Moving house experiences with pets & small children

[Evecob]

We are hopefully going to be exchanging at the end of this month, everything is done apart from a few outstanding enquiries on vendors side, and we are thinking about the best way of navigating the move with 2 small children and 2 cats!

We are a family of 4 with a 10 month old and a 2 year old. We got some removal quotes but have family willing to help us with the move, husband is keen to go down the rent a van and have family help route, and have me take our 2 kids away from the house for the day.

What are your experiences with young DC and/or pets? Wldid it work well being away from the house until all moved in? Or did it work to have a reliable grandparent look after the kids and help out yourself with the move?

Im concerned about not being there to help out myself with the cleaning etc after moving furniture, and the cats will probably be panicking and wont take well to being moved and might be better to have me around. Wondering if we should take the cats to the new house last to help them settle better once all furniture moved?

Is there anyone who can share their experience? anything you wished you did differently to make the move easier with kids and pets?

Thanks in advance!

I'd be really surprised if they don't want you out on the day. OK they might not be there waiting with a removal van. Over 2 days will be more stressful as you won't know where anything is.

Have you got quotes for moving - it sounds like a small enough amount to move. You might be surprised.

We have 2 quotes yeah. One quoted us 840 for the move, not including packing.

Another quoted us 1150 for the move, and 1750 for packing and moving.

Hiring a luton van shouldnt be more than 90, its very tempting to save that money...

Yes as per advice on here, it looks like asking for 2 days will not go down well due to vacant posession etc.

We sent ours to grandparents and cat went on the bathroom until everything was out. A little tip I was told worked great... Pack a suitcase with clothes for a couple of days for everyone, bedding, toiletries any emergency stuff eg medication etc and leave it in the car. So when the madness is done, you can get into pjs and sit until the following day of madness!! Good luck

The cats.
We kept ours in the bathroom with a litter box while the van was being loaded. There was nothing to be taken from there so it was easy to keep that closed off.
They were in the car with me and then straight into the bathroom at the new house. They then 'lived' in the bathroom for a day or so until they were less stressed out.

Kids were packed off to school and collected by someone else.

If that's not possible I'd do the same as the cats. Keep them in one room with something to play with and then put them in another room at the new house.

I would strongly advise paying a moving company.

You will have to give vacant possession by a certain time on moving day, my my memory midday - by that point you will have to have to house completely empty and clean. You are doing it against the clock so no room for flakey or inefficient help. We found the last bits and bobs and cleaning took way longer than we'd hoped once the removals company were on the road.

We were moving long-distance but packed off both kids and the cat with grandparents the night before the move so that we could both concentrate on clearing the house. We then collected them en route to the new house.

Moving into the new house will take a few hours to unload and you need a strategy to keep kids and cats out of the way and entertained while that happens. With the cats it's a case of shutting them in one room with a sign on the door saying DO NOT OPEN until everyone is out the way and there are no longer doors open to outside.

We went down the van route. Never again. We were moving a small 3 bed and omg it was a nightmare. Moving literally a few streets, we had one van full that we sent to my parents' house a few days before. We then needed to shift two more van loads and it took all bloody day. We were left with half the house contents on the front lawn while I did a mad dash to drop our keys off at the ea before they closed. Fortunately our buyers didn't need access immediately but I would never attempt to move a whole house in a van again. So stressful (we had a week old baby too). Get a proper company.

Hiring a luton van shouldnt be more than 90, its very tempting to save that money

Do you honestly think that friends and family will be able to do, essentially, £700 worth of work for free on a weekday (that they have to take annual leave for), in as quick and efficient a timeframe as the removal company who are experts at this (thus the charge)?

You won’t be allowed two days to move unfortunately. You will need to be packed and out ASAP on the morning of completion day.
I’ve been in your position apart from moving into renting in between properties and we moved ourselves but it look many trips. I would definitely put the cats in a cattery for a couple of nights, far too much stress for me trusting that no one will accidentally open a door and let them out.
Kids I would take to grandparents to stay for a few nights either with or without you whilst you get sorted and set up.

My DH is hoping to rent a van and move ourselves.
I've already packed 75% of stuff we don't use often (40 boxes so far) I've spent three weekends doing tip runs for anything which I don't want at the new house.

I'm still slightly panicked at the thought of moving all the big stuff on the day - 2 beds, fridge freezer, washing machine, 2 big sofas, my very heavy spin bike, 3 desks and PCs, 5 cabinets, TV, dining table and chairs, 3 chest of drawers. Unused fishtank and cabinet which DH refuses to get rid of. Plus a whole loft full of stuff and circa 50- 100 boxes

But crucially, we are buying ours sooner (hopefully) than the sale of our current house will go through. So we will have more time to move out. There's no way I'd attempt to move all of that in a Luton before midday.

My old cats had never been in a cattery, and it broke my heart to put them in one, but it was the best thing we could have done. They went in the night before and we got them the day after we moved in. They were away from all the noise, banging and we didn't have to worry about someone letting them out of a room.

Do you have a family member/friend who you could pay to help you in the morning? My SIL volunteered, I didn't feel I really needed her, but when she arrived she expected to be very hands on (although I wouldn't let her clean the bathroom) - I asked her to hoover each room and she insisted on cleaning skirting boards as well. She helped with drinks for removers as well. I pulled cooker, fridge out before move and cleaned which saved time, pulled bed out before move and removed dust.

I read someone the other day essentially saying that after your mid-30s, if you can't afford to pay someone to move you, you can't afford to move. Of course i accept that there will be people who find themselves having to move (from rental to rental, for example) even when they can't afford to, but the general principle - that moving yourself in a van with a few helpers is a young person's game - is, I think, a solid one.

We hired movers, I wouldn’t move without them against it’s so much easier and worth the cost for saving stress. They take the beds apart and rebuild at the other side. Clothes don’t get packed but put in moving rails so get put in the wardrobes at the other side. Drawers stay full. Our children were at nursery, dropped off at 8am, movers came at 10, packed up by 11, we went for lunch, got keys at 1, movers had left by 2.30 so we had 2.5 hours to unpack before collecting the children.

If you have the budget to use removals and can change your dh's mind, I vigorously encourage that. Best money ever spent.

I would strongly advise paying a moving company.

This - though only once paid for packing and frankly I wasn't impressed but that may have been that firm.

Prior to that we'd done packing over weeks - it takes way more boxes and material and time than you'd think.

We've done it twice with very young children - frankly my time and energy were taken up by them not helping DH so we needed removal people. Last time they were pimary aged and they went to DGP for week and we thought we'd pay for everything including packing - it was still very stressful.

Next time we'll have to do it around indoor cats - I'm think cattery may have to be looked at.

I've always used movers and packed myself. Try and use movers they are really worth the money! If you are selling and buying you usually need to be out by noon because after that you dont own the property. You also need a big enough van or vans so that all your possessions are in just in case you dont have access to your new house until later which isnt unusual. For our last two buying and selling moves we went for a nice lunch until we could pick up the keys for the new place.

Movers are so quick! For our last move a three bedroomed house was loaded in an hour! Movers will also put your beds together so all you have to do is make them.

If you can try and declutter as much as possible so there is less to move which will make it cheaper.

I always put together a box of essentials, bed linen, toiletries and clothing for the next day, important documents in a work bag and the cats in my car with me. We kept our cats in their boxes until the movers left.

A friend moved in a rented van with help and it took him several trips and 12 hours! I dont think you can underestimate just how long it takes.

It sounds like you will have enough to do with the children and the cats without fretting about physically getting the stuff loaded and unloaded and beds rebuilt.