Moving day when in a chain

[Puffthemagicdragongoestobed]

Dear all,
we are currently in the process of selling our house and buying another one, and find ourself in a chain of 3/ 4 properties. Moving date has been tentatively set for the second half of January so we are still ways off completing. But I cannot get my head around the logistics of moving day!
We bought this house empty and it needed doing up so we didn’t move into our house from rented for another month after completing. So it was all very straight forward as all I needed to do was pick up the keys from the estate agent.
This time around we need to have our house emptied and cleaned and then move into our new house, which is also currently occupied. How do we get all this done on the same day? What time do people usually complete? Do I order the movers in a few days beforehand? Do people actually get time to clean after moving out? I can imagine moving into our new house and having to sleep without curtains as they would still be packed, may not fit etc etc. I am even considering going into an Airbnb for the first night. The new house is a 20 minute drive away.
Would be great if others could share their experiences!
Thanks a lot

Hi. It is all a bit jam packed in my experience but normally works. Ask your solicitor for an eta completion time but they try and do in the morning. Your removers will load boxes in morning and drive over as soon as you have keys. Cleaning can start as soon as movers are out of a room. Or cleaner/one person can do this while other person can supervise unloading and start unpacking. For first night concentrate on only what you need. Maybe bedroom and basic kitchen stuff. Fish and chips/pizza for dinner. And collapse with a glass of bubbly!

Thanks Happy! I am sure it will work our somehow! The bubbly will be very much needed!!

I've just been through this as moved a couple of weeks ago, and also didn't have the experience first time round as moved in slowly while redecorating.

We got quotes from movers and asked then to pencil in a date, then confirmed when exchanged.

Did a good clean of kitchen cupboards etc whilst packing them, and then on the day movers arrived at 8.30 and I followed them round cleaning a room once empty.

At about 11.30 the movers had finished and I got a call from our solicitors saying that money had been received from buyers so we had completed on our sale. Estate agent then called and asked for a time to release keys, which I gave as 1.30 but I'd finished cleaning about about 12.30.

Then estate agents for our purchase called to say that our purchase had completed and our seller was just finishing off and keys would be available at 1pm. Our movers went and parked up nearby new property, while we collected keys and then they gave us time to have a look round before beginning the move in. Luckily it had been left clean and nothing that desperately needing doing so we were free to just direct furniture and make tea. Movers left at about 3pm.

We moved midweek so saved the bubbly for the weekend 🥂

I’d have it deep cleaned a day or so before the move, so that on the moving day itself you are only wiping sides down and vacuuming empty rooms. Saves you worrying about having time to clean ovens and the inside of kitchen cupboards on the day.

Completion is normally late morning/early afternoon. Lorry gets loaded first thing, then solicitor tells you when money has gone through for completion on sale , hopefully by the time you have locked up , dropped keys to ea and driven to new property completion will have happened on your purchase. Clean as rooms are emptied but in practice it is rarely perfect in a chain.

To be honest though, I’ve never had a house cleaned professionally when I’ve moved out. We’re not grubby people, so it’s all kept in good order anyway. I packed everything for our last move, so just wiped out cupboards/drawers after I packed their contents. The bathrooms were done the day before with a last minute wipe around the one we used before we left. I did as much as I could before the day of the move itself. Floors vacuumed, windowsills and skirtings wiped as the rooms were emptied by the movers on the day.

Don’t forget to include the loft/attic stuff, any garden stuff (plants in pots, trampolines, garden benches etc) and the shed/garage outbuildings in your moving/packing quotes.

I did an exchange of council.house but we both had to empty a home to move on the same day, what worked for me was removal van arrived 10.30 ish in the morning, loaded up & then had a dinner break 12.30-2.00pm that gave us time to have a quick hoover round house we were leaving & shoot to new home to wait for van. I took all the curtains in my car along with kettle, tea, coffee & milk plus picnic lunch & hoover. I managed to get all curtains hung before van arrived & my mum hovered through. Removal people brought all white goods in first, then beds, put them together so I could get them made up, then rest of furniture & boxes, they were done by 4.00pm, I was shattered but managed to unpack towels & bathroom stuff, was in a hot bath by 5.30pm & we had a takeaway delivered around 6.30pm & collapsed in front of tv for the rest of the night. It was school holidays when I moved so I wasn't in a mad rush to unpack, other than unpack the kitchen I didnt do much the next day & we did the bulk of the unpacking 2 days after we moved in. Try to plan to have essentials sorted the first night, if you have kids try to arrange sleepovers for them if you can so you can have a good nights rest the first night & then have time to sort everything out.

I didn't have to be out for the incomers but had to be out for the long move - we left mid week for cheaper removal costs, completion was the Friday.

curtains - try and get everyone to see sense and leave most curtains. They won't fit a new property. This is on the fixtures and fittings form.

unless you are hiring packers, start getting rid of stuff now and start packing 2 weeks before. Do a minimal christmas. Empty kitchen cupboards, clean and don't use again. Takeaways for the last two nights. Go round with a vaccum as you leave but there are limits to what can be done.

essentials once exchanged - and leave at least a fortnight to completion - are:

• insure new house
• arrange broadband and phone - takes longer than you think
• set up post redirect - takes a few days
• advise car insurers of address change
• advise council(s) for new tax

on moving day, take meter readings at both properties.

and have a plan b for accommodation that night just in case. It's rare that completions don't all go through but it can happen.

Thanks all. Sounds like a military operation will be upon us! I think I will start getting quotes very soon and also ask for packing quotes. Let’s see if those are vastly higher than without packing as I should be able to pack myself as I don’t work at the minute. Good point about arranging sleepovers for the kids, this will save us a lot of hassle!

We have decided not to do it as its too much stress. We are currently emptying our house and will move in with my parents for a few weeks whilst we do a few jobs to our new house. Some people rent or put their stuff in storage.

move furniture into storage the day before.
keep essentials & bedding only.

We part exchanged on a new build so we didn’t have the mad moving day rush but what helped us was dismantling the bed the night before. We slept on the mattress on the floor and then bagged up and duvet and pillows in the morning. The bed was the first thing we made up when we arrived so we were able to go to bed with no fuss once we’d had enough unpacking.