Logistics of moving house 5 hours away

[YourWittyLion]

We're moving house to a different county which is a 5 hour drive away.
We've never done a move with such a big distance between the houses before and wondered if anyone has any examples/ experience of how it worked on completion day?
We have 3 dc under 8 and a dog and we're moving to an area where we know no one, so when we travel down we will need to sleep in our new house on day one really.

We will be hiring a removals company to transport the contents of the house for us, giving us one less thing to worry about.

But what sort of timeline for the day should we expect?
Specifically, how does it work with the key handover (I'm presuming the removal men will be packing the lorry in the morning, before the completion happens and key release occurs). What happens in relation to us needing to drive 5 hours to the new county and getting the key to the new house before the estate agents close etc?

I can't see how it will work on the day which is a bit anxiety provoking, when we have little kids to think about who will need somewhere to sleep after a long day of moving and travel!

I would imagine removal men would do most of the loading of the lorry the day before, leaving only necessities behind for you (beds etc).

Morning of, they would come to finish the job, which gives you more time to get on the road. You can close your house down early, give keys to the agent and start driving. With any luck completion happens halfway through the journey, then you just need to make the agent aware of your distance and arrange a time for collection of keys. Equally at the other end, depending on time and size of house/amount of stuff, they may just be able to unload essentials and do it over 2 days that end too, but I imagine most would rather unload the whole lot and get home.

in short as long as removals and agents on board shouldn't be too dramatic

Hi 👋🏼 I did this last year. We had the removal company come the day before to pack most of the stuff and they hit the road. Part of the team returned with one van on the morning of moving day to take the last bits that we'd been using (mattresses etc). Meant we saved money on a bunch of removal people needing more than one night in a hotel. We used a company local to where we were moving, so they were mostly home other than the two going in the last van.

We'd handed a set of keys to our estate agent in advance, left the rest in the house and posted the last set through the door when we left.

We were on the road shortly after breakfast and would have arrived to collect the new keys early afternoon. The movers were happy that they'd have enough time to unload in one afternoon, but we had a local hotel option in case we didn't get beds in situ etc on the day.

As it was we had family nearby to the new house collect the keys for us and let the movers in (remember most of the movers/our stuff had been in the area since the previous day), which gave us a bit more breathing space to stop and stretch legs etc (also have young children). Honestly whilst this was very practical I wish we hadn't. I wanted that moment of walking into an empty house before the chaos. It was kinda weird being greeted by family and finding half our stuff already unloaded. But there are positives to it as it meant we weren't stressing trying to get there.

We told the children in advance that the first night we'd either be in a hotel or on mattresses on the floor. Set up all the beds in the biggest room and treated it like camping. Went for a walk around our new neighbourhood before bed. It felt like an adventure.

It was all very smooth tbh.

We did this with a 4 month old & a 2 year old. Moved 3 hrs away, no family in new area. Removal expenses paid as was due to relocation for work. Removal lorry cane day before & packed everything apart from what we needed overnight. Returned in morning for those final bits & travelled to new property. We handed keys in & followed in cars. Arrived early afternoon at new property, money had still not transferred at 4pm…lots of stress due to having very young children. Seller left us with spare keys so we could unload & transfer of funds happened at 5pm!

I might look into options for a Premier Inn or similar, in case there’s a delay.

We only moved locally, but our sale completed long before our purchase and the removal people weren’t allowed to unload in the dark in November. We had to drive around to find somewhere cheapish to eat and stay the night and went back first thing in the morning. We also had to pay extra.

We did a 2 day move emptied the house the day before completion and arranged for someone to clean as the rooms were emptied then posted tye keys through the letter box and left a set with the agent. Drove down that evening and stayed with family. That meant we were on hand as soon as the keys were released the next day. Might have been expensive but it made it all much less stressful

Book a hotel for the night in the new place.
Check with removals if they will load, then securely store contents overnight and deliver the next day.

Other replies have covered most things- main thing is getting movers to come pack day before.

For the dog, you can pay for a pet courier which I did for my cat and while expensive it was the best money I spent- put him in a cattery the day before, he wasn't there when we moved, then pet courier drove him up to us the day after. A dog probably doesn't need as much managing, but just to let you know it's a thing that exists if helpful (I'd never heard of it before!)

We moved a similar distance last year. We had already moved out of our house and all our stuff was in storage. We actually moved in the day after completion as our removals firm recommended this in case we didn't get the keys early enough. We turned up at 9am on the day after completion to pick up the keys. The removals people had left before 6 and arrived just after 10. It took them about 3 hours to unload then they left for the 4.5 hour drive home!

We did a relocation move, 3.5hrs from where we lived. We had a very big house, we were downsizing. We were very organised with the packing etc. removers arrived at 8am, they left just gone 11am, we did final check of house, said goodbye etc. made the onward journey, we were last in the chain and money didn’t exchange til gone 4pm so picked up key, removal guys planned to offload fridge, freezers, and our beds and then go to their hotel and come back early the next morning, as it happened they said would you be ok if we offloaded everything today, we said yes, they were here till about 8pm, they made up beds. It was a very long and tiring day. I kids were very late teens and we had no pets to worry about either.

Good luck OP, it will be ok, it’s only one day just be as organised as you can it will make the day go much smoother.

One night in a hotel will make everything logistically easier.

I am moving 250 miles in August. Buying a new build so hoping that’s easier with timings on day. I think as long as i’m on the road by 11am, should be plenty of time to get there before close, so i’ll have to check timings etc. I do have family who can go and grab keys if need be. 9wks tomorrow and I haven’t booked removals yet, but need to start seriously thinking about it now.

We did a 10 hr UK move north to south in February. (Remember the removal guys have a tachometer and mighr need to factor extra breaks.)
As PP have said, go talk to your removal company and get them to suggest options.
We packed on the Thursday, our final beds and gear left at 09.00 am on the Friday. Our furniture spent the weekend at the removers HQ in the van. It was driven down on the Monday and the guys unpacked on the Tuesday.
As @sweetpickle2says get the dog taken out the equation
Do you know a student who will take your mutt and bring him by train?
Truthfully you don’t want the dog any where near when the gates and front door are open wide.

We relocated 2.5 hrs away.

Had the whole house packed up 2 days before and held in storage by removal company (they pack straight into containers already on the lorry)

Cleaners came on morning of completion and finished by 1pm

New owners got keys at 2pm

You could stay in a cheap air BnB for the night (animal friendly) to take the stress off?

Removal people then delivered our stuff when we were ready

We were moving from a rental which was slightly simpler.

What we did that really helped though was moving our house contents on day one but not delivering them to the house till the next day. Giving us time to get the keys sorted etc. We stayed in a Premier Inn that night in the new location.

Logistically that doesnt sound possible for you though. The way our removals company were going to do it was empty our house on day one apart from mattresses and bedding. Packing up them on day two and driving down and unloading in one day. That would probably work for you.