Tips for DIY moving house

[Movinghouseatlast]

We are thinking of moving ourselves without using a removals firm.

We don't have any time constraints as we already own the house we are moving to.

The current idea is to do 3 trips in a large commercial van. We would hire it for 3 days each time spread over a month.

It is a 500 mile round trip each time but we can stay 2 nights in our new house before driving back again.

We have a small 2 bedroom house but quite a lot of garden stuff, plants in huge pots etc.

My partner is keen as it will save us 1.5 k. He will do all the driving, as he isn't working.

Is this a nuts idea? Or doable? Thanks!

If it's something you do decide to do yourselves. When packing stuff be ruthless ! If something has been sat in a cupboard for ages unused, then don't bother packing it so that it will just sit in a cupboard in your next place as well.
Same for clothes, if you don't wear it, don't take it.
Label every box with the room the item came from and immediately put it in that room at your next place.

It’s probably doable, but I would ask myself if we could manage the heavy stuff with just two people.

We’ve done it a couple of times, not as far though. My husband moved everything himself as I had the kids. He managed. It ideas stressful though and uses up holiday time. The advantage is you can unpack gradually!

I suppose the other point is that you will be leaving your things in an ‘empty’ house for some time so you’d need to be mindful of security.

We did it locally by hiring a self drive lorry and were vacating a property on the same day as moving to the new one.

It was easy, but there is just two of us, no kids. We had ruthlessly decluttered before selling. Then we just packed everything in boxes and labelled them up in the evenings over the course of a few weeks. We hired the lorry on the Friday evening and spent the weekend loading it up and still packing the last bits into boxes. We packed up the stuff from the shed first and big things like the sofa. We got help from a friend for that. We moved on the Monday. We got unpacked over the next week, we were at work so this was evenings only.

I should have kept the boxes lighter i.e. books and plant pots are heavy when put together in a big box. Much better to have more boxes.

I would also suggest you go for the biggest vehicle you can drive and get as much in as you can because doing a journey that long is an adventure once but three times with packing is probably not so much fun. I did enjoy the packing up and unloading part of moving when we did it, but imagine that would wane doing it three times in short succession coupled with a long journey. It would probably also save you more money.

We also had two friends who helped us unload which for the heavy stuff was helpful. It wasn't hard, but it is a minimum of a two person job, so you need two physically fit people.

I wouldn't be confident driving a van at all! But I wonder if my partner is underestimating his powers?

He thinks a Luton van would be too cumbersome to drive, but could manage a large van.

It is hard to tell until you actually drive it I suppose.

The only thing we are worried about moving is a large wardrobe.

We are so used to the long jpurney- we have been up.and down so many times in the car. Of course, it may be very different in a big van.

Are you sure you will really save that much with a 9 day van hire and fuel for vehicle and driver for 3 500 mile trips? Also I have driven 400 miles in a day up the motorway in a hired van. It is doable, but I wouldn't want to do it 3 times in a month and then deal with all the packing and unpacking logistics as well.

I think the van hire will be £400. Petrol will be about the same.

So we will save £1.5k. But for 9 days of very hard work!

Our move is complicated because it can't be completed in a huge removals lorry. It has to be swapped into smaller vans at some point.

I like the idea of having the packing service etc. My partner thinks that as we aren't time bound and can do it at leisure over a month it will be worth it to save the dosh!

I've moved multiple times (7) even to Germany and back. Only used removal once on the move to Germany and it was terrible. Some things we do especially since you have time.

Declutter and organise as you go. Means you won't be transporting as much and it will be organised for the move and on the other end.

Shipley- if there is someone on the other end to collect stuff why not look to see if you can send a job lot of boxes/furniture. They are people who are travelling anyway and by filling up there vans and paying a fee it's more economical. You take pictures and dimensions of the stuff you want to transport. Put online and people will bid (even big firms like Hermes use it) you can get insurance then contact them to organise dates. Saved us an entire van full for less money than us having to do another trip.

Mates- do you have any friends that have large cars or vans? If you pay fuel and feed them it will be cheaper than having the van for longer and you can transport stuff that's fragile or can't stack ie plants.

Weigh up if selling it then repurchasing it is cheaper than moving it- this is more for if your leaving the country but some items maybe cheaper to buy when you get to your new home rather than holding onto it and wasting space in a van. Ie pillows, cushions, electrical items etc.

Wrap well and purchase decent boxes- since your going such a distance things could get broken so pay extra care and attention to your wrapping and boxes. Things that would go into loft, look at purchasing storage boxes (saves a bit of money as you don't need to purchase it again) same with under bed storage purchase the boxes and fill them with the stuff to go under the bed. Fragiles- if your not sure how to pack them go to YouTube.

You can do it. I find it at lot easier as I'm not trying to deal with a company and I know what's happening. Out of all our moves we have only had one breakage and it was glued back together and survived the trip back from Germany.

I think you have to pack the van carefully so it’s balanced and so heavy items won’t crush things but also so you’re not risking over turning the van.

Make sure there is no limit on the van mileage, or you maybe stuck with a big bill. Also bear in mind that vans are very heavy on fuel, think 20mpg- that cost will add up, then any tolls on the way. I would go the biggest van you can drive- it may cost a little more but you will end up doing less trips. Could you follow in a car as well? As that would be better on fuel etc.

Very sceptical about your costings. Friend moved her 5 bed 4 person family over the summer for under £1k including packing service. That was local so I had a quick google. Average cost for 2 bed seems to be £500 plus up to £300 for the 250 mile journey. Add another £300 and they do all the packing.

www.comparemymove.com/house-removals/removal-company-cost

We are military and have done a mix of removals and self moves. I think the removals was equally as stressful to be honest! I always end up packing most stuff myself on the day as they don’t send enough men etc.

Doing it yourself is hard work. It’s the larger items that take space etc.

Our last move we left everything big, beds, sofa, kitchen stuff such as washing machine and fridge. Put it on Facebook free to collect and it was all collected within the hour.

howabout, sadly I have had 5 quotes. £2.5 k was the cheapest!

For a removals company it is a 3 day job and they have to stay the night somewhere after the first day.

I've done it 5 miles down the road and it was dreadful. I can't imagine a 500 mile trip.

We did it ourselves in the last move but it was only about 10 miles and we managed it in one weekend. We got friends to help load and unload the van and it was fairly stress free. We also had the problem that the new house was up a single track road and anything bigger than a Tesco deliver van doesn’t fit up it. We did all the small stuff ourselves on the Friday and had friends helping with sofas and beds etc on the Saturday then back for the rest of the small stuff ourselves on the Sunday. Our local van hire doesn’t charge you for an extra day if you get it back by 9am in the morning which helps as you can come back late on a Sunday and give the van back early Monday morning.

We also did a move ourselves back from Germany over a few weeks. For that we bought a large covered trailer and then sold it again for what we paid afterwards. Need a tow bar and to be able to tow for that though!

We also owned both houses each time so had no major time constraints.

I'd say it's doable, but I agree with the PP that said I'd query how much it'll cost you - especially the fuel costs for a fully loaded van.
The other thing to consider is all of the "stuff" the movers bring with them. Ours covered all our carpets and stairs at both ends, covered tables with blankets, packed our TV, covered sofas, and used straps to safely lift heavy things. And that was with a standard service, not a packing one.
They also managed to get an upright piano up 12 steep steps and through a hall with a turn, but that's another story
And I'd make sure you get some helpers for heavy stuff - the last time we moved ourselves DH did his back in within the first half hour trying to shift a wardrobe!