The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

PasturesNew

I've also got a box of "things that would be good packing materials" - mostly already kept from past items, where I've saved a bit of bubble wrap or some bits of polystyrene as I've unpacked things... all "in case".

I've a box of packing materials - and about 6-8 "small boxes" that might come in handy for packing smaller things... daren't throw them out in case one's "the perfect size" for something awkward at the last minute.

PasturesNew

Pyxis wrote: »

Ooh! That's a point! You might find that removals firms don't like you using your own boxes, especially if they are very large boxes, because they don't know what's in them for insurance, but also because they might be too heavy; people packing their own boxes when they're not moving them themselves may tend to 'overpack' them with heavier things. The packing boxes they supply tend to be smaller.

And books, certainly, they insisted be in smaller boxes, because of the weight.

All my boxes are small, so I can carry them. I figure that when I get removals they'll give me their boxes - and I'll pack their boxes with my boxes. That's the plan.

I've nothing heavy ... I've no books (well, about 12). No records.

I've always preferred to pack in smaller boxes, boxes I can move myself.

SingleSue

PasturesNew wrote: »

... but it might come in handy!!

What has, minorly, annoyed me is that I'm throwing things out now rather than holding onto them - then a few days later needing them.

e.g. the other day I had two half bottles of anti-bac spray - so I decanted them into one, popped the empty bottle into the recycling and put the recycling bin out on the Wednesday. One week later and I'm down the shop buying sugar soap .... which you dilute with water - and if only I'd kept that spray bottle it'd have been perfect to make up/store some diluted sugar soap ready for instant use *sighs*.

Oh well. I guess I'll have to buy one from £land now...

As an owner/seller, I will literally have to clean/wash/scrub at every square inch in the house in some way, with something. Every inch will need to be hand-cleaned to perfection .... every tap, even the little rubber strip that adjoins the bottom of the shower screen so it fits the bath edge.... every bit of grout, every corner, every window, every lampshade, every skirting board, every door, every handle, every floor tile, every corner, every tiny, tiny inch of the house will need a wipe down, a scrub, another wipe ..... and polished/shone. A perfect sink every day, an immaculate bath/loo/sink every day.... worktops cleaned and wiped all the time/every time for every crumb of bread from a slice toasted...

My OCD probably won't allow me to just pack and leave, I will be internally pressured into cleaning too. I drive the boys mad when picking them up from halls at the end of a year as I insist on making sure everything looks just as good (if not better) than when they moved in.

Mind you, it also meant that there were no deductions to Josh's deposit the year he was in private student accommodation, the others lost some on their rooms as they forgot about the picture rails, window surrounds and skirting boards.....I didn't.

Pyxis

PasturesNew wrote: »

... but it might come in handy!!

What has, minorly, annoyed me is that I'm throwing things out now rather than holding onto them - then a few days later needing them.

e.g. the other day I had two half bottles of anti-bac spray - so I decanted them into one, popped the empty bottle into the recycling and put the recycling bin out on the Wednesday. One week later and I'm down the shop buying sugar soap .... which you dilute with water - and if only I'd kept that spray bottle it'd have been perfect to make up/store some diluted sugar soap ready for instant use *sighs*.

Oh well. I guess I'll have to buy one from £land now...

As an owner/seller, I will literally have to clean/wash/scrub at every square inch in the house in some way, with something. Every inch will need to be hand-cleaned to perfection .... every tap, even the little rubber strip that adjoins the bottom of the shower screen so it fits the bath edge.... every bit of grout, every corner, every window, every lampshade, every skirting board, every door, every handle, every floor tile, every corner, every tiny, tiny inch of the house will need a wipe down, a scrub, another wipe ..... and polished/shone. A perfect sink every day, an immaculate bath/loo/sink every day.... worktops cleaned and wiped all the time/every time for every crumb of bread from a slice toasted...

:rotfl: That reminds me of when I moved. The bulk of the stuff was loaded up into the lorry the day before, with just the bare essentials left until the next day. They wanted to take the vacuum cleaner, but I said, NO! I'll need to do a final hoover round once most of the furniture was out. The men seemed surprised!
However, the incoming occupants later sent me a note thanking me for leaving the place so pristine.

Shame that the outgoing bods from my new place weren't quite so conscientious.

PasturesNew

Don't forget the mail forwarding service - that one can catch you out. Although, due to the way you'll be moving it's probably not so "critical".

You get the forms from the Post Office - and the forms tell you they need about 5 days' notice before they start the forwarding .... but, in reality, I got a letter about 2 weeks later telling me it'd started!

It's not a very good service.

So just be aware that the form really needs to be into the Post Office a week before you move.

PasturesNew

Pyxis wrote: »

....

If you're alone and moving it's difficult. You have to be so many places at the same time that day:

1/ At the house supervising the removals and making decisions when they double-check "Taking this?" "Yes/No".... and generally checking/watching what's going on and spotting things you'd overlooked.

2/ Clean the house behind the removals ... bit tricky to do that as there comes a point where they've finished and you're not.

3/ Old keys to the Estate Agent - how far? Can you even park near it?

4/ Drive to get new keys - how far? Can you even park near it?

5/ Drive to new house to open it up for removals men.

6/ Is it clean? Where's stuff going/directing the little men with boxes to the correct room. Need to urgently get some curtains up at the windows (of sorts).... and, in autumn/winter, before it gets dark.

With all that going on .... it can be difficult to leave the house as you'd like it, without hiring in more people at a cost - and who is checking what they're doing and what about the keys ... and you don't know the times they'd be needed.

Couples/families have no idea how hard it can be to be "alone" at times as they've never done it.

SingleSue

Yep, mail redirection was the first thing I thought of. We've always done mail redirection for every move, mainly because we didn't want one of the boy's appointments to go missing!

chris_m

Pyxis wrote: »

:rotfl: That reminds me of when I moved. The bulk of the stuff was loaded up into the lorry the day before, with just the bare essentials left until the next day. They wanted to take the vacuum cleaner, but I said, NO! I'll need to do a final hoover round once most of the furniture was out.

I remember when my parents moved out of their house of 30+ years. It was a nightmare trying to get Mum out.
Well over an hour after the time they were supposed to be out, the new people were camped out on the doorstep pointedly looking at their watches - Mum was STILL going around with the flaming hoover :rotfl:

chris_m

PasturesNew wrote: »

If you're alone and moving it's difficult. You have to be so many places at the same time that day:

That's precisely why I didn't sell/buy on the same day - especially when the old and new places were 350 miles apart.
I was in the fortunate position of being able to use savings and liquidise some investments so that I could buy as a cash buyer, travel up with a carload of the immediately required stuff on the completion date, then do a few more trips with the "soon to be required", valuable or fragile stuff and in the meantime organise the removals people for the stuff that wouldn't fit in the car or would take too many trips. IIRC that move was a month after I actually moved in.

Over the next couple of months I had a few trips down south to finish tarting up the now empty flat, then engage the solicitor and estate agent.

I moved in here in early February and completed the fat sale at the end of August IIRC - the proceeds going back into my savings/investments to replace what I'd taken out.

If I hadn't been able to do it when I did, I'd have made my retirement less early so as to get the savings and pension sufficiently increased so that I could do much the same as I actually did, just a year or three later.

Pyxis

Must admit, the men's decision to pack up the day before was a godsend from that point of view, as I had done all the cleaning, and could finish it off during that last evening when the house was empty apart from the beds, a couple of chairs, a suitcase of clothes and some bare essentials for eating, washing, etc.

Oh, and the hoover!