Packing your house is a labyrinth of bullshit

[Pleaselettheholidayend]

I'm right in the middle.

I know it will end but it's awful hahahaha.

Just found a bag with a single shoe with a hole in the sole??????????

I won't cry.

Get packers in! It was 10% of the cost of our move and worth every penny! It took four men ten hours to pack our house and there is no way we'd have found the time or done it as quickly.

They move fast, ours went from L to R round each room. Kitchen stuff is packed quickly but well, all wrapped up and they are very good at sizes and shapes and fitting them together.

If you're not moving exact room to exact room eg bedroom to bedroom then do some sorting beforehand so that things that need to go to a particular room are together. The major sorting out time at the other end for us was where previous house and new house had very different room configurations.

They will pack absolutely everything unless instructed not to so have a corner of 'not to be packed' things. Our tea towels got packed and I had to go and buy some more to use that night!

Well our removers have just left having done the pre load. I am in shock as to how much stuff we have and cross with myself I didn’t push my dh more to have lots of clear outs over the last 6 months. I can’t begin to think how we will organise ourselves in the new house.

I’ve still got packing to finish tonight, the house needs cleaning too, so worn out!!

Hope everyone else is getting on ok!

I definitely don't want packers - agree with others I want to get the decluttering done this side of the move, and I want time to work through what needs to be sold, donated etc, rather than just dumping everything. Also the house I'm buying has a totally different room set up and I want to pack everything up so that it goes to the right final destination, rather than just getting chucked in together based on where it is now. I have dream that the new life in the new house will start smoothly and calmly as I happily unpack perfectly labelled and curated boxes.

I actually cried when I was packing 😭

Yeah that’s handy when you’re a FTB ( my vendors left me all their furniture as they emigrated which was great as I was moved from furnished rental) but otherwise it’s just more stuff. However, special place in heaven for vendors who leave the curtains and light fittings.

@LaPalmaLlama yep, ours just left massive holes in the wall where they’d removed curtain poles and a load of stuff in the garage and loft which we had to clear 🙄

Can I join?

Just spent an hour taking the light fittings down (sorry @LaPalmaLlama) as some of them were very expensive and I love them! Have replaced with cheap ones though, so they have something.

Everything is in boxes now, but I don't see how it's going to all get out and into a van. We're only in a one bed flat! How is there so much stuff!

@sweetpickle2 ha! Yeah so long as there’s something that’s all good. It’s when you move in to holes in the walls and dangling wires that it sucks.

@TeenLifeMum thats rude! Also the annoying thing is that you know 80% of people probably never alter the curtains they took as they intended and just get new ones.

@LaPalmaLlama they were clearly having a strop we didn’t agree to purchase their made to measure curtains and pelmets for £500 each so removed them badly. Honestly, they looked like something out of a National trusts property and in a standard newbuild family home looked ridiculous to me. They also had a ceiling fan in the master bedroom which, having only visited in day light, we didn’t realise didn’t have a light. There was no light at all!

We have SO much stuff. When you get a packing quote do they come out to rhe house? I’m concerned that on paper my “4 bed” doesn’t convey the amount of crap we actually own (we have started sorting the out buildings but god I just want to burn the house down and start again!)

They either quote by visiting or doing a video tour. So they go in every room and will want to see inside cupboards. Also in garages and sheds.

The ones we used had quoting systems so they'd select items of furniture for each room from pictures on their iPad then estimate the amount of stuff for packing.

Omg I read that as special place in hell and started panicking because were planning to leave blinds and light fittings!

I’ve cried almost every day over the past 6 days with the pressure of packing and feeling overwhelmed. Glad it’s not just me!

Same. I wish I could bring myself to just box everything up randomly but I have to do it ‘right’.

I’ve taken so much care, I won’t want to unpack the boxes! 🤪

Ive started packing this week so it's not all a mad rush at the end.

It's amazing and a cathartic experience isn't it. Giving you the chance to bin old rubbish. The amount of stuff I have found in cupboards that i have just binned is insane. Food thats out of date, flea treatment thats 4 years out of date, recipe cards I thought id like to try but haven't.

Im in the leave the curtains and blinds camp. I have always done it and never asked for extra cash for them as id just take them down and never use them again. They never fit properly in another window and even if the buyers don't like them it gives them chance to have a bit of privacy / sleep until they can get their own style.

I'm dreading moving this time round. Since we last moved we have two under 3 and all their old clothes and toys and god knows what in the attic and shed.

I'm leaving light fittings and shades, including an expensive chandelier at no cost - removing it would be a hassle, and it isn't quite right for the new place anyway. I'm leaving blinds and curtains, apart from one pair that I love and which, miraculously, fit the new living room perfectly. I replaced them with cheap ones so that there is something there for privacy and which goes with the decor.

@TeenLifeMum , that's so cheeky and petty of your vendors, just because you didn't want to pay for their curtains, which might not have been to your taste, regardless of how much they wanted for them.

More boxing up this weekend, and labelling things I'm leaving behind, which is a fair bit. No more trips to the tip!! 😃I still think I've not cleared out enough clothes, so might go through the wardrobes again.

We're moving out of our first time purchase flat, couldn't imagine taking the blinds/curtains/light fittings, not least because for example our current living room blinds won't fit the new house's windows since they're on big bay Victorian terrace windows which the new house doesn't have.

I couldn't help myself; knowing our movers are also packing for us, I still ended up emptying a cupboard into a Really Useful Box I just happen to have 🙈At least it meant further decluttering as I didn't realise I had hoarded a lot of old paperwork that we won't ever need again (we haven't been on TalkTalk broadband for at least 4 years now, why did I keep the connection letter!!)