Moving House Old Style

Butterfly_Brain

I would Hire or Borrow a van and get all your friends and family involved in the move.

1. Pack things that you know you won't use a month before that gives you plenty of time to do the rest nearer moving day.
2. Label all the boxes with the room that they are going in then just put them in each room ready to be unpacked.
3. Put your bed up first because you won't feel like doing it late at night.Put the bedding that you will be using in a Box or Black Bag.
4. Make sure on the day that you packthe following in a box and put in the house first.

• Kettle
• Coffee/Tea
• UHT Milk/Coffee Mate
• Sugar
• Bread
• Toaster
• Butter
• Jam/marmalade
• Candles

This way you have something to eat and drink
That's all I can think of for now.
HTH

wendy+5

Are you able to budget for a storage unit? That way you could put the non-essential items in storage for a month or two before moving, making it easier to move in and sort out the new house.

daisy_steiner_2

Thank you all really useful suggestions. I am writing them all down and have popped them into my 'moving' section of our house folder.

I am going to embark on a declutter this weekend I think as we have had three charity bags come through the door and I shall also get some stuff ebayed too.

I shall look into storage and see what prices they are coming in at and see if we can add them to our budget but I'm not sure if that will be workable unless we could share it with someone.

Thanks!

Olliebeak

If you could manage to budget for a small storage unit for a month BEFORE and a month AFTER you may find it very useful indeed - especially if you've got garden/bbq items etc.

Good idea to start de-cluttering from now onwards, especially where summer clothes are concerned - doubt it you'll need them again this year .

These websites may be useful:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/homes/property/moving_index.shtml

http://www.moveme.com/

http://www.helpiammoving.com/

http://www.iammoving.com/

Good Luck - did it myself about two and half years ago - STILL got stuff in boxes - obviously I could have done without packing/bringing those items with us, after all.

Ollie

PollyFlinders_3

Get a small notebook, have a page for each box you pack, and list what you pack in each box. If you can't face listing everything, at least list the important stuff in each box you know you'll need to find.

I would add to ButterflyBrain's list some screwdrivers, light bulbs, torch, and cleaning cloths/spray.

Triggles

If you have something on your computer like Microsoft OneNote, number your packing boxes, note briefly what's in each box, and that way you can search for it - just type in what you're looking for and it brings up the page for that box. Sounds like a fuss, but it was particularly helpful for us during our move last year. (guess we just have too much stuff LOL)

maman

Just a small idea that helped me: so that you're not surrounded by boxes, I cleaned, sorted and tidied all possible cupboards/drawers into individual boxes/bags and put the boxes into the relevant cupboards IYSWIM (so we could still use them) but when it came to moving everything was ready to go. For built in cupboards it meant that they only needed a quick dust/wipe which saved huge amounts of time on the day.

badkitti

1. Go though your stuff now and freecycle/charity shop/tip/give away as appropriate. Reduce the stuff you have to pack.
2. Steal boxes from supermarkets and keep newspapers/bubble wrap/polystyrene chips for crockery etc.
3. Start packing as early as you can.
4. I put layers of DVDs/Books in boxes and then take a photo of the layer and label the photo 'box 1 layer 1' etc - good for insurance purposes anyway.
Label each bx and keep a written/typed list of what's in each box

Seakay

For heavy things like books then wine boxes (designed to hold six or twelve bottles) are a good size.
It's easier to carry several small boxes then stagger around with one large one!

Patchwork_Quilt

The easiest thing to do is to splash out on some plastic boxes with lids - the kind that you can see through. These were immensely helpful when we were getting ready to move and before we had fully unpacked. We then packed all the old papers that had been in cardboard boxes in the loft for years into the emptied plastic boxes, making them wasp-proof and waterproof and hopefully, if we ever have to find anything in the loft, it will be much easier.