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

PasturesNew

chris_m wrote: »

That's precisely why I didn't sell/buy on the same day...

I've never moved "house to house" on the same day before.

In the past I've always had parents to bounce back to, as did my sibling... so you could just do move/parents/move.

I've also put stuff into storage a lot ... with it being in there months. In 2012 my stuff moved 3x and I had 8 addresses.

When I moved in here I was renting and had a 2 week overlap and was just moving 2 miles.

While I'm prepared to move into temporary accommodation this time and put it all in storage (AGAIN!) ... I'd rather avoid that.

I have £0 spare cash, it'll be tight even to afford a chip supper on the night I move .... and I'd prefer to have a house to move into the same day ... but I'll have to wait to see how it all pans out.

I'd rather go into temporary housing (AirBNB/whatever) ... and put it into storage than "buy a house in panic" and get the wrong one ... but that needs to be balanced against the fact that "the perfect house" simply doesn't exist.

PasturesNew

Pyxis wrote: »

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!

Packing the day before would be ideal ... but many removals people are unwilling/unable to then store everybody's stuff overnight, securely.... which is why it doesn't happen like that. There's also the issue of late-leavers. If your stuff's available/waiting at 9am they really need to have got you in by 12-2pm and arrived at their next "pack up" job... so, again, not practical as a method.

If you could just pack it all up the day before, wave it all goodbye - then clean around, drop off the keys and book into a local B&B for the night that'd be ideal... then, next morning, cooked breakfast inside you and go off towards the new house and wait for the call to get the keys and in.... removals men gone by 12-2 and you've the afternoon to get it all sorted.

Pyxis

PasturesNew wrote: »

Packing the day before would be ideal ... but many removals people are unwilling/unable to then store everybody's stuff overnight, securely.... which is why it doesn't happen like that. There's also the issue of late-leavers. If your stuff's available/waiting at 9am they really need to have got you in by 12-2pm and arrived at their next "pack up" job... so, again, not practical as a method.

If you could just pack it all up the day before, wave it all goodbye - then clean around, drop off the keys and book into a local B&B for the night that'd be ideal... then, next morning, cooked breakfast inside you and go off towards the new house and wait for the call to get the keys and in.... removals men gone by 12-2 and you've the afternoon to get it all sorted.

It was their decision, because of the distance involved, you see.

PasturesNew

One day robots will move people. Robot wagons will arrive at your house - and men will pack them/lock them. They'll then drive themselves either to a depot, or to the new house.

Local men will be employed to load/unload the robot wagons ... and not to sit on their bums in big lorries while they drive many miles.

It'll only be "local moves" where the same blokes load up and unload.

SingleSue

We've always done the house to house move.

I still think the funniest one was moving from our rented flat to our purchased house. Both were officially one bedroom but the entire downstairs of our house would have fitted into the front room of our flat with space left over and we had several others rooms on top of that lounge.

Anyway, we all loaded up our cars and vans and made our way to the house and started unloading. We got to a point where the house was pretty full...and so was the garden! There was just no room for everything. So there we were sitting out the front on an armchair with our worldly possessions around us trying to work out how the blooming Nora we were going to get it all in.

In our defence, the house had appeared bigger on viewing and our flat looked quite empty whilst we were living there but then, the flat was so big that even an 6ft long sofa looked lost.

Our easiest move was from that house to our 2 bed house, due to the size of the 1 bed, we didn't have that much to move to the 2 bed and it was all done by an Astra estate and a friends transit van.

PasturesNew

SingleSue wrote: »

In our defence, the house had appeared bigger on viewing

They do that...

I could've cried when I opened up the door and stepped into this room - it's 12'x13' (max) ... and it looked 8'x10' when I saw it empty.

Between viewing and moving in ... you look at the photos online in RM ... and with those wide angled lenses they make everything look big. Ditto the printed copy.

I think I bought it on a Wednesday and just looked.
Removals booked for the Thursday (contingency/good job I did that).

Removals was 2 blokes and a high topped transit van, 1 trip, 2 miles, £60. I think I saw them coming .... when I divide the time by the people and cost.... they under-estimated how much stuff I had ... and I think they barely broke even on that job. It must've taken them 3 hours to: arrive/attend, pack, drive, unpack, leave. 3 hours, 2 people.... £10/hour.

SingleSue

PasturesNew wrote: »

They do that...

I could've cried when I opened up the door and stepped into this room - it's 12'x13' (max) ... and it looked 8'x10' when I saw it empty.

Between viewing and moving in ... you look at the photos online in RM ... and with those wide angled lenses they make everything look big. Ditto the printed copy.

That was like when we moved here. We had quite a nice sized lounge in our 2 bed and although we knew it was smaller here it didn't look too bad. Day of move in and I was convinced someone had moved the front wall in, it just looked so small and narrow.

PasturesNew

I only have three "large" items to move.

A fridge/freezer (not massive); a 3-seater settee; the bed, which will be in pieces. Everything else is pretty much lightweight, comes apart, flat packs, and most of it can be lifted/carried easily by "one removals person".

My "kitchen table" has legs that unscrew. My "wardrobe" is canvas/lightweight wood. My 2 drawers are smallish/lightweight.

I've just never chosen items I can't personally manage/move/cart in and out of the house alone. When it's "just me" I've had to be careful what I bought. Even the bed arrived in a box and I couldn't have even shoved it up the stairs... so I opened the box in the hallway and took each piece up the stairs singly.

SingleSue

My bed will probably not make the move, it's old and being held up with bags of nappies. Mum has already offered a double bed that is annoying her from one of their spare bedrooms. It's not ideal but it will do until I can get another one.

James' bed will probably be offered to someone, it is fairly new but a cheap one and could help someone else out as a temporary measure.

Both Josh and Joe's beds are divans which go to half size, so quite easy to move about.

My table is dependent on if I have a proper sized kitchen (think the OT will insist upon a decent sized kitchen as it will need to be big enough for a wheelchair) or not but if it does come with me, it is easy to take it apart.

The biggest items are the wardrobes, hence the eek, err, umm thing.

PasturesNew

I like my Ottoman style bed.... open it up, toss stuff in, shut it quick. Ideal.

One of my jobs is to open it up soon and sort out/reorganise what's in there. For now it doesn't matter as it's all "out of sight" with regard to "Stage 1: Viewings".

I'd like to thank Michaels for providing me with a link to that bed, I think it cost about £160-165 or so, including a mattress. Job done, I managed to build it, it's never given me a moment's trouble. Ideal.

I'd like to be able to move the bed about - but to do that you need to unpack everything, then move the (very hefty) bed. I've got to move it 2' shortly to be able to assess/paint the wall behind the headboard... been putting that off really, but if the little man arrives Monday then that has to be done Monday.

Empty, I probably can't drag that carcass across the carpet alone. That's the only "fail" that the bed has: sheer weight.

When I made the bed, I taped the instructions to the inside of the frame... and I've left myself a Post It Note telling me where to start.... lift the mattress frame up into the air, climb inside/under the elevated frame, undo those screws on the springs.... after that it's easy. It's knowing that starting point that is the difference between win and fail.