Moving House Old Style

-taff

Label all your boxes and put them in the right room to unpack.

seabright

Don't stress out about getting takeaways for the first few nights. It might not be money saving, but it's very stress-saving! Treat yourselves!

allybee101

I definitely second the suggestion about clearing out your clutter before moving - no point taking the extra stuff with you!
Also agree with lining kitchen cupboards. Don't forget the tops of the cupboards as well.
In your 'last box out', add loo roll, a torch, phone charger, pen and pad. All useful stuff you don't want to be searching boxes for!

Liz_M

Not sure if either of these tips are moneysaving but the first is as soon as you get everything in, make up (after building if needed!) your bed because you won't want to be doing that at the end of the day when you're knackered!

Also - when you move n check that all the light bulbs are there and workng before it gets dark! (Learnt that one the hard way :P). I guess that one could be MS because you will have time to go and get bulbs somewhere other than a late night shop or garage where they will be overpriced! (Not to mention the fumbling around in the dark trying to find out what type of bulb you need and then trying to change it!)

Kaz2904

How about prepping your moving night meal in advance? You could make up a spag bol or chilli to put in the freezer. Take it out and pop it in a cool bag and it will defrost during the day and keep your milk fresh for all the cuppas you'll need to make your removals people

Anne_Marie_2

As well as lining your kitchen cupboards, if they don't go up to ceiling height, put double sheet of newspapers/magazines on the top, you won't see them. Saves a load of cleaning at a height you can barely get to.

Also works well on tall wardrobes and units that are way above anyone's height.

Rainy-Days

In your kitchen box, which will go in your car with you, you will need to put in a clean carrier bag two hand towels and a tea towel (one for the bathroom and one for the kitchen) a dishcloth, soap, bottle of bleach and washing up liquid. Make sure the soap, bleach and washing up liquid has the caps firmly down in place as you don't want those leaking all over the show and keep them upright.

If you have ornaments wash those now get them nice and clean and dry and then pack them away. Mark on the box outside that they are ornaments and for which room they will go into. These are your last things you will want out. Simple reason being is that for the first week of moving in you will have extra dust from boxes and packing paper still in the air. Once you have got through your boxes, you can clean your surfaces off and then put your clean ornaments out on display. It also means while you are still moving things around they will not get damaged/smashed and when you do put them out you will have time to thin about where you want to place them - and have the enjoyment of doing so.

Your bed will need to be the first thing that you set up in your new home. The day before put clean sheets and a clean duvet cover with pillow cases in a big bin liner. When you get to your new home, you can set up the bed, with all clean linen. When you are shattered at night the last thing you want to be doing is thinking I have got to make up the bed. If the bed is already done, then all you need is a quick shower and then you can fall into a nice clean bed for the night.

Stack all of your empty boxes outside in one place and towards the end of the week - load them up and take them to a recycling point that will take about half an hour, but believe me it will show quickly in your surroundings of getting things into order. Don't be surprised if a new neighbour asks for the boxes if they are moving themselves which is all the better. If your new home has a log burner or open fire you might want to consider keeping those boxes and packing paper back for fire 'fodder'.

I purchased off eBay bubble wrapping. Even thought we got wrapping paper with the removals company when we moved, I will used the bubble wrap for extra items that needed extra care.

Get your kitchen into order first. That means plugging in the fridge and possibly cooker first, then start getting your stuff packed away. I washed my kitchen cupboards out with a solution of of washing up liquid and a squirt of bleach, left the cupboard doors open for half an hour they were dry then I started putting things away.

On the day of moving we stopped off at Morrisons and bought two fresh cooked chickens, some salad and milk. We used that for a meal in the evening and then made up a curry with the rest of the chicken the following day, which was fast and easy.

If you have some cheapo mugs put those to one side in your kettle/tea/coffee box as you will need those to drin out of. Otherwise if you have disposable plastic cups use those because if you have decent mugs and stuff you might expect something to get smashed. I have Emma Bridgewater stuff so I was careful with these. However, my Next mugs which we used for down in the stables and outside work we took with us and then used those for us and the removal guys to use.

You are lucky that this time of year you will have extra time before you will need to put up curtains as the nights are so light. Open all the windows in your new home to air everything in the house through. There will still be residue of the previous occupants smell left behind, but having the windows undone will clear' the air space through.

On the day of the move you should have no laundry that will need doing apart from the odd item. All your clean clothes should be packed away. We had a massive move so the removers came in one day and packed us up and then moved us in the following day at our new home. All of our peronal stuff, T shirts, jeans and peronal care we put into a sports bag and stayed overnight at a holiday cottage. Big tip here though is that you need to wear stuff you are going to be very comfortable in because you are going to be pretty active for the next couple or three days.

Good news is that by the end of the week you will have got on top of the lot providing that you are at it full tilt. Anything else other than that and you will be swirling around boxes for the next few weeks. Aim to get through all the boxes and get them out of the house as fast as you can. Don;t take crap with you, clear it out now and it will save you a big headache at the other end!!

FairyPrincessk

Just wanted to add a comment based on what Rainy-Days has said. It isn't strictly OS, but a good security tip. It will be very noticeable to those around you that you are moving, so be a bit more vigilant with security measures. Everytime we have moved, it has been no trouble to overlap our contents insurance for a few days and the cost is minimal. If you are moving in loads, rather than one go, be sure all doors and windows are locked between loads, and see if you can recruit a friend or helper to sit with the van/car while you load it so you don't have to fumble with locking/unlocking between trips. Finally--on the boxes front--wherever you stack them up, try not to leave them in plain view, particularly if any of them show that there were expensive items inside (i.e boxes for flat screen televisions, computers etc.) as this can demonstrate to thieves what they are likely to find inside. Since we move frequently, we break our boxes down and keep them stored. Otherwise, freecycle can be a good way to get rid of them.

joedenise

If you have the space, such as a conservatory, get the removal men to stack the boxes together in one place. It is much easier to work through the boxes that way than have several boxes in each room to work around.

We actually had our current property completely sorted out in 3 days doing it this way.

The only things the removal people put into rooms was the furniture, eg sofas etc into living room, beds in bedrooms, kitchen appliances in kitchen.

We found this a much easier way to get sorted than our previous move where we had boxes in every room to work around.

Denise

Fishcake_Random

Thank you for all the tips guys!
I love the idea of making up an "essentials" box. I remember moving into our current flat and finding no loo paper!!
I think we will try the idea of having everything boxed in one room and work from it so that the flat isn't littered.
We are having the mums on security detail lol. One at each flat, while everyone else runs between the old and the new in pairs. As a bonus both of them are "clean freaks" and don't leave us much to do as they like to get stuck in lol.

Thanks again for all the ideas everyone.

x x x