Packing Service?

.... For what it's worth I don't think I'd normally consider it but we have a 1y and 3y old.....

Well, normally you'd take them in the car, but if they are well-wrapped by professionals using the correct materials (bubble wrap, tape and nappies), and the journey not too long, they'll be fine, and your journey will be the quieter for it!

Professional packing services are the bees knees. All six knees, unbroken, and hairy as hell! I move too much and, where the tab is being picked up on a relocation package, always (get them to) pay the extra, and never regretted it. They wrap and pack at speed and, at first, one might be concerned. However, the skill that comes from practice pays off.

With BAR removal firms, we have never had a breakage - and that's around six moves of a five(ish) bedroom house, much of it antique (carp and cheap, but fragile) stuff.

Candlesticks with snuffers - not only the snuffer gets individually wrapped, but the candle itself is removed and wrapped. Each and every glass is wrapped, using several sheets of paper. Draws are taken out, tucked up to bed with scrumpled paper, and slipped back in - even if they have tat in them!

Oh, the bliss of seeing someone else (not) fight with the tape, as another box is slid away up the ramp and onto the van... the delight as a box of glassware (wrapped using a third of the Amazon Rainforest in paper) floats gracefully onto the truck... Then I remember those times that my wife and I weren't getting a relocation deal - sweaty and dusty and sneezy and irritable and clumsy and at two o'clock in the morning, surrounded by things that don't fit with anything else whatsoever, four remaining sheets of wrapping paper, one box and thirty-two dinner plates with a myriad of glasses spilling slowly over the blood-stained carpet, still damp with tears and sweat.

Packers! Use them, or pay a solicitor twice that for the divorce settlement/defence against manslaughter charges. Your choice.

Pay for them to pack everything. Do it.
Best money you'll ever spend. Moving's stressful enough, you don't need the hassle of packing by yourself. They don't unpack for you though.

Nothing to add except to confirm what every one else is saying - DO IT!

I'd never consider doing anything else now, my last move so much much less stressful being able to leave the packing to someone else Day one most things were pack & loaded, a chair and TV left in in living room for that evening, bedroom also left for the following day. Day two remaining items packed and loaded, off they went to my new place while I waited for my lift (I don't drive), completed just as I left the old place, everything moved into new place, beds put back together and me with feet up & a cuppa by 4pm when they finished! What could be easier??

i appreciate the MSE answer would be save the £400 - GET PLANNING AND PACK.

but no, my OH paid to have the packing service as a gift to us on our recent move and it was wonderful (the prev move was a living nightmare and we both just did want to go through that again - MSE self move/ hire van - on a budget)

i can also recommend having a professional clean done on the house you are moving into. Our removals had a recommended partner and it came at a reduced price - so while they were packing up and moving the old house they had a team who were scrubbing and cleaning the new one - oven gleaming and bathrooms sparkling- best move ever!

The MSE answer might well be to save money by packing ourselves but this is one of these things you save money elsewhere so you can afford to do it.

Economy makes a great servant but a terrible god.