How long will it take to unpack?

valerie57

We are trying to plan holidays next year and need to decide how much time to take off after our house move. We live in a 4 bed roomed house at the moment and have a lot of stuff, books, pictures, china, glass, kitchen equipment all accumulated over 15 years. We are moving to a 5 bed house so we don't plan a major declutter although we are obviously getting rid of some stuff now.
We want the unpacked house to be a finished job and our home. I don't fancy boxes hanging around for ages. I would really like to get to the point where we put our feet up, have a cup of tea and everything is put away in its place. I know we will need to do a complete clean of the new place - but I hope we might get help with that. For everything else it is me and OH. We will need to sort TV and broadband, music system, do all the address change notifications and unpack. OH will also need to clear guttering out at new place. There will be lights to go up and maybe some curtains. We will probably have to take time out to go and buy some bits and pieces too.
How long do you think this will all take? We are grafters but want to enjoy the process of making our new home too.

onlyroz

Time to unpack? For me it was about 3 years...

hazyjo

Every house has stored more and more boxes of 'stuff'. BF now is ultra organised and tidy and basically forced me to unpack every little thing. There are a few 'stragglers' in the third bedroom, but it's at least all unpacked.

I've been in seven months. I suppose the vast majority was done in a few days, but it took a few more weeks to get everything unpacked.

I took completion day off (Mon) and two more days.

Word of advice - get the removal men to pack for you if you have a lot of stuff! Worth every penny.

Jx

ACG

13 months on i still have a few boxes.

To be honest it really depends on you. In theory you could have it all done in a day, in practice when you move in you may decide to decorate/lay carpet etc in which case you could find yourself putting off a room here and a room there meaning it then takes a couple of weeks.

How can you plan your holidays around a house you have not yet purchased? How do you know when you will move, how do you know it will not get delayed last minute because of some small legal issue or a lender in the chain being pedantic?

I think this is one of those things you cant really plan for this far in advance.

LandyAndy

Reckon on it taking about three times as long as it did to pack it all up.

Dukesy

We moved from a one bed cottage to a larger in general two bed cottage (albeit a major renovation, but we've lived in it whilst working on it). Two years on, the renovations are nearing an end, and we've STILL got a loft full of unpacked boxes and redundant furniture. We never had anything in the loft in our old house, and the place didn't feel overcrowded, but god only knows where we used to put all this stuff! I loathe having too much clutter around - it makes me feel like a right hoarder, so have resorted to tipping/selling most of it now, actually.

I thought I was being sensible and getting rid of stuff as I was packing, but really I made the mistake of not really thinking about what I was putting in boxes when I packed the old house up, and so have ended up hanging on to a lot of stuff which, whilst not necessarily junk, is stuff I don't want or need.

My parents bought their house nearly thirty years ago and still have stuff they never unpacked in their loft

moneyistooshorttomention

As fast as possible and bearing in mind the 7 days? (well so they told me) get out clause by the removal firm in case of claims for goods stolen by the removal men during the move.

I think its entirely possible that my removal men turned out to be pickpockets, in view of the fact of just how long it takes many customers to unpack and they knew that and figured they would get away with it.

In the event, I realised pretty quickly that some goods of mine had been stolen by them. However, I've realised since that another item has also not turned up and its a total of about £80 of "tips" those pickpockets helped themselves to in the event:mad:

Yolina

Last time I moved, I had everything unpacked within 48 hours it was only me and from a 2-bed though, but I just hate having stuff hanging around in boxes

cayennepepper

Last time I unpacked it all in 3 days, it was hard work but like you I did not want boxes lying around

harrys_dad

I moved four years ago. When I looked in the loft to check how much stuff there was for packing I found a box of university notes that had not been unpacked since I moved in 32 years previously!

bylromarha

Just moved into rented - 3 bed house, 2 kids. Took 4 days to unpack. Can't live in or out of boxes.

I always find if you get the structure of the place in quickly - your bookcases, shelves etc, then unpacking is quicker as you have things to unpack onto.