Post your top tips on how to move house (as painlessly as possible) here. Thanks

[carriemumsnet]

Ok I will 'fess up that there's a mild ulterior motive for this, in that I am actually moving house in a couple of weeks, but talking about it around Mumsnet Towers, we came to the conclusion that rather like giving birth, moving house isn't something you do that often, but when you do it you think of loads of things you wish you'd known/ tips would like to pass on/things you'd never do again, but by the time you do it again you've mostly forgotten them. So, wouldn't it be great to gather all the top tips and suggestions together (this is on moving house, not giving birth, anyone still with me on this analogy?) and then edit them together so they'll be available for anyone who happens to be moving house in the future.

I'll kick off with the only one I remember from last time. Pack your bedding and a kettle/milk/tea in your own car...

Over to you and thanks

wow - all good stuff so far - am taking notes! Me and the Dh cleared out our drawers and wardrobe last night and have 2 bags for homeless shelter/ charity shop. Very cathartic (though I have still kept some sentimental stuff...and odd things that come in handy for World Book Day dressing up (dh v puzzled by idea of sentimental clothes and the WBD concept... thing it might be a girl thing )

Anyway thanks for all the advice so far, it's really really useful, keep it coming.

Get tie-on labels rather thank stick on ones for furniture. Several things in our house are still marked where I stuck labels onto them when we moved (and then repeated the mistake when we moved again )

Oh, and put all the "fixings" for self-assembly furniture into individual and well-labelled envelopes. Last time we moved it took us a fortnight to find the bits we needed to put our bed back together!

Sort everything out & only take what you need. Be ruthless. Bive loads to charity. If you can have the moving company pack and unpack for you.

Right, I have a few 'don'ts'.

Don't sell you current home until you've got somewhere to move into.

Don't leave packing until 5 days before you have to be out because your dh insists "it'll only take a few days to pack up" - IT WON'T

Don't hire a storage facility that is half the size you need because your dh (with superior visuo-spatial ability insists "it's huge, plenty of room"; dh's will power will not make it bigger.

Don't move into your new place (once you've found it) and leave everything in boxes because dh says "we'll just decorate this room for now, and get the shelves up in these others later" as later will not happen and your books will still be in boxes, probably for the next 20 years.

Moving isn't as bad as you think though, even with all the above and plenty more where that came from! We managed to move in to our house on 20th Dec and still do the entire Christmas thing (with extra friends and relatives staying too!). If I can survive it, anyone can.

Good idea Bramshott - or re-sealable plastic bags, labelled and sticky-taped or tied onto the item in question.

Don't forget the shed, the garage, the loft, potted plants, garden toys etc all need to be sorted and packed too. Some removal companies will insist that you empty the loft yourself.

Have your conveyancing solicitor's number stored in your phone so you know when the money has gone through. Where and when are you dropping off/picking up the keys.

And - horror of horrors - do not expect the vendor to have left the house immaculate and ready to move straight in. You may need to do a quick dettox/bleach/hoover while the removal men wait outside for 15 minutes. When I moved with baby DS1, the carpet was so rank, we sat on a blanket on the front lawn for half a day until DH could get back from work and rip it out! The next time we moved the house was so clean we could've eaten off any surface (it's been downhill since then .

If you have a first time buyer in the chain be prepared for it all to go pear-shaped at 11am on moving day. That's when you need a good estate agent and conveyancer to hold the chain together and you will realsie why you are paying them so much money.

So Carrie, have you ordered the packing service?

Find your blow up campbeds and pump and pack those plus duvets, pillowcases, plates, cutlery, drinks and cups, plus a suitcase with a few days clothes in the car. Plus all documents, and objects of sentimental value, and cleaning stuff. This way, even if the lorry gets lost or whatever, you can cope for a couple of days and have something to eat your takeaway off of.

Pay for packing (notice a pattern here ? We have moved a number of times and seeing your house go from normal to empty in 5 hours is impressive)

Bribe friends to come and unpack/ child wrangle/assemble furniture on the day after you move

If you haven't de cluttered before moving, decide on an area and divert all boxes known to contain 'stuff' in to there. Join local Freecycle straight away and start decluttering as you unpack. Gives you a chance to meet people in the area too

If you do use professional packers - be clear upfront about how you need everything to be CLEARLY labelled.

We had 18 boxes marked "kitchen" but no clue as to what was pasta and what was unopened parts of the magimix.

Get rid of the children. It'll be a breeze after that.

On the day you move make your beds up as normal.
Then untuck fitted sheet/mattress protector and roll all the bedding from pillow end into a big "sausage".

Put whole thing into large clear plastic bags to ensure quick replacement at other end.

You'll all be grimy and knackered after the day so it's a "waste" of clean sheets and SO much quicker when you just want to fall into bed!

Pack a box with school uniform and shoes, bookbags, ballet wear, clarinet, homework etc.... all in together.

I forgot and spent a mad hour on the first night desparately trying to find urgent school stuff!

We made up the children's beds first and put out their favourite soft toys on the bed so their rooms looked a bit more like home.

Pray, pray and pray some more for a dry day!!!

Good Luck!

pack the kids off to someone else while you move - SOOOOOOOO much easier (and even better if you can pack them off somewhere that will deliver them to school after the first night )

Make sure you get your Royal Mail redirection sorted more than 5 working days before you moved

Use linen/clothes etc to pack the top of boxes and wrap fragile stuff in, especially if you're short on newspaper.

Get all your friends collecting newspaper NOW

Get plenty of wine in the fridge for the days before you move

Go through all your papers and make a list of all the people you need to inform of change of address (saves rushing around 2 days before your moving date thinking "shit")

If possible go and measure up the rooms in your new house before you move so you can work out where the furniture goes before it's moved in. Much easier to say "sofa over>>>>>>>>>there" "TV>>>>>>>>>>>there" as it's being taken in than trying to move it all around afterwards

LABEL your boxes clearly. Not just what's in it but the room it's from/destined for too. Means if you take your time unpacking not only will the boxes be in the right rooms but you'll know exactly what's in them too

Buy a LOT more parcel tape than you think you'll need, you'll be amazed how a few small boxes use up so much tape

Find out what time is the best time to get boxes from your local supermarket and get yourself there at that time (17 decent sized boxes in one go 2 nights ago from a trip at 11.15pm).

Rope your friends in to help you pack

Make sure you've either cleared the freezer, or have friends that stick your freezer stuff in while you're waiting for your freezer to get back down to the right temperature

BREATHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH (said to herself)

oh and never underesimate just how many boxes those "few odds and ends to pack on the last night" actually take up - learnt that lesson last time we moved

Try not to move house when you're ill - I ran out of steam at 10.30 after a morning of light packing and had to be moved to the new house and sit on the floor and direct operations from there, leaving dh and dps to cope with the rest of the move....

Reserve a huge space for the removal van outside your house - if necessary get the neighbours to park thei r car across two spaces and move when they arrive. Ask the people in new house to put bins in the space outside when their van moves off.