Removals - full packing service - any tips for the day?

geoffky

i am moving as we speak,,we are only taking a tv and stand and 2 seater leather everything else is new but i reckon i must of done 30 car loads in the last week with clothing and things like lawnmowers ect ect..i thought it would not be stressful but it has been..plus next delivered the wrong units today,,glad when it is all over,,

skintchick

Do they take your clothes out of wardrobes and then put them back in at the new house? Or just take the wardrobes full of clothes? Or what? I'm about to book to be packed and am clueless! Love the idea of not having to do it though, with a baby I just can;t see how I'd make it happen, especially as she loves to 'help'.

PasturesNew

There is a packing service .... and a separate unpacking service.

The two are separate... so if you ordered the unpacking service, then yes they'd hang your clothes up.

If it were me having a packing service (re the comment about knickers), I'd just pack a simple 2-3 boxes of personal stuff myself ahead of time. Just for knickers, diaries and (say) jewellery/sentimental value stuff. Just because I like my privacy, not because any packers are ever dodgy.

PasturesNew

skintchick wrote: »

Do they take your clothes out of wardrobes ... Or just take the wardrobes full of clothes?

It depends on the house, the wardrobe, the packers. They might take the clothes out, box those up, then move the wardrobe empty... but, wardrobe and packers depending, they might just decide to bag it up securely with a huge protective jiffy bag type of thing, packing tape round that ... and take the lot. They'd, of course, look inside first and decide what was best.

They are responsible for their decisions, if you've a preference then tell them.... but they're experienced.

There's always one with a clip board too... older bloke usually. He is the load distributor, paperwork ticker, making sure everything's safe, recorded, packed properly, distributed in the vans properly.

They do this day in, day out, year in, year out. You've probably got 100 years of packing/moving experience in your house that morning.... nobody'd do a better job.

dacouch

skintchick wrote: »

Do they take your clothes out of wardrobes and then put them back in at the new house? Or just take the wardrobes full of clothes? Or what? I'm about to book to be packed and am clueless! Love the idea of not having to do it though, with a baby I just can;t see how I'd make it happen, especially as she loves to 'help'.

A decent removal company will use garment boxes which are basically a tall box with an in built garment rail so they can hang the clothes on their hangers in the boxes so they don't get creased (They are sealed up).

They are like this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/5-x-Large-Strong-Removal-WARDROBE-Cardboard-Box-Carton_W0QQitemZ270518157601QQcmdZViewItem?rvr_id=120611834541&rvr_id=120611834541&cguid=4435d5c112a0a0aad4748154ffe78af4

It is highly unusual for them to move the wardrobe with the clothes in

NEH

We're moving a month and using removal company....

As regards to wardrobe contents when they came to do the quote Sarah did they tell you what they would be doing?

Ours explained what would be going in what boxes, how they'd transport the chest of drawers with stuff in (however my underwear is being packed into a case separately) and what they would be dismantling as well.....Some people who came to do quotes wouldn't even consider dismantling the furniture for us which put us off them straight away....

We're packing the essentials box plus we're also packing a small case as we'll be staying in our empty house overnight but you won't need this as I presume it's all done on the same day...

We'll be leaving htem to it, though i think when we get ot the new house we're going to have to provide instructions as the rooms are different to here and you may have the same going from a 2 bed to a 4 bed, things need a big of jiggling around...

talulahbeige, we're paying £900 odd without insurance to have the full service going 120 miles....

It's an awful lot of money but we have no choice to pay it as this time we are moving we have big furniture and with my health being so bad we couldn't go through what we did last year with a self move again...

sarah_elton

Hey all, thanks for all the tips! Good point re knowing where the toolbox is with our furniture arriving on the same day. It's mostly assembled, but we'll have a couple of bits to finish off.

Re wardrobes, ours use wardrobe boxes - we asked when they quoted as we wanted this, rather than clothes folded into regular boxes. We're not having the unpacking service and transferring them from wardrobe boxes into wardrobes is nice and quick.

We are paying £765 which is relatively high to others on here considering we are moving out of a 2 bed flat. However, it's a second floor flat with no lift and we have a lot of stuff, including a couple of heavy, awkward bits of furniture they'll have fun with down the stairs! I moved into the flat with some mates and a hired van a few years ago, with considerably less furniture, and it was a pain in the a&&! We had three quotes and one who obviously didn't want the job quoted over £1,300. :eek:

Same as clutton we've been decluttering. The only downside of the packing service is that if you don't, they'll pack up all that junk that you would normally throw out while you packed.

Full packing service was partly necessity for us. We have so thoroughly outgrown our flat that there is just stuff EVERYWHERE! And we have a loft-full that has to come down somehow, and if we'd packed ourselves as soon as we packed bits we'd have nowhere to empty the loft to. So instead we'll just empty the loft at the weekend, make the place even more full of stuff and let them get on with it.

N79

The only final point is to check the list of items that they won't pack and carry (usually very small but includes things like cans of petrol and gas cylinders) and make sure you have enough room to carry them yourselves.

sarah_elton

Ooh thanks - that's one thing we didn't ask. Will give them a call before the day. We have the keys to our flat for a couple of weeks after we move out so it's no problem if we need to go back for stuff (we're only moving about 15 miles!)

NEH

sarah_elton wrote: »

Hey all, thanks for all the tips! Good point re knowing where the toolbox is with our furniture arriving on the same day. It's mostly assembled, but we'll have a couple of bits to finish off.

Re wardrobes, ours use wardrobe boxes - we asked when they quoted as we wanted this, rather than clothes folded into regular boxes. We're not having the unpacking service and transferring them from wardrobe boxes into wardrobes is nice and quick.

We are paying £765 which is relatively high to others on here considering we are moving out of a 2 bed flat. However, it's a second floor flat with no lift and we have a lot of stuff, including a couple of heavy, awkward bits of furniture they'll have fun with down the stairs! I moved into the flat with some mates and a hired van a few years ago, with considerably less furniture, and it was a pain in the a&&! We had three quotes and one who obviously didn't want the job quoted over £1,300. :eek:

Same as clutton we've been decluttering. The only downside of the packing service is that if you don't, they'll pack up all that junk that you would normally throw out while you packed.

Full packing service was partly necessity for us. We have so thoroughly outgrown our flat that there is just stuff EVERYWHERE! And we have a loft-full that has to come down somehow, and if we'd packed ourselves as soon as we packed bits we'd have nowhere to empty the loft to. So instead we'll just empty the loft at the weekend, make the place even more full of stuff and let them get on with it.

We moved from a flat to a house last year and I did most of the packing and like you we had outgrown it...My hubby was away on business just before we moved so at least there was only me in there but my word, there was only just enough room to get to the bathroom.. :rotfl:

£765 doesn't sound too bad, does depend on where you live...Ours is an awkward move as well as access is difficult. I think we may have some angry villagers on our hands when we move out and the new house isn't easy either so people's cars will have to be moved...We know how to win friends and influence people. :rotfl: