How does it work getting a company to pack for you?

[Umlellala]

Can't get my head round it as have always done the packing. Do you do most of the packing and they finish off? Or do you just leave it tidy? How long does it take?

Sounds v tempting but only if it will be less stressful. Can anyone give me an idiot's guide?

I left everyhting tidy, they packed, and I floated around saying goodbye to the neighbours. Most civilised.

They do it all, bring all the supplies they need and pack it all up. We did break down things like cots, shelving and any beds to help them out a bit and save time.

We put on cups of tea and got in some lunch for them too. It is definitely stress free, which is good, as we are moving again in a few weeks.

They can do all of the packing for you - they'll need to look round the house to get a feel for how much "stuff" you have before they give you a quote though. I've had this done on a couple of moves, it's very nice!

I did go round beforehand and try to thin out things I didn't want to keep though, otherwise you just end up with all your muck in the new house, and have to thin it out then, which is even more of a hassle.

But yes, you just make sure things are reasonably tidy and organised, dishes clean etc

When we moved, the removals company did the packing. They offered three service levels, we took the basic one. It worked like this: we did (almost) nothing!

Obviously you should pack essentials to cover the period between properties and keep them with you as if going on holiday - clothes & kids' stuff. Also, mark a few things that you will need to find immediately in the new property (kettle, tea bags, mugs, foods, cleaning equipment, telephone, whatever).

The company simply packed everything, and label it all methodically. Drawer contents were kept in the drawers, clothes from wardrobes were put into tall boxes with a hanging rail, and so on.

If you have special items such as expensive wines, a piano, unusually fragile things, you do need to let them know. If they are reputable & experienced they will have seen it all before and know how to pack appropriately.

Once in the new property, make sure you get them to put all the furniture and boxes in the correct rooms.

They will re-build furniture but with the basic service they do not unpack the boxes again. the next level up gives you that. (The top level does everything including setting up computers, internet, plants, plugging lamps in, glasses back into shelves, etc etc etc. Bonkers expensive and they hate doing it!).

The real tip is to use the move to get rid of as much accumulated, unwanted stuff as possible!

Hope this helps.

I'm just starting to get quotes for this. The 3 guys I've had in so far have ranged from we'll do EVERYTHING including packing up the loft (I'll pay alot for someone to do that job!) to they'll do basics and won't collapse beds. Needless to say I'm going with the loft packer guy! They're going to take down the curtain rods, lightshades, pack the loft, basically everything. We'll ask them not to do the TV / sound system and computers and do them ourselves the day before. We're on a 2 day move. Day 1 packing, Day 2 collapse beds and load vans and move us in to new house.

Just need the house!

Much much less stressful. Have a weed out of what you want to keep and unpack the loft. They will sweep in and pack everything in boxes and take proper care of expensive items etc. And if they pack they can't say you didn't wrap/label something expensive properly if you do get any breakages.

My only tip is pack your overnight essentials before they arrive as we had to unpack 1 box (at bottom of a pile) to unearth DS's pyjamas/teddy/baby monitor so we could put him to bed the night before the move. They go very quickly!

It was great - we just put aside a few things we didn't want them to pack, and left all the rest as it was. Two men came the day before the move, took apart beds etc, packed up everything else and we got home from work that day to find everything neatly boxed up!

Also any clothes in drawers got left in the drawers and all clothes hanging in wardrobes got put onto hanging rails in the van, so when they unloaded our stuff at the new house they just put the drawers back into the chests of drawers with the clothes still in them, and hung all the hanging clothes back into our wardrobes, so that was a bit less unpacking for us to do.

All the boxes were labelled which made unpacking easier, and everything was really well wrapped, so no breakages.

Couldn't recommend it highly enough! I think it cost us somewhere between £150-£200 for the packing service, but it meant we didn't need to take time off work and our house was not in a mess for weeks before the move.

Hope this helps!

It's total bliss. Last move, we had two weeks notice that it was actually going to happen (long story, relocation across the country), so I did absolutely nothing.

Just chuck a couple of days worth of clothes, some plates/cutlery/mugs, and overnight bags in your car (otherwise they will get packed), and take a camping chair and sit in the garden to read.

My best tip is to hang as many of your clothes in the wardrobes as humanely possible - they use these ace hanging wardrobe boxes so the clothes go in on their hangers. It makes unpacking and finding clothes much easier, although for the chest of drawers that was coming with us they just wrapped the drawers as they were.

Anyway, it is so totally stressfree, you'll never pack yourself again. Took 6 hours to pack our 3 bed house, including using a van to ferry between house and lorry

Just did it 3 weeks ago. We did a lot of weeding out of stuff we needed to throw away, then made sure everything was in the right room for when we moved so it got put in the right room when we arrived. We did take beds apart and shelves apart beforehand so that they could be moved through doors.

Otherwise the only thing to do is book the firm, pay them and then make sure you keep the cheapest mugs, teapot, coffee, tea bags, milk, some food and a few bits of crockery out of the way so it does not get packed accidentally during the day you move otherwise you wil die of thirst and starve as they pack everything else. Make sure the packers/movers get plenty of tea and coffee to drink on the day.

Simples.

I have always had the removal firm do the packing for me. The best experience was undoubtedly the one where I had done the most sorting out and decluttering before they arrived (before I married so no DH/DS chaos effect to deal with.)

I have had a partial unpack (stuff out of boxes and onto work surfaces only) and two where they dumped boxes in approximate rooms and scarpered. Both methods had their stresses. A full restoration to order sounds wonderful!

It is more complicated if you have stuff going into storage, which I have had each time (moving between Scotland and England - three times!). Best way to handle that is to get stuff you need in your rented place packed up and moved out of the way before they get started.

The biggest thing to watch for is that they have an accurate picture before hand of what needs packing, and then that they plan in enough time (which you can guess at) and enough people. We had one horrible move where it took from 9 am to 7 pm to pack up our 2 bed flat, because they were short-handed on the day.

It's worth every penny. We had packers last time we moved and they were fab, did a 3 bed semi (not loft or garage) in an afternoon and then came back the next day for the actual move.

Make sure you keep out stuff such as the kettle, mugs, teabags, sugar, milk etc as well as overnight stuff. The last thing you need is to be unpacking boxes trying to find your toothbrush!

Ruthlessly declutter before they come so that you aren't paying them to pack and move stuff that really should have gone to the tip. Give them marker pens to label boxes as they fill them eg kitchen, bedroom etc.

I actually preferred not having them unpack as then I could get myself organised in our new place, deciding what went where etc. Also I needed to clean inside cupboards before things were put away which would have been awkward if the removals men had unpacked.

In the grand scheme of things when moving a couple of hundred extra quid for them to pack is small change when you look at the overall cost of moving house. Worth it to make life that little bit easier!

Thanks for all the info, sounds fab! Will definitely be getting quotes. Sounds like it will make life a lot easier, especially with two dc under 4

Definitely worth getting them to do the packing - but be aware that they usually do it the day before the move and they work very very fast.

That's fine - would I be expected/able to stay away (we don't have a garden to hide in)?

No, you need to be within earshot to answer questions and make tea!

I did go out whilst they were packing, and then returned to start cleaning behind them

CMOT you missed a trick............

I paid the cleaner to come in and tidy and clean after we left.

Yes we moved out of rented and paid a professional carpet cleaner to come and do the carperts, windows we did the week before and quick scuttle round the bathrooms and wipe ythe dust and cobwebs on derooms left the kitchen which we paid someone to clean.

We were still tired out though.

Agree with neversaydie - you do still need to be there ot answer questions and yes for goodness sake be ready to make continuous tea/coffee otherwise you migt find thngs start to get scratched and broken.

We put them in holiday camp to get them out of the way. It is not the best place for kids to be.

Alas, as we had such short notice that we were actually going, our cleaners couldn't fit us in. Otherwise, would def have done that. It was a very odd move - DH was in work, DS was in nursery, then we moved 150 miles the next day.

One thing we tried this move, was giving them all the beds, and using the travel cot and an airbed that night - it made getting into the new place easy as we didn't have to put beds together in the evening. Next day, a group of friends came to visit, and helped put everything together/unpack.

We got everything but essentials and furniture put in the garage so that we could filter it as it came out of boxes. A lot then went on Freecycle

Yay Umlellala can't wait til you move! and if your moving company is any good keep their number so we can use em for our move.

Ok, have the plan - kids to Nanna's on the Thursday, packers do all the work while dh at work, then Friday (completion day) I/dh remove kids for morning while they load van! Lovely! Now to get some quotes...

We had a fab removeals company -it took 2/3 of them 1.5 days to pack up our house (incl. loft and garden shed/plants in pots). The second day was the stuff like beds, kitchen stuff, curtains that we'd needed overnight.

I remember being impressed by the youngest one (who looked about 16) showing me that he'd put things I might need but maybe hadn't thought about (first aid kit/tablets, potty etc) in a seperate clearly labelled box that would be packed last and unloaded first. Also a box of kitchen essentials.

Little details like that made it a smooth move.

When we arrived at our destination about 60miles away they didn't bat an eyelid at the awkward access to our new house.

We gave them a very good tip! (and also bought them a take-away pizza towards the end of the unpacking IIRC as it was getting late )

removals NOT removeals

Bumping this to ask if anyone can recommend removal services in SE London and/or give me an idea of prices so I know what quotes are reasonable. V grateful for any replies.