things for hire, my husband moved everything, including our bed, on one of those. Life saver.

The kitchen was the most work to pack and unpack, so many things and fragile stuff, allow plenty of time. Use tea towels to wrap things. Kitchen boxes get heavy quickly, don't over pack the fragile boxes!

You can hire Luton vans from most rental companies such as enterprise. They Will allow you to take them one way (about an addition £100) on top of the rental. You need a normal licence and normally over about 30 to drive it. They tend to have a tail lift. You will tend to pay a deposit (about £200 ish) and an excess for damage if you damage the van (about £750), the rental company will offer an excess protection of about £15 p/d but scout about online and you can often get them from a separate company for about £10
For a 30 day rental.

Boxes from supermarkets are free and take to the tip for recycling after. Banana boxes are strong for glasswear or crockery etc. Don't stack boxes to high (you want to be able to stack stuff on top of them), and label boxes (so kitchen; plates, towels etc) makes is easier when working out what room you need stuff in. Also ask on f/b see if anyone is getting rid of boxes. I've moved 5 times in 10 years and never paid for boxes.

If your going to struggle with heavy lifting maybe put a few messages out locally and pay a few people to help on the loading end and then others to help on the other side.

Make sure you leave a box of essentials to hand; so cleaning bits, mugs, kettle, loo roll etc. You may need to clean the new property before moving in so keep the hoover in a handy space.

We did this and it was just awful. We were only moving a mile too, and had massively decluttered so didn't have much stuff and we didn't have to be out in one day. We could only use a transit though, as our drive is too narrow for anything larger, so it may be easier if you have a bigger van. It really was awful and if we move again i will be insisting on movers.

I got lots of cardboard banana boxes/veg crates etc from lidl/aldi. They are usually happy for you to take as many as you want as it saves them having to bin them. They are really useful for books and they stack too.

When we moved ourselves, we packed as much as possible then packed all of the boxes in one room. It was like tetris towards the end but it meant that we could clear rooms and clean them properly once they were emptied of stuff, and also helped with loading into the van.

3 men and a van moved our 4 bed house for £350. I'd try getting some more quotes.

Unless you have plenty of mates who are strong and focused, suggest that way, for speed and reliability.

I also spent about £100 on packing boxes.

separate exchange and completion, that is nuts. you have to book a van, sort insurance, arrange post redirect and move and none of it is definite yet.

on completion you need to be out, no repeat trips. unlikely with the distance but think about it.

and yes, having done it once over two miles many years ago - never again!

Where abouts are you, I have just moved but movers couldn't get everything in so got a man with a van who is brilliant. Pm is you want the details

Actually to be honest we moved ourselves the previous 5 times. With organisation and help you can do it. Help your mates by having everything packed in good labelled boxes, carrier bags don't stack in a van or storage unit.

Just be careful with the van, our last buyers self moved, the first thing they did was hit the garden wall over with the back end. Good luck!

Try a local storage place for boxes tape and bubble wrap. A roll of industrial cling film/pallet wrap is fantastic for taming bulky or awkward stuff too.

dont go for a transit van. get a luton box van as pp said upthread. how much stuff have you got?
if you are living somewhere temp then pack seperately for that and put stuff into the car. (assuming you have one)
are you sure the garage is waterproof? stuff can degrade quickly in a garage so dont store photos or documents there.

If you're really sure that you want to do it yourself, then get proper packing boxes. Truly, get them - it's hell without them; they make all the difference. Don't get them too big, either, or some of them will end up too heavy to lift. Get the office filing size, often called archive boxes. Be careful which type you get, because some of them are flimsy things and come apart at the bottom too easily. Find sturdy ones. Get a thick felt-tip and write what the contents are in large letters on all four sides and the lid as well - that seems like overkill and a waste of time, but I can't tell you how much it helps when you're unpacking - it's really worth doing. Honestly.

Those cheap plastic-coated blue or pink check laundry bags are absolutely great for clothes and bedding. Get some of the large-size ones.

Don't underestimate how many bags and boxes you need. It will be more than you think.

Don't underestimate how long it's going to take to pack. Give yourself a few days to do it.

Get together lots of packing material (bubble wrap, paper, old newspaper). One incredibly useful thing is a pack of plain packing paper - the stuff like blank newspaper. It's worth the money, and a lot cheaper than bubble wrap.

Isolate all the stuff that you're going to need straight away, and keep that together. Have a basic kitchen kit to start with, and a bag of bedding for the moving-in night.

If you're calm and organised and you give yourself enough time, moving yourself can be OK. I've done it a few times, and I've quite enjoyed it. Good luck!

Sports Direct sell massive zip up bags.

We've just moved 300 miles by ourselves. We packed boxes and boxes it was like a giant game of Jenga. We had to do 3 trips then move the last load in the car. 6/7 skip runs and booked the council to collect our large furniture. I have no advice. It was horrendous and a week later I'm still exhausted. Just grit your teeth and keep going till it's done! Good luck!!

Just moved I packed and decluttered for 4 months, once viewings were over. I sold lots too but still had so many items as I'm buying a wreck so I have bought diy items needed too.

I went to shops early mornings and asked for their packaging, I got lots of bubble wrap and boxes and I asked people I knew that were also moving even from 6-12 months before and so I was given lots of boxes.

I did it myself with my teen dd who is physically strong, except for the sofas, a chest of drawers, bed box, wardrobes and white goods which wouldn't fit in my car so I paid £110 for 3 hours of a man and van to help me move them, they went into 3 different garages. And my friend has some items as i ran out of space.

So a 3 bed 3 reception room house plus den plus shed is now spread across 3 garages, my friends and my mum's with the everyday things as we are staying there.

I did nothing for a week after I'd moved the last item, as it took me at least 100 car loads, the last month I did 5 or 6 a day.
It was relentless but I saved over 1k and I needed to save it as I'm moving in two parts and will probably have to pay removers for the second part as moving 100 miles away.

My top tips are get really decluttered, sell things that are worth money, pack well, ie winter clothes wrapping delicates, get loads of packaging from shops like Bm and the range who have lots of small wrapped items in stock, homebase does a free box section, the local tip also gets boxes so you can ask there too. Aldi bags are cheap and strong, Amazon do 100m bubble wrap for, £6 or 7 included post.