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?

Pandemonium. We did it twice in 3 months - sold house, temp tiny rental most stuff into storage, then moved to new house.

Best lack of communication moment was the second move where the guys had packed up the vans early and we said 'see you up there' and they said they were not going up until tomorrow. So it was a night on the floor in an empty house.

Never again! They can carry me out in a box.

Last year we moved from a 3 bed house, and decided with no kids or pets we (DH & I) would be fine to do it ourselves.

We did it, but never, ever again.

I don't care how much we saved!! The stress and exhaustion were another level.

Used a professional moving company. Having used both a professional company and in the past having done the move ourselves, I would never consider moving without using a moving company. They take all the stress out of moving house

We had packers and left the house clean for our buyers, completed around midday but our seller had a van that was too small, wasn’t organised and didn’t leave until 5pm leaving the house was filthy, bits left behind and the water turned off as they had nothing to cap off the water to their American fridge freezer. It wasn’t the best experience.

@Twiglets1

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.

This wasn't true when we moved six months ago. I think one company wanted a video but the others visited in person.

Due to covid the chain wanted to exchange and complete on the same day except our sellers pulled out the day before , I will never forget taking a moment to pause from packing to have a wee, sitting on the toilet to glance at my emails and see the message from the estate agent and worst of all then having to tell DH!! We decided to complete on our sale and moved in with family 200 miles away. Luckily our DCs are little enough for this. Overnight we had to change our packing strategy from packing to move to new house 10 miles away to packing for storage and living with family indefinitely, I didn’t sleep at all for 36 hours as was pulling bits and pieces out of boxes that we needed!!

The removal firm were amazing and stored all our stuff for the two months it took to find somewhere else and complete. Moving into next house was much less stressful although the previous owner left it filthy. Definitely make sure you label boxes well and have plenty of cleaning supplies on hand!

I did my own packing, starting it the day house went up for sale so by the time I moved out everything was packed and labelled, ready to go.

Movers picked it all up Thursday afternoon, just leaving vacuum cleaner, duvet (I slept on the floor wrapped up in it), a box of cleaning products for last minute wipe and the cat.

Moved in new house next day just after midday, movers turned up and all moved in within hour and a half. They also put my metal bed together as well.

Well worth every penny.

Paid for packing, easiest move ever.

It was great, we had professional movers, they came the day before and started to pack up. We were out of our house by 11.30 and unloading at the new one by 12.30. Removals service makes all the difference.

Don't you have professional movers? We did, and we also paid for packing, which they did the day before, bar a few essentials. I think we were packed by early afternoon (16 years ago, I'm a bit hazy), fairly short drive (under an hour). New house was ready. I went to get kids from nursery and husband had their bedroom set up by the time we get back.

This may sound bizarre, but I remember it being one of the most relaxing days we had had for ages. Kids were just turned 3 and just about to turn 2 and we both worked full time. It was possibly the first day (or one of very few) we'd had the children both in nursery (or otherwise looked after by someone else) and not been working. And it turned out there was very little to do, so it was very pleasant! Nice weather too!

Very different from our previous move. We were literally moving down the road and had no kids. So we carried most of our stuff! Hired a small van but actually couldn't fit the biggest items in there easily. It took us a few days!!! (fortunately we were able to do that, I can't remember why!). It wasn't particularly stressful as we had the time, but it was a lot of work.

I sort of loved it tbh, it was a really busy day but exciting.

We packed everything into boxes the few weeks leading up to moving day, labelled it (colour-coded stickers) and put all of it in the garage. We had a removal company but didn't pay for packing on top - we'd rather do it ourselves. But the removal people did do all the heavy lifting.

We started at about 8am and were out of the old place by about 11am ish, 50-minute drive to the new house but the estate agents didn't have the key yet - removers parked outside the new house & we parked outside the estate agents for a long wait and lunch in the car. Didn't pick up the keys til about 2:30-3pm if I remember correctly.

Then it was all systems go, getting everything into the house AND dismantling and removing a load of fitted wardrobes from the main bedroom - we couldn't fit our stuff in with them there, they had to go out the window (which the removal men helped with). I think the removals men left at about 9-10pm and we stayed up another couple of hours to re-assemble the bed for our first night.

We moved on a Friday and also took the Monday off work, the vast bulk of the unpacking was done by the Monday.

Btw we were moving from a 3-bed detached to another 3-bed detached, no kids, 2 cats. The removals firm will tell you how big the van needs to be based on the size of your house and a look at your stuff.

It was hell because we were selling to a buy to let landlord/ property company who did not have the funds ready. I have no trust in estate agents now and would never sell to a prospective landlord.

Will never again do it on a Friday - there was an issue with the buyers’ bank and the money only came through very late on the Friday afternoon.

If it had been delayed even a few minutes more we would have been after the cut off for bank transfers and wouldn’t have been able to complete until Monday.

This was very very stressful as by that stage we’d fully packed the removal van so had no beds/sofas etc so staying in the house for the weekend was not practical. We also had no clothes or food. We would have had to pay a significant amount extra for the removal company to store our stuff and then come back another day to unload. We would also have needed an extra day off work without the benefit of the weekend immediately after to settle in.

Throw in two young children, a dose of flu, freezing wet January weather - never again!!

Both times (2021 & 2022) we did all our own packing (well in advance) and had professional removers in who were skilled and efficient (as the saying goes, many hands make light work).
In both instances we were moving into properties we already had possession of and we moved out in advance of completion day so we could go back and give the old houses a clean & vacuum.
Needless to say that as we already had possession of the new houses, they were clean and prepared for the incoming boxes & furniture.

Not saying they were completely stress free but we had non of the worries of money being transferred, getting keys etc. Biggest concern was getting the new houses habitable by the end of the day but luckily, by using professionals they were done by 2pm giving us plenty of time to get sorted and of course as we already had possession the necessities (tea, coffee, crockery, food etc) were already in place.

Most people can't do this though as they need to get the money from the Sale of their original property before they can pay the money for their new property on Completion day.

Your situation sounds unusual but great.

Short chain of 3.

We had cleared and decluttered as much as we could before going on the market. We also got packers - they came the day before we moved. Then the movers came back at 9am on moving day and had loaded the van by 12 - they went room by room so we followed them round with the hoover/ mop to do the final clean.

We then went and dropped the keys at the agents and went for lunch just round the corner - our buyers were itching to get in and we got the call to say we'd completed on our sale while we were having lunch. It then took nearly another 3 hours for the money to transfer to our purchasers solicitors and complete on our purchase - lots of phone calls from our movers who were sat outside and we mooched in the freezing cold near our seller's agents to grab the keys asap. Eventually completed around 4 - I'd had to go and pick the DC up at this point as they were at school so DH ended up arriving with the keys to let the movers in on his own, and I joined him just after 5 with the DC. Movers finished around 7 emptying the van, we made up beds and then collapsed with a takeaway!

The most stressful bit was waiting for the money to transfer while we were technically homeless! God knows why it took so long - we were only a small chain so I have no idea how longer chains manage!

In 2012 I moved from my first flat (that I’d moved in to with nothing in terms of furniture) to a house. I massively underestimated packing and had to deploy my parents and sister to help a few days before moving day. I exchanged and completed within 48 hours, as was normal then. Just me and my vendors in the chain as they couldn’t find a house they liked so were going in to rented. The removals people turned up about 9am and immediately sent for a second van 😆. By 11 it was all packed, mum and I hoovered and we all left. I went to get the keys from the estate agent while the removals guys had lunch, then I was in the new house by 1, they put all the furniture together and they were gone by 2:30pm! All incredibly smooth. The previous owners left a load of mirrors and things behind that I had to ask them to come and get, but no issues apart from that.

I’m about to move out of this house and in to a bigger house but we are combining my house and my partner’s so I’m already stressed about all the ‘stuff’ and duplicates! We also want a month between exchange and completion as he’s in rented but the top of the chain are delaying everything. I’ve sold to first time buyers who are coming for a THIRD viewing this week (apparently they’re excited; I’m not excited about having to keep cleaning and moving my dog out for them). I think I’m definitely paying for the packing service this time but need to declutter first!

Hi, I am on my own, severely, visually impaired, and did an international move from the UK to Greece after I completed on my home in Greece back in March. My home in Greece was ready to go, it was empty, and thankfully the estate agent put some lighting in for me. The challenging part was getting my things from the UK to Greece, I took most of my things with me, since I needed my new home to really feel like a home. The morning the person was supposed to come and pack, this was a very small company, I found out they were one person, short, and the person who came ended up spending six hours, Having to take books, more books, and more books down three flights of stairs. There’s no lift in my building. He was also quite panicked about the parking and had to keep on checking on his van. This was Central London. Things took two weeks to arrive in Greece, and as my new place still does not have furniture to put everything away, I still have many things on my floor. All in all, it was a very big move, a big change, including with a language barrier, so, if things take longer than usual, I don’t mind.

Long time ago now (18 years!) but I clearly remember commenting to DH that it was the easiest, most relaxed day I'd had in ages!!! We had two small children (almost 2 and just turned 3) and I worked full time and it was the first time we'd put them in nursery for the day but not worked. But there wasn't really anything for us to do!

We paid for packing and it was all done the night before. We weren't moving very far (less than an hour's drive). We were out in good time and the house we were moving to was also ready in good time. I went to pick up the kids from nursery while DH got their room set up. There was absolutely no hitch at all.

4 years or so earlier, pre-kids, we moved literally down the road, with fewer possessions. We did it entirely ourselves (hired a small van, but carried a lot that didn't fit!). That was much more challenging and took a few days...For some reason we had a week to move in so that was OK. Maybe because it was part-exchange on a new build??

LOL - just realised I answered this question almost identically last year. Totally confused myself when I scrolled up.

@irregularegular I reported a post on this. I think someone resurrected a zombie thread to advertise their removal company.