Moving House Old Style

redlady_1

Oh Lordie Lou! Never ever would I move myself again. I didnt think I had much stuff but boy, was I wrong. I had a transit van and there was a shed load of snow everywhere!!!! Get someone else to do it. Much less stress.

MaggieBaking

I've moved lots of times in the manner you're describing - just a few minutes drive away. This is our system:

Get many boxes. Pack them, but don't wrap them delicately (unless they need it and they wont be unpacked for weeks aka - tea sets etc.)
Clean new house.
Do one car load over to new house - with kettle, drinks, forks, scissors, clock, lightbulbs, toilet roll, hand soap, one towel, one tea towel, screwdriver - all stuff you will need in the next few days and have no idea where it is. Make this car load "essentials" only or you start cluttering your new house too early
Get big van, move all furniture and big large boxes like bedding and linen, and heavy boxes like books and shoes.
Unload into correct rooms, but not necessary assemble everything - just assemble what you will unpack into straight away - eg, 1 wardrobe, a bed to sleep on, a table to sit at.
Move over your other boxes via the car. This will start off orderly and descend into chaos. Bring your chaos boxes last and designate a hidden place in your house to plonk them as you wont get to them in weeks.
As a tip - transfer all your clothes over in one go by gathering the hangers together and typing them all at the top with large elastic bands - that way you can just go and hang them straight up in the new house.
Clean old house.
Rest, and leave all boxes for months even though you thought you were pretty organised to begin with.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

We moved ourselves and had an overlap.

Basically, grab a box and start packing the stuff you would try and save from a fire in that room first. Everything else - the stuff you would leave to burn in my imaginary scenario - goes straight into binbags and is dropped off at the charity shop at the end of each day. This is a good time to move or donate books and CDs. Bag up all your clothes other than a couple of pairs of jeans and enough T shirts, socks, undies and one big warm jumper.

Pack your bedlinen, curtains, rugs, lampshades, etc with the exception of three large towels, flannels and current bedcovers.

Pack all kitchen gear other than one plate, one bowl & one cup each, plus cutlery for one meal. Throw pointless gadgets, chipped cups, doubles of utensils, etc. Give away stuff that sits on the countertop gathering dust and grease. Send me your breadmaker/slow cooker if you don't know anyone who wants them :whistle:

Chuck out all those dubious looking packets and tins in the cupboard that look as though Scott of the Antarctic might have turned his nose up at them. Feed the family on stuff from the fridge and freezer. Get rid of all manky cleaning materials - all you need is to wash dishes, bleach stuff and clean the surfaces, together with a vacuum cleaner and a broom.

Empty your bathroom of all cosmetics, products and smellies other than one suits everyone shower gel, soap and shampoo. Bin what you can.


Take these things over to the new house and place in the correct rooms/cupboards, throwing out roughly half of what you have brought with you. Make sure there are lightbulbs in every room and toilet roll in the loos.

By this point, you are living in a home that consists of furniture and precious little else.

Move all non essential furniture over to the new house. A dining table will just get in the way when you can sit on the sofa and scarf a microwave meal down.

With just a few days to go, get the washing machine, fridge, tumble dryer and cooker moved and reconnected, along with your last plates. You can eat takeaway and sandwiches for that long. And milk keeps if you immerse it in a sink of cold water.

Dismantle the bedsteads and take them over to the new house. Put them up, along with wardrobes and drawers, refill them with your clothes, all neatly in order.

You are now living with mattresses to sleep on, a small box or bag filled with clean clothes, your mobile charger, notepad and pen, a binbag of dirty clothes and the sofa. Oh, plus the kettle and a mug each to watch the TV with a cuppa. The Wii, PS3 and whatever are already packed up in a box but staying with you until moving day.

Bin the carpets/flooring if it can't be left for the next people. There will be a LOT of dust involved with this.

Clean the old house, ensuring you have photographed the plug in each sink (a common cause for billing tenants when they move out) and every room at every angle. Take photographs of your meter readings.


On the final day, all you have to move in a van are

Mattresses
Any furniture that wouldn't fit in the car
The TV wrapped in your duvet
The boxes of consoles/stereo/radio/speakers/laptops/etc
A binbag of dirty washing
The kettle
Teabags
One teaspoon
Vacuum cleaner
Broom


(I also had the bass, amp and other musical instruments to move on the last day, but normal people don't)



This took time and effort, but it saved us around £500 in the end. Which was more important to me.

bluebag

I have lived in the same house for 20 odd years, I have terrifying nightmares about all this moving stuff, I don't even know why I looked at this thread, some sort of morbid curiosity I guess.

(shudder!)

song_of_calliope

We moved recently and it wasn't so bad - we did it ourselves and didn't get professionals in (I'm surprised so many people are recommending paying for pros on this board, that's so expensive). Definitely box the smaller stuff and label the boxes clearly with what's in them and which room they need to go in as you'll get in and out of the car much faster. Bigger stuff obviously don't bother with boxes. Then hire a transit van at the end for the big stuff. You'll be fine with the luxury of two weeks to get it all done in.

aliasojo

bluebag wrote: »

I have lived in the same house for 20 odd years, I have terrifying nightmares about all this moving stuff, I don't even know why I looked at this thread, some sort of morbid curiosity I guess.

(shudder!)

Ditto.

Except we're moving just as soon as we can find rented accomodation 200 miles away!

I'm struggling with the 'getting rid of things' bit just now, heaven knows how bad the packing up bit will be.

OP, if you're the one who will be doing most of the moving, then do it your way, if it's your OH, let him do it his way and if it's a joint effort, then just do what most couple do....and bicker over it.:rotfl: No matter what way you choose, you'l get there in the end anyway. I have every sympathy for you.

rachbc

when I moved in with now hubby we did it bit at a time and then with a van for furniture and it took forever and was exhausting - endless trips back and forth. Last time we moved we moved 200m up the road - we hired a professional removals company and it was the best money I have ever spent. On the day all I had to do was hoover the old house as they packed up each room - at the other end they put the beds together and all the furniture where we wanted it with clothes still in drawers etc. I then spent the next few days unpacking boxes but it was bliss. If you can afford it I say do it this way

rachbc

sorry just read you need to do it cheap - defiantely pack stuff up it will save time in the long run - pack by room its going into. Start now packing up stuff that you don't need/ use that oftern and take that over first, do this regualrly a car load or 2 at a time. Put the boxes in there right room in the new house and unpack what you can - so kitchen stuff can go in the cupboards etc but some stuff might have to wait til you get your furniture to put it in. Then on the day you are moving out you could be down to big stuff and a few essentials - hire a van to move all this in one weekend. Use boxes for kitchen bits, books, cds etc. Use bin bags for bedding, towels, clothes.

ceridwen

Personally - I would go for boxing everything up neatly.

The "throw everything in a car" and take it bit by bit worked when I was moving round between bedsits and on moving from them to an unfurnished flat.

By the time I'd been in that unfurnished flat a few years and came to move on - then I'd accummulated a lot of my possessions - so boxes it was.

I labelled each box with roughly what I had in it - and, more to the point, I took note of a hint I read somewhere about putting a BIG letter on each box or item of household equipment denoting which room it was to go in. That is:
A on box or item = bathroom
B on box or item = kitchen
C " = bedroom 1

and so on.

The removal men I hired commented approvingly that it made their job a lot easier than they had it for most people - as, on getting to the house, they knew exactly which room to put something in just by checking whether it had A, B, C or whatever else on the box/item.

Everything went into exactly the room I had designated and I could just go through room by room unpacking (kitchen first, then bathroom - so I had the "necessity" stuff ready to use). Obviously my sofa was already visible in the sitting room and bed in bedroom - so I could just start in on cleaning the place and "settling in".

****************

But then - I am someone who is already decluttering and organising IN CASE I can move to a better house...:rotfl:

ZoeGirl_3

I just moved 2 weeks ago! I packed everything myself and moved most of small stuff in the car. Then hired a truck, seperately hired a driver as it was cheaper, and then he loaded it almost all by himself, drove it there and then unloaded it for me. Even hooked up my washing machine etc too. Nice guy that he was...

All up cost me a LOT less than hiring someone to do both for me, less than a quarter of the price! And I paid my driver/ helper $20 an hour, which is almost twice minimum wage here ... look for one through Student Job Places.