How long to do the packing?

Doshwaster

The thought of moving an entire house in one day fills me with dread. In the past I've always had an overlap between getting the keys for a new place and having to be out of the previous house. That way you can move bits and piece over a few days, get new stuff delivered to the new house and on the official "moving day" there are only the essentials (bed, sofa, TV, fridge) to worry about.

trailingspouse

I'm about to move into my 21st house. I've packed in every conceivable way - done it myself, got the removers to do it, piled everything into the back of the car, left it for my inlaws to do (long story...).

For my current move (large 4 storey house, 4 double bedrooms, double garage) I'm getting the removers to do all the packing. There are two reasons

1 - it's just easier (I'm on my own and I work full-time). It takes them half a day, and up to that point you can just live normally in the house, without having boxes all over the place and suddenly realising you need something that you packed ages ago and you can't remember which box you put it in...

2 - packing is hard physical work - shifting boxes of books, getting all that stuff out of the loft, dismantling beds. It can be quite emotionally draining too.

3 - and I think this is the most important reason - if the removers pack, and something gets broken, they will simply pay up. If you pack, and something gets broken, you will have to prove that they have been negligent.

It's going to cost me £440 extra for them to pack - in the grand scheme of things, relative to all the other expenses of house moving, it's not a lot. If you have a granny, sell her if you need to - she'll understand.

If you're determined to do it yourself, and you want to know how long it'll take, my advice is - start now.