Removal firms and packing

[Marmiteymuffin]

Can I ask a daft question. We are about to start looking for removal firms. If they do packing, do they literally do everything - for example, clothes from wardrobe? Loose playpeople sets around the bedroom? Books? Or do we need to get as much boxed as possible. Also do any packers empty lofts, or is that a step too far!

I’ve used this service 3 times and they did everything including the loft and garage and greenhouse. Literally everything

They do everything. Sometimes not very well, but they do everything.

Ours did everything that wasn't physical fixed to the building. I had already packed our clothes into huge laundry bags still on the hangers. But Lego sets/models, books, toy cars and all the shite under my daughter's bed was packed into boxes and labelled up. Best £1400 I could have spent.

They do literally everything.

We haven’t asked for a loft to be cleared in the past so you may need to ask them about that. But they have certainly packed clothes straight out of wardrobes, books, children’s toys, emptied garden sheds & garages etc

They will pack absolutely everything (apart from flammable items and paint). Wardrobe clothes get hung up in special wardrobe boxes

Wow..amazing. thanks.. I am looking around thinking how can we possibly do it. What a relief! I will see what they say about our loft though...

They do everything but it’s massively in your interest to tidy up first as they will literally tip the contents of your junk drawer into a box so when you have to unpack it sucks if you’ve got multiple boxes full of assorted crap to unpack. I always have a massive clear out in the lead up and group ‘like things” together- for example get a plastic box and go round the house putting all the pens/ chargers etc. in one box, together. Also I use up fag ends of food, drink and toiletries/ cleaning products in the weeks leading up. I also have a “wtf is this?” box for those random bits of plastic and metal and cabling that you may discover were critical if you chuck them even though you have no idea where they’re from. They get kept for 6 weeks after I’ve moved and then chucked out.

They probably will do it no problem I’m just not sure if they charge extra for it or not as we’ve never kept much in the loft 🤷🏼‍♀️

As others have said they pack literally everything that isn’t fixed to the house. It’s amazing and pound for pound the best chunk of money you spend when moving house!

Agree that a serious declutter before they come is necessary and then it is very easy to unpack. Both times we’ve used them we’ve unpacked everything within two days which is blissful. They are also incredibly quick at packing as firstly they know what they are doing and secondly they have no emotional attachment to anything so they don’t get distracted reminiscing etc

We put things that we need to have to hand in a small pile out of the way with a note on saying do not pack and point it out to them when they arrive. This includes things like kettle and mugs so you can keep topping the packers up with tea as they work!

It's the best value for money you'll spend moving house. £ for £ the effort and time saved is incredible

You do need to declutter massively though, that will really help at the unpacking stage

These tips are brilliant. Keep them coming! In an effort to start emptying the loft, I've found myself recluttering rather than decluttering! We are moving somewhere bigger though so hopefully it won't be such an issue.

I've just moved having packed 70+ boxes myself and it's nearly broken me. Don't be me! If I ever move again (lol) I will 100% be getting the removal service to pack for me too.

Noooooo don't take the clutter 😂

We emptied the shed, cellar and loft of all the 'useful' but never used things.

Kept the Xmas decs, tools and garden stuff and suitcases only. Left the new owners the paint tins for touch ups and anything still sealed. Everything else went to the tip

Gave away loads of hardly used kitchen items and bedding to a refuge

Sold all our dvds to CEX and got £120 (some only worth a few pence but who needs dvds these days)

Clothes to charity - bet you can clear bin bags of things that don't get worn any more

Make sure you. empty the kitchen bin or else it will get packed with the contents. Mine went into storage for six months, rubbish as well!

I have never read a single post on these threads which said “I had the removal men do the packing, what a waste of money”, an opinion with which I entirely agree. They will pack everything. Mine also labelled the boxes as to where the contents were in the old house, so you may need to decide how that will correspond to your new one.

As they will pack literally everything, put a bag in the car with anything valuable, important documents or that you will need immediately after moving in (obviously I’m thinking of the kettle!) so you can access it easily.

They are awesome and worth it.

But it definitely took me longer than 2 days to unpack.

Keep separate some cleaning stuff, Loo roll and picnic plates along side the kettle. We packed Suitcases for a week which worked for us.

Also I emptied and defrosted the freezer that ices up but not the frost free one. Boxed up fridge contents so they didn't smash as they moved it with contents in.

Everything.

But they will not lovingly gather all the play people together I to one box if they are scattered far and wide, they will put them in with the nearest shoes and the box of tissues you left in the floor. If there is rubbish in the bin, it will be packed with rubbish still in.

Hanging clothes they put in a cardboard wardrobe to transport.

They pack by shape and volume in the order they come across things. So will your heavy new hiking boots be packed on top of the delicate, expensive fascinator you bought ready for SIL’s wedding this summer? Yes. Yes they will. And they will argue that just because the feathers and flowers are irreparably bent out of shape, they are still attached and so the fascinator has not been ‘broken’ and is still fit for use.

They do do everything, but you may want to do bits yourself so you can declutter as you go, because they will chuck things in boxes with no logic whatsoever… I did get a bit annoyed unpacking boxes that had 90% packing paper and 3 plates because it takes fucking forever to get through all the boxes on the other side.

They do everything. We only packed specific items we wanted on moving day (cleaning stuff, kettle etc) and a bag with important documents.

Definitely don't go packing clothes: our movers had wardrobe boxes with rails for items on hangers, so they don't need to be folded. They just go straight into the boxes, travel that way and come out into the wardrobes in the new place. Clothes in drawers just travelled in the drawers (which were taken out of the chests of drawers, then put back in once the frame was in the moving lorry).

Professional packers move fast, partly because they don't keep stopping to wonder where the X is that should be in the drawer with the Y, or to reminisce about the time they bought this ornament from Z. Friends even found an empty wine bottle when unpacking at their new place. It had been on the worktop when the packers came, and they'd wrapped it in tissue paper when they blew through the kitchen.

They only do that if they're bad at their job, to be fair. Ours didn't do anything like that.

Ah, how lucky, @CasperGutman. How were you able to know at the time of booking that the individual packers sent to you would not be bad at their job?

Ah, now that's tricky usually. Last time we moved we'd used the company a couple of years before and it was a small local firm, so we were as confident as we could be. But they could have had a change of staff of course.

If you don't have anyone you've used before and trust, then your best bet will be a smaller firm that's personally recommended. Failing that, you have to do the best you can by reading reviews etc. It's a bit of a trade off then: with a bigger firm it will be a bit of a lottery as to which staff you get for your move so others' experiences are less likely to reflect yours. But with a small local firm the low numbers of reviews can make me wonder if they've all been left by the boss's mum!!

I had the removal men do the packing, what a waste of money @MrsFezziwig 😊

I felt it was a waste of money because they managed to do the whole 4-bed house in a couple of hours because they took so little care. As a PP said, they just tipped drawers into boxes. Just swept things from shelves into boxes all higgledy piggledy. Things not even stacked.

Maybe we were unlucky, but I could have packed the whole house in a few hours like that myself and saved the money….