Any tips for a diy house move

[Ladyrattles]

We are moving our family of five 100 miles from a 3 bed to a 4 bed in about 3wks when our new build is ready. We were going to hire a removal company but realised after packing that we are not taking much with us eg. no sofas, bedroom furniture or kitchen appliances. My husband doesn't feel comfortable driving a really big van so we were thinking of hiring a smaller one over several days and doing multiple trips, or is that a silly idea? Anyone else do that? Or have tips on what to hire or who from? Or just general tips on moving day if you moved yourself? Any advice greatly appreciated

I'd hire a 'man with a van' and get them to move it in one trip, much less hassle and probably much cheaper than your idea.

@Mantlemoose

I'd hire a 'man with a van' and get them to move it in one trip, much less hassle and probably much cheaper than your idea.

Hubby really likes the idea of doing it ourselves as we've 3 older teens and they are surprisingly really keen to help. I think it's the novelty of being able to go in a van lol. Thanks for your suggestion though. I hadn't even considered a man with a van as I didn't know they'd travel that far.

Another vote for many with a van.
It's a lot of back and forth daily when it can be done in one trip.

Not quite a moving day tip, but book an online supermarket shop to be delivered the day after you arrive. You can plan your meals and book it all a few weeks in advance- one less thing to worry about. And remember to order loads of easy things to eat so cooking is minimal whilst you clean and unpack.

@Thisisbatshit

Not quite a moving day tip, but book an online supermarket shop to be delivered the day after you arrive. You can plan your meals and book it all a few weeks in advance- one less thing to worry about. And remember to order loads of easy things to eat so cooking is minimal whilst you clean and unpack.

That's an excellent idea.

I shall go investigate the man with a van suggestions and see what hubby thinks. It might make him decide he can drive a bigger van after all lol. Thanks everyone

I think it depends what you're moving from? If you're in rental and will have a crossover period then you can do it over several days, if you're selling and buying on the same day then obviously you can't. I think the novelty of a 200 mile round trip would wear off after the first journey though, I can't imagine why you'd want to do it more than once!

Can you compromise and have a man with a van take half and hire a van to do the rest in one trip?

Yes, forgot to say we rent so can take as long as we want to move. The driving distance doesn't bother my husband as he does that trip once a week. Thanks for everyone's suggestions. I'm thinking DH either gets a bigger van, has days off in between trips, or we try and find a reputable man with van that has insurance to at least take some of the stuff.

From an environmental perspective lots of trips is a really, really bad idea. I hope you can do it one go.

Good luck with the move!

Lots of trips will be time consuming and you’ll need the van for a few days, plus petrol costs, once you tally that up it’ll cost you more & take much longer.

I’d definitely either book a man with a van service or just normal removals, your current plan sounds like it’ll be a pain after the first trip.

@Ladyrattles

I shall go investigate the man with a van suggestions and see what hubby thinks. It might make him decide he can drive a bigger van after all lol. Thanks everyone

If he has a standard driving licence there’s a limit on what size van he’ll be able to drive, so don’t assume he’ll be able to hire a huge vehicle.

Unless you very minimalist to extreme you will be surprised how many van trips it will take. Each cupboard. Everything.
Plus packing into boxes and unpacking.
Book one big van man with van get it done.
Or if dh and dc insist then let them
sit back and say
I told you so
When they do 5 trips and are exhausted

Hire a removal company. The money you'd spend on fuel doing multiple trips is silly

I bet teens would soon be bored and lose interest in helping.

Once i was in the new house, id just want to get in with it and not wait hours for the next batch to arrive

Even with a removal van, there is loads to
Do. Carrying boxes. Unpacking. Disposing the boxes and packaging

My only advice would be don't.

You'll be shocked at how quickly a van fills up, and doing multiple 200 mile (there and back) trips will be exhausting.

Get a removals company.

I’d agree with others and use a removal company op. They have other skills apart from just lifting things - they can assess the furniture and figure out the best way to load the van etc.

I can guarantee your teens’ enthusiasm will run out after the first van load.

We did this ourselves as renovating old house and overlap of two homes. Took ages, best thing is to declutter massively first and pack in labelled boxes then see how much you have and whether it's worth it. Teens only helped when paid and was lots of heavy lifting and journeys.

My only advice would be don't.

Mine too

We did it our selves. Granted it was only a 9 minute drive but like others have said, you’ll be surprised how quick a van fills up. We’ve got a Peugeot boxer and it was rammed. As well as a storage container full and a couple of friends cars!

Really bad idea. Get a man/van plus the biggest van your husband can drive and do it in one. The van man will get really irritated because your are, frankly, bumbling about getting in his way so arrange it so he loads up first then gets underway then you meet him there while the rest of them clear all remaining stuff into the rented van and clean up. Also get a one way rental-far from wanting to do mulitiple trips, I bet he’ll want to dump the van at the destination depot and rest.

We moved ourselves recently (in fact twice over a 6 month period as we moved into rental between house) sand we hired a large Luton van and managed our entire 3 bed house excluding sofa in two trips both times also filling the family estate car full. It was just DH, one of DH's friends, teen ds and I and both times it was bloody hard work so if you can afford it I'd recommend get removers.

We’ve moved ourselves (with young kids) a few times and it was absolutely fine. And that was with sofas/bedroom furniture etc. Hard work physically but otherwise we didn’t have any problems at all and it saved a fortune on removals.

Yeah my advice would be don't do it yourselves.

We've moved several times in the last few years and used a website called Anyvan to get a quote. They find local 'man with van' services.

You put in your inventory and it gives your prices to include / exclude packing / dismantling furniture etc A full pack and move with Pickfords was around £2.5k, a 30 mile move only was £400 with Anyvan to give you an idea of prices.

We've only ever moved ourselves, although each time within the same town.
It's tiring but pretty easy.
Get rid of anything your not taking first be really ruthless. We were lucky enough second time to have the bedrooms all set up well before moving day as we'd done a complete renovation and bought new beds for everyone.
Label boxes well and take photos of the contents if there's a lot of miscellaneous stuff.

It's definitely not fun. At all.

At the bare minimum get the biggest van he is allowed to hire and try and only do one main trip.

A van won’t be at all economical on fuel. 200 mile round trips plus hire for several days: does it really make sense? Plus time off work to do that? Wouldn’t that be time better spent decorating / doing garden or whatever in your new house?

Of course a man and van will go 100 miles. Or at least, it won’t be hard to find one.