Best way to move across country?

[ginghamstarfish]

We're hoping to sell soon and will be moving to another part of the country. Not possible to buy again until we are there and have time to check out different areas etc, so thinking of either renting and moving all our stuff in - leaving most boxed up until we buy. Alternatively thinking it might be better to put all stuff in storage and rent furnished place/Air Bnb type place until we can buy. Anyone done either of these? Can't decide which will be easier/cheaper/less stressful!

We’ve done this a couple times and rented for a while in the area bringing our furniture etc with us. Much of it remained in boxes though. We looked at furnished places but they were pretty expensive but you could give short notice on them.

Thanks, yes I'm thinking furnished Airbnb type places PLUS paying for storage would work out much more expensive, although giving more flexibity with not having a 6 month rental period.

Yes storage can be £300-400+ a month once the initial free offer has ended so its definitely worth getting an unfurnished house if you can.

And give yourself plenty of time - when we had a six month rental that we thought would be fine we almost got caught out because (inevitably) there were problems which meant that our purchase took longer than anticipated. We gave our two months notice to end the tenancy expecting to have a month to move gradually but owing to delays in the end only had a few days which was a bit hectic

Some AirBnB places won't take bookings longer than 28 days. As completions are taking longer now you might want to consider a 6 month AST instead.

We did the 6 month AST plus storage earlier this year and lost the last 2 months of the contract due to completing early but it was worth it for the security of having somewhere to live, landlord was happy as he got to keep the 2 months cash and re-rent. Storage cost next to nothing with the removal people (total was about £1,200 for 2 moves and 4 months storage)

We moved from East Anglia to the South Midlands a couple of months ago and are in temporary accommodation until our new house is ready in a few months time.

With regards to moving, we just got several quotes and cross-referenced quotes against reviews. No issues, they turned up spot on time in the morning and we were all unloaded by later in the afternoon.
The only thing was that several companies wanted to do video surveys. If they didn't want to turn up then I didn't go any further with them.

With regards to temporary accommodation I can't help, we are in my late parents house so living rent free and not tied to a move-out date (the house is being sold but the completion date will fit in with our house move).

As for storage we didn't bother. Although we have lots of stuff (including my garage / workshop tools etc) we have it with us in my parents house.
Several reasons for this. Storage is not cheap. There is plenty of room to store it all in my parents house (two bedrooms, dining room, conservatory, garage & sheds are all full of furniture & boxes). If we suddenly decide we MUST have something we just sort through the (carefully labelled) boxes and bingo, there it is.

There are a couple of threads running about using removal firms to do your packing.
If (like us) you are leaving most of your possessions boxed for a few months then do it yourself using your own boxes, no point paying twice or renting boxes when there are plenty of good options out there (I have bought lots of twin-wall cardboard boxes & plastic Tote stacking crates and when I have finished with them, those I no-longer want to keep will be sold or passed on to other movers).

With regards to moving for the second time, this past week we have had more surveys (once again those requesting video calls weren't followed up) so when next month we get a date I already have the quotes ready & waiting (by the way, all removers have been VERY impressed with the quality of the boxes & packing, the horror stories they tell show how a lot of people DIY haven't got a clue).

Airbnb is expensive - I had to do it for 8 weeks in total and that was a few thousand down the drain (purchase fell through last minute).
I'd rent for six months if you can and leave your stuff in storage.

Thanks all, have been looking at storage places and everything seems so expensive. Also thinking about the various insurances - we have had lots of damages after every move, for which we have had to claim, but obvs you can't check stuff if going in storage, and then paying e again to have it moved to your new house. If you then reported damages to the second removers that might cause problems as they know the stuff had not been checked after going to storage..
I think Airbnb is not an option now having looked at prices - the tiniest 1-bed places are coming in at over £400 a week, and what's with the cleaning fees? Going slightly off my own topic, but WTF? eg £60 a night plus £12 cleaning fee, but if you book a week you get a tiny percentage off all the added up daily cleaning fees??? Surely they only clean once at the end of your stay, what a fecking cheek.

Re packing, we've always had the removers drop off boxes in advance and done it ourselves. The only time we had them do it resulted in even more damage than usual.

We've relocated for work criss crossing the country several times and have moved into a rental for periods from 6 mths to 18 mths which allowed us to sell our house and more importantly take our time house hunting for a new one. We've used the garage of the new rental as storage since we obviously left quite a few boxes unpacked. You can/should negotiate for relocation expenses and if you are in a position to do so, ask for housing costs for 12 mths (taxable benefit if over £8K).

Thanks@sansou but we both work from home now, so no chance of work paying expenses !