What was moving day like for you?

[AnnaKerice]

Soon to move house (first time moving from one owned house to another, in a short chain but chain nevertheless) and feel mind blown that people manage to shift all their stuff in one day!
How did it go for you, how long to load the van (or what you used), what time did you leave old house, what time did you get keys, was new house empty and ready for you or did you have to wait for the old owners to finish?

We moved out for a few days before completion. Packing and moving took two days and then a full professional clean the day before including fridge and ovens. It was a lot less stressful than moving on the morning as we completed by 10.30am.

New house was empty and clean and ready to go. Last time we moved the vendor didn’t move until the morning and didn’t have time to clean. She left the bins full of her rubbish and we had to do a deep clean before we could start unloading. It was grim.

We were all packed up night before and house cleaned. New house hadn’t even started packing when we got the keys so very stressful

I moved home and country last year during Covid restrictions . For me , the key was having a brilliant removal company booked 3 months in advance . I did it over two days , though . They filled two lorries the day before the keys were due to be handed to purchaser , I stayed with a friend overnight then flew to new home the following lunchtime . The removal firm arrived that tea time , unloaded and that was that . I was astonished how easy such a large move was . Good luck !

If you have movers, it is surprisingly quick!

Our last move was odd as it was on the same street (moving from ground floor flat to whol house) - we did get a lorry to get all our stuff out of the house before completion (as you are supposed to hand over an empty property) and to get it all down the road, but we saved some money on packing and moving fragile things like pictures by literally carrying them down the street. The previous owners were still there cleaning up but they let us put the fragile stuff in the front room, and then when the lorry was ready they started to bring things in from that. Again, the movers made quick work of it although we had a lot of stuff.

We started taking things over around lunchtime I think (having spent morning sweeping and hoovering), owners had finished cleaning up by about 3 but we still didn't actually have the key and then there was some confusion as to who at the estate agent had it, but at that point the front door was open and we just made sure one of us was in the house after that until we finally got the key towards 5pm!

Never done the move in one day thing, nightmare, for various reasons always gone from rent to buy to rent to buy ... so much easier. Unless you are using professional movers I would recommend you rent a storage unit for a couple of weeks, move everything apart from complete essentials the weekend before to the unit then pick it all up after you have moved in the weekend after. You need to have fully emptied your house and cleaned by around 11am so most professional movers will collect 90% the day before and return on moving day for the beds

Packed up absolutely everything we could into one upstairs room and one downstairs room before the day. Then paid a removal firm on the day who did the lot, dismantling and rebuilding furniture etc. My day consisted of a quick mop and hoover round the old house, a trip to Costa for a mass coffee order for the removal guys and then a really exciting lunch and glass of fizz waiting for the email to say we had completed. Most exciting stress free day ever! Loads of hands on deck in the new house to get boxes unpacked and by the end of day 2 we were fully in, unpacked, curtains and pictures up etc! Pay the professionals if you can afford to do so!

My movers ended up bringing out their stuff and putting it in the front garden as they were moving with the worlds tiniest van, shuttling their stuff back and forwards about a mile away. They still managed to leave a piano behind, and a “helper” who said she had left her bag in the van so was stuck ( with small child) until they came back for the piano. I let her stay, I’m tougher now .

I'd sold and gone into temporary rented. Got they keys but wasn't leaving the rental until the next day so I had a day in the house before removals.

Removals came to rental at 8am and left the new house at 7pm.

Our move was 300 miles . By the time the removal men had finished it was 2 pm. Myself and dh both set off in our own cars ( had never driven solo that distance before ) . Got to the house , and camped ( we'd bought kettle , some easy , quick non cook food , and sleeping bags.
Removal men had slept in their cab in a lorry park. They arrived at the house about 9.30 am , unloaded our stuff and off they went. We'd given ourselves 2 weeks off before starting new jobs so it wasn't too bad.

Apart from the vendors uselessness the actual move was fine, my movers were really fast and moved things far more efficiently than we could. They also very kindly let us ride in the van ( including cat ) as we had no car and they felt sorry for us. If I ever move again I will pay for professional packers because packing was the real killer.

Moved in a single day with a local company of movers packed over the previous days. DC we're aged 7, 4 and 2 and useless (now ex-) husband went to work as usual. We left on time our buyers got in on time but the sellers of our soon to be home were a nightmare and cost me 3 Extra hours !

We moved 5 weeks ago. Our buyers were first time buyers and we were moving into a new build. Spent the 2 weeks between exchange and completion packing up the house. By the night before moving day all we had left to do was pack the bedding and last few bits scattered around. On moving day, removals arrived at 8:30am and had packed up the house by 12pm. We tidied up the best we could as we packed, so only really had to do a quick hoover round, wiped down bathroom and steamed floors as removal men cleared each room. We handed in keys and went to the pub whilst we waited for completion on our purchase which took place at 2:30pm. Removals arrived again at 3pm and had unpacked vans by 6pm. Couldn't have asked for better experience and our removal company were worth every single penny we paid them (around £1000 for a 3 mile move but nothing was any trouble and they were really professional!)

Removal company came and packed the contents of our bookcases (7 of them); the contents of the garage and spare room furniture and took them to a storage unit 2 days prior.

On removal day one of cats went missing just as we were thinking about crating them up for the move (almost had to ask our old neighbours to take her in if she turned up. We were only moving 10 miles luckily)
I actually had more of an issue with my employers. It was a relocation and I was entitled to 2 days additional leave as I was moving for my job, but my line manager refused it. Luckily my relocation package was being handled by HR and they overruled her.

Have professional packers and movers..I would never do it myself ever again...stressful nightmare is an understatement!

Just get a really good company to do it all for you.

We paid for the packing service. They came the day before and packed everything and we spent the night before in a hotel. Moving day itself was very boring as we were just waiting around until we could get the keys which didn’t happen until 15:30. The removal guys had everything out of the van within an hour and we headed to the pub for dinner.

A fair few years ago we moved from the south of England to the North. Our new home (our first) had been left in an absolute state by the previous owners. The fridge was full of rotten mouldy food, the garden was full of rubbish and when I was cleaning a shelf in the bedroom I found a used dirty still wet condom with my bare hand (not envy!). I cried and cleaned for about a week. With hindsight we should have contacted our solicitor about the state of the place but I was young and didn’t know how these things worked. It was a beautiful (and clean) house when we viewed it, no idea what happened between viewing and sale!

We moved recently but just locally.
We did our own packing but our removal company came on the Thursday and took everything - we cleaned in the afternoon/evening and then we stayed with my parents on that night and moved into the new place Friday lunch time.

The removal company would have come back for the a few things (bed etc) on the Friday morning if we’d needed to stay at the house on the Thursday night.

I would recommend this type of arrangement it was very stress free!

Our moving company massively under estimated how much stuff we had. That became apparent late morning when they emptied the loft and it filled the master bedroom. We ended up with 2 extra crews helping to load our van. They eventually had it all packed about 12.30pm, minus the garden stuff which wouldn't fit.

Solicitors went on lunch and we knew our sale had gone through but nothing about our purchase. Removal guys actually knew our purchase was complete before we did as it was their company moving out our vendor and the other crew had left the doors unlocked for us. I think we started unloading about 2.30pm but we didn't get the keys until about 3pm. The removal guys got in the house before we did! I think they eventually went around 5ish.

Thing is, it depends SO much on the individuals.

My dc just moved (as a first time buyer) into a house where the vendor was moving into a new build. The house she was emptying was hardly huge, but she was just slow / not ready.
Whatever the 'expectations' or requests are about time, if you get someone who is just disorganised / not efficient / lacking consideration, then you are stuffed.
I've been in much more complicated chains where it has gone really smoothly.
If you have professional movers, they are like locusts. Honestly, you won't believe how quick they are. If you try and do it yourself, it really does take a LOT longer than everyone expects.
I helped a dn move a few months ago. There were 10 people helping......it was a local move......nothing complicated, and it still took 4 hours+ to get everything in (that's not unpacked).

You definitely need everything packed (including breaking down anything (beds, wardrobes) that needs taking apart, by the day before at the latest.

Yes, sometimes you are sitting outside waiting.

We moved recently. Packing up was stressful - we got 1 week notice of when our completion day would be, so we didn't have much time to pack! Neither DH or I could get more than one day off work (the actual move date), so most packing had to be done after the kids went to bed. Then there was a hold up with our buyers' money so we ended up having to exchange and complete on the same day.

I remember looking round at all the boxes the night before our move, thinking about them all being loaded into a lorry in the morning, and worrying that if the money issue wasn't sorted we'd have to unpack them all again!!

It did all go through though. And actually moving day itself was very easy. Got a call about 11:30 to say all had completed.

We packed everything, took furniture (beds/big wardrobes) down, cleaned most of the house and then stayed with family the night before the move.

Removal company were brilliant, they arrived early in a small van (because all the men wouldn't fit in the lorry cab) and filled that up, then brought the lorry round and filled that up. They were done by about 1 o'clock so they drove off to our new house (just the other side of town). We finished off the cleaning, said goodbye to our old house and went to drop the keys at the estate agents. About 1:30 we got a call from the removal company to say our vendors had left our new house.

We picked up the keys and drove to the new house. Unpacked everything in there and the removals were gone by about 4:30.

Definitely pay for professional removals.

We moved just over 100 miles. Dh hired a Luton van and packed our flat/van with his brother (both ex removals) the day before. Then the morning of move in we (without bil) and two other family members moved us in.
If he hadn't packed a van before then there was no way we'd have managed because all of our stuff only just fit
It went as smoothly as it could, we had the keys already and the house had been empty for ages.
We have more stuff now as we went from flat to house and extra bedroom so I think we'll pay next time for the professionals.
My advice is to go with the quote of the company who have actually seen your house. Dh used to arrive at loads of jobs where his boss (totally useless) had been the cheapest but had totally underestimated what there was.

I think a problem at the moment is a lot of removal quotes are done by video survey rather than home visits due to Covid. So it’s easy for things to be missed. We employed a firm to move all the staff out of my Dads flat recently and even though we had paid for a full packing service it took longer than expected and they didn’t leave the property until about 3.30 pm despite 3 men arriving at 9am ( there were supposed to be 4 men which didn’t help but lots of staff sickness at the moment).

Luckily we weren’t legally Completing on the flat until the following day because otherwise we would have had an annoyed buyer expecting to move in at about midday when we were only half way through moving out.

We were near the end of quite a long chain. Packers came at 8am on a Friday and I went out for coffee with DD. Came back at lunchtime to a virtually empty flat. Ran the hoover round, wiped down the skirting boards and locked up, dropped my keys in with the estate agent and checked into a hotel. Sale wasn't complete until around 4pm. The whole day was super chilled. Stuff went into storage over the weekend.

Come the Monday our purchase was complete around 10am. Got to our new house around 11.30am to see the former owner just about starting to pack up. Gave them our number to call us when they were done. Went out for lunch and a stroll. Came back a couple of hours later when the movers were due; previous owners had fucked off with the keys. Estate agent came round a while later with keys. House a fucking dump. Not chill!

DH was really glum for a few days as he hadn't noticed that the owners were grubby fuckers when we viewed it. Fortunately I had noticed it so was quite cheery.