Moving House Old Style

Money~Bunny_3

Don't fill big boxes with heavy stuff like books - try to back them in lots of smaller boxes so you can still lift them.

And on the day have a few big boxes for all the stuff that suddenly turns up and needs packing at the last moment

Keep a bag of scissors/parcel tape/marker pens/nail file*/plasters/spare wodge of newspaper hanging off a door knob for emergencies, take it with you when you make trips to the new place

Put some non-perishable snacks to one side for lunch, e.g. crisps, fruit bars, bottled water so you can eat without running to shops or needing a fridge

Order in dinner - you've had a long day!

And make sure that the breakfast things are somewhere easy to find the next morning - coffee, toast, butter, cereal, milk etc. Chaos looks a lot less scary on a full stomach :cool:

* I have long nails, and a messy broken nail on moving day is :mad: not nice.

FBThree

debbiedeejay wrote: »

I may not be moving for 4-6 weeks should I start the box thing now?

quote]

YES YES YES!!!!!!!!! I've just started going through some stuff for carbooting - we had it in a pile but I still needed to organise it for the sale. It has taken AGES! Start now please please please start now. Personally I like the plan of setting the timer for an hour.

Plus you find as time goes on you get more ruthless and de-clutter more items. And you never know, you may end up with enough to carboot or sell from your front garden/door. Every penny towards the new house helps.

oh edited to say - my greengrocer had some brilliant boxes for moving he was willing to let me have.

lil_me

I would start now. Pack what you will not need. Keep them in room order for the new house, not the old one, will make the unpacking and shifting easier. If you can get them use one colour pen or sticker for upstairs and one for down aswell. Easier saying -if it's red it's for upstairs, blue for downstairs then the room is on the box. If needs be number the upstairs rooms if you're getting help and put the numbers on the door (piece of paper and blutak) - someone else won't know which one 'Mam and Dad's room' is.

Try electricals places for boxes and McDonalds, the chip boxes they get are great for moving, very strong and can just be taped up (chips come in bags in them so won't have food in) Newspaper for wrapping items (careful that you don't use it as a first layer just incase print stains stuff) - ask neighbours to keep old ones.

Freecycle and www.dontdumpthat.com may come in useful for getting rid of items if you don't have the time or they are too big to car boot.

Masking tape makes good cheap labels

Mumoftwo is right, stages, little and often you'll get there. Work out what time you can spend on it after work, say what 30 minutes a night when you get home or in the morning, same on a weekend, in 4 weeks you'll have done 14 hours and I am sure in that you will have everything done.

Give the girls a box each for their things, tell them to pack what they won't need until the move, that'll take some of the workload off, maybe a reward for if they can fill a bag of things for a car boot/charity shop, which will help declutter (Going to do this with my boys today, helps make them more willing to fling!)

Good luck I am sure after you move you'll be wondering what all the fuss was about and too busy enjoying your new home.

tracyg

I'm moving in two and a bit weeks and have all the packing to do. I've decided to do it by firstly going through the house looking for car boot stuff, empited the loft and garage of what I know can be sold and have packed all that up and put it in the garage to do one on Saturday. Now everything left in the house is stuff just to be packed up.

Just looking at the pile of stuff in the spare room of stuff from the loft got me in a cold sweat! Now giving myself an hour a day to box up, started in spare room as all that stuff isn't need at the minute, will move onto kitchen last. Planning to pack as much wardrobe stuff as possible (heavy clothes, etc) and just leave a few bits out to manage us to we move. Once a box is packed, DH puts it in the garage so house looks semi okay. Also as I'm packing I'm being really strict and am getting rid of loads of stuff. Yes, I'm going through stuff twice but it works for me - I've found unopened boxes of stuff from when I moved 6 years ago so need to be strict with myself.

Have started collecting boxes up but have also brought some big, strong ones off ebay along with tape, packing stuff. I'd start now, little and often and it won't seem so overwhelming.

rsdiscos

Get some coloured label or do it yourself with a marker pen and code each room and the boxes of stuff that goes in that room. It is easier than reading and even the littlest people can help.
Make you beds first so that when you are tired you can just flop.
Put kettle, mugs, tea, milk, sugar, biscuits in the car with you so they won't get lost amongst the other boxes.
Get the kids to pack a rucksack/ school bag with a few toys/ books/ sweets etc.. to occupy them when they get bored and you are still running around
rsdisco's wife

debbiedeejay

I've found unopened boxes of stuff from when I moved 6 years ago so need to be strict with myself.

Oh Tracyg I really know what you mean-This reminded me that my Dad has three tea-chests in his loft from when my parents moved to his present house-33(yes thirty three!) years ago!!Still all packed up never touched,he can't even remember whats in there.I too am a terrible horder-Like father like daughter eh???:rotfl:

Anyway this is really motivating me-you guys are certainly keep me going-its like having an extended family its great! Thank you all so much!!!

Anyway I completed some baby/fairy steps last night.
No boxes on freecycle-going to check local shops out at lunchtime tomorrow.

Completely went through two chest of drawers in my bedroom and sorted through jewelrey,undies,belts,scarfs makeup,some paperwork,toiletries.Cleaned the windowsill of rubbish in my bedroom too!And I changed bedding!
And in between all that did 3 loads of washing and dried too. Not so sure if I will get it ironed though until friday.

I was shattered but felt so much better.

Lucikly the kids stuff is in boxes under their beds(they are 11,12 and 18) so there is little toys except a lot of "stuff"of what girls aquire over time:rolleyes:

I have no spare room at all so I am not sure if packing boxes now is a good idea but there again I can see the reason behind it. Torn between boxing up stuff now or later.

kat79

Wow! You lot are all so organised! I aspire to be like you! I'm going to be moving soon and I keep putting off the sorting and packing!
Hats off to you all!!!

DianaMattos

Hubby and I are about to move house, and want to do it as effeciently and as cheaply as possible (solicitors fees and stamp duty etc notwithstanding).

We are only moving 15 miles from where we are now, so thought we'd hire an van and do it ourselves (despite hubby telling me last time we'd pay someone to pack us up and move us out!). So firstly, where is the best deal on hiring a van for a weekend?

And secondly, please could anyone remind me of things that I will need to do in the house move, but I will either not think of or totally forget? I feel so overwhelmed with this that I don't know where to start. Notifying people and businesses of name and address change and stockpiling boxes are as far as I have got so far...

Thanks for your help,

Love Di x

embb

Label your boxes via which rooms they're going. Have a seperate box for bed linen that you will use that night, kettle, tea/coffee/sugar milk, and anything you will need to get to straight away.

Good Luck

lil_me

Try local companies in the yellow pages, shop around and bargain with them where you can. A job on my list for tomorrow. We're moving in the next 4 weeks too.

Labelling. I am finding using red pen to label 'upstairs' boxes with room name on and black for 'downstairs' boxes. A quick glance at the colour and you know what floor it is for. Could colourcode every room if you can get enough colours. Put the labelling on the same side of each box, I would suggest top, saves looking all over for it when you are trying to sort out.

Clear anything out you don't need, rubbish to the tip, anything someone might be able to use is well worth putting on www.dontdumpthat.com or freecycle. You'll likely be amazed at the response you get.

Give likes of phone people, electric, gas etc plenty of notice as sometimes takes a while to get someone out!

Clothes you'll need soon and an iron in a suitcase.