Moving soon. Tips for packing or get the professionals in?

[Roarsomemore]

Would value any advice about best plan of attack...

Got the contents of a 3 bed house to pack up and very little spare time on my hands in which to do it (probably like everyone else!) Roughly how much would a professional service cost or any ideas of how to tackle it? And then there's the wanting to leave it clean and tidy for our buyers. So stressful.

I think it cost about £1600 when we did it three years ago. That night be the best £1600 I have ever spent. I nearly died with the shock of moving house, I dread to think what it would have been like if I'd had to do any of the work!

The packers were like a plague of lovely, efficient locusts, then in the new house we could unpack boxes while they unpacked the van. We were nearly settled by the time they left, it was amazing.

Absolutely get the packers. You don't have to do ANYTHING in advance except declutter and maybe stick post it notes on stuff that you don't want packed. Also provide drinks and snacks. In the context of moving it doesn't cost a lot at all, and the cost of stress is way higher.

Declutter ruthlessly
Pay for movers
Do a deep clean before moving day - should be easier without the clutter

This is what I plan to do when we move next - I will never, ever shift furniture myself again!!

Get quotes from the removal co for with and without packing.

It wasn’t as expensive as we expected.

They generally do it in all one day, the day before you move. And provide all boxes and packing materials.

Though you can get your removal co to drop off boxes for you to do it yourself.

Due to lockdown we did it ourselves last time. 3 bed semi, 130 boxes, took two of us more than a week almost full time.

So… if you can afford their quote, packers are very worth it!

I think I might get researching the cost of it now. 🤔 Life doesn't stop while we're moving so I really don't know how I would fit packing in. I am decluttering as I am going tho.

We did our own packing , started about a month before moving. It was winter time so packed away all summer clothing labelling who they belong to. Sorted through the kitchen only keeping out the essentials , also was ruthless about only packing what we use and sending rest of stuff to charity or a skip.
Packed away surplus bedding , towels again labelling. Same cds , dvds ( remember those ! ) .
Then thought about rooms , so labelled as we packed so kid 1 , kid 2 , etc .
All in all it wasn't too bad

We're moving in 6 weeks and planning on doing it ourselves, though this thread doesn't give me much hope 😂 also in a 3 bed, just two of us though so no kids to worry about
We're decluttering like our lives depend on it at the moment, we choose a room to tackle each weekend. About to start properly packing this week. We have a lot of help available and my mums house is round the corner, so can store things there before moving day so we only have to move the essentials on the day. We are selling our sofa which is the biggest thing so that should help.
Watching this thread for tips!

Packers are definitely worth it, especially if you have any delays on the day. We didn’t get the keys until 5 o’clock on the day and they’d unpacked 3 van fulls into (mostly) the correct rooms in under 2 hours. After a stressful day waiting for funds to be released, I was glad to just make tea and point to which room to send things to.
We had a 4 bed, full loft and garage though. And I thought we’d decluttered! Not enough, clearly 😂

We've just moved, got most of the packing done for us and booked professional cleaners for the afternoon after the stuff was moved out and for the new house before moving the stuff in. The only problem with not doing the packing yourself is that they don't necessarily pack it in a logical order, so you might find boxes of random stuff mixed together.

Just speaking to my husband now to extol the virtues of packers. 😁

Definitely get the packers, every penny well spent. Moving is knackering enough without doing the packing if you have the option not to

Get packers. Used them for when DM moved, can’t recommend them enough

I second (third? fourth?) having packers - if you can afford it. They are so quick and efficient.

In my experience paying movers to unpack was very expensive but paying them to pack was relatively cheap and very well worth it.

We got the packers in last year and omg, cannot believe how brilliant they were! 100 per cent recommend doing this, worth every penny.

Get the packers in - it was about 10% of the move cost and SO worth it. So about £400 out of a £4k move.

They are so quick and efficient and save you having to live surrounded by boxes for weeks on end.

It is worth every penny to have packers!

I moved from a three bed house to two bed flat. I did it myself it was quite hard going and I had to take lots of stuff to the tip.

My friend and I cleaned the house thoroughly on moving day.

I am never moving house without packers ever again. Mind you I said that last time but then we only moved over the road so we just carried everything over ourselves with some wonderful friends.

We just moved from a two bed and packed ourselves while having an outrageously busy time at work - just used evenings and weekends over the course of 10 days and it was totally fine.

We did pay for two men and a van though which was absolutely worth it - £350 in London.

Totally agree with PP. worth every penny to get movers on to pack. We also got them to put beds back together again which was amazing. They did all this in a fraction of the time it would have taken me. I think they may have been robots!
We unpacked though as we wanted to choose where to put stuff.

I’ve moved 7 times in 11 years. Every time I wish we had packers but couldn’t afford it- if you can- do

We got a skip and did a massive declutter - we were very ruthless but we were downsizing too! We then did a big deep clean a month before we moved - I went a bit bonkers and even hoovered the walls 😂. I also threw almost all the contents of the kitchen cupboards out and put the rest into big boxes within the cleaned cupboards. I packed up all our summer clothes into suitcases. I asked on Facebook if anyone had any moving boxes and got loads.
Then the week before we moved I gave the bathroom and kitchen another deep clean. Packed up all the breakable ornaments / pictures / kitchen stuff etc.
The movers just did that - no packing.

Ours was an extra 300 quid on top of the moving cost. Best 300 quid I;ve ever spent. They do it quicker and better than I ever could. Apparently there are packing courses in the moving trade. Who knew. Made em a load of sausage rolls and tea and coffee. No stress, no worry