Moving home tips - anything over and above the usual?

cymruchris

Sarahspangles said:

My most recommended post!  Covers things that aren’t often mentioned:

• Letting house plants and outdoor plants ‘dry’ (as much as possible) to make them lighter and less likely to leak in transit.
• Eating up the contents of the freezer and using the space for cool packs on moving day. 
• If you start an online shopping order, and add to it as you use things up, you can have a biggish delivery a day or so after the move, once your fridge freezer is the correct temperature.
• Having back up power packs etc for mobiles.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5035348/the-list-of-moving-lists

From experience it’s better to check stoptaps and isolation valves before you need to use them in anger. Not when your dishwasher is leaking!

Label boxes on as many sides as you can be bothered! They’re always lined up or stacked in a way where you have to move them to see what’s in them.

I was thinking about online shopping for the first big delivery- whether to arrange it late on the night of arrival, or the following day. I'm thinking more the following day in case there are any delays, and give the fridge time to settle and cool down - and it's easy enough to find a chip shop or a mcd if I'm desperate.

EssexHebridean

What you are calling rooms might mean nothing to anyone else, so make your labelling system for boxes easy. If it’s going downstairs mark it ⬇️ if it’s going upstairs, mark it ⬆️ then number your rooms, so ⬇️ 1 might be the sitting room, ⬇️ 2, the dining room. ⬆️ 1 = main bedroom, with the other bedrooms numbered 2, 3, and so on. Use names only for rooms that can’t be anything else - bathroom, kitchen, shed.  Then label your rooms with a simple number on the doorframe. You end up with a straightforward labelling system which means stuff ends up where you want it. For added brownie points from the removal team, give them a floor plan for the new house marked with the room numbers - they can then look at that in the inevitable gap while they wait for you to arrive at your new house with the keys. Our team reckoned ours was one of the quickest unloads they’d ever done - 1.5 hours from us opening the door, and they were done and dusted. 

Also, just get the damned boxes emptied.honestly,,nobody else is impressed when people say “oh we moved years ago and still have boxes unpacked” - it just tells them that actually you’ve paid to move loads of crap you didn’t need. Oh - and when labelling boxes, put at least a brief description of the contents on the outside, that comes in useful too. 

Schwarzwald

cymruchris said:

- Was there something you wish you'd done, but you didn't?

- Was there something you did you wish you hadn't? 

Budget twice the time and contract twice the number of movers.

Savvy_Sue

cymruchris said:

Murphybear said:

Make sure you have tea, coffee, milk, biscuits/cake, enough mugs in the car so you can make a drink for you and the removal men fairly soon after arrival.  Big roll of kitchen towel can be useful as well.  Just in case 

I've got all that in a labelled box - along with some soft drinks - bought coffee last night for the first time in years as I don't drink it - but the movers might Good suggestion.

Your 'new home' visitors might want coffee too! 

Savvy_Sue

cymruchris said:

There are plenty of lists of 'what to do' and 'don't forget' when you're moving home.

All the usual - take readings and inform energy suppliers - book a good removal company - get plenty of boxes and packing tape - make sure you know where the kettle is - don't forget the teabags etc etc etc. 

I can't think of anything to add to the rest, but just to say that I rarely consider divorcing DH, but one of the very few times the thought has crossed my mind was the day before we moved. 

It was a complicated move: he'd been renting and working in one city, and I'd been in another, getting the kids to school and packing. (We actually moved several hundred books before we moved ... and there were several hundred more when Moving Day came.)

So, final weekend. He spends Saturday in the old house, 'finishing packing', while I am in the rented house with the boys. He drives to us on Sunday morning, and persuades me that I don't need to leave until after lunch, because it's all 'nearly done'. 

So I arrive early evening, and not only has he not 'nearly finished' packing ... HE HAS RUN OUT OF PACKING TAPE AND NOT TOLD ME, so I cannot even make any more boxes up. With the removal van due at 8 am. And all the shops shut. 

Fortunately, some of my very best friends in that city came to my rescue, and by the time I saw him again I had calmed down, a little. 

So, whatever else you do, don't forget the packing tape. 

twopenny

I put all my most precious items in a stout box that came in the car with me.
Personal items that meant a lot.
I could live without all sorts should they be lost or damaged but some things are memories or much loved.

My movers said to leave clothes in drawers and such. I did run clingfilm tound them just in case.

I stacked most boxes in one room so I could collapse daily in the bedroom or lounge without tripping over them kitchen was the exception to unpack on the day.

I ate a main meal at the local supermarket cafe to have a break from the work and not have to deal with finding stuff, washing up etc.

Along with the bedding (that was a blessing to have ready) I had the book and bedside lamp. 

I said if I did it again I'd get the movers to pack and book myself into an hotel or caravan for a week while I sortrd the new house !!

Sapindus

Yes, clingfilm.  I've got a horrible awkward wardrobe where the doors swing open and there's nothing to grip to carry it, and my ex said "I'd just clingfilm that".  I don't know where you get the big rolls of industrial size clingfilm but I'm going to find some before I move.

Although before he was my ex and a useful white van man to know, he drove me mad by refusing to bite the parcel tape and tried ripping it and we ended up with loads of screwed ends of tape sticking off the boxes. Get a tape dispenser.

Sarahspangles

Even when I’ve used removal men I’ve found that it’s physically hard work in the run up to a move and over the days of the move. Things like pulling out furniture in order to clean behind, and all the reaching and lifting of things to pack increase the chance of injury. I don’t know if ‘warming up’ helps, I usually end up on the voltarol….

Useful to borrow, if you don’t have:

• Step stool, for tops of wardrobes and the kitchen cupboards and these are also handy to sit on e.g. while packing books from a bookcase
• Something to kneel on
• Sack barrow e.g. to get garden pots in one location

It can be really hard on your hands, cutting nails short and using hand cream helps. For a house clearance, I bought a couple of pairs of cotton gloves so I didn’t lose manual dexterity, but I’d use garden gloves for heavy items.

dw1

In the spirit of moneysaving… If the move is for a new job, check if the company pays relocation expenses!!!

I moved a few years ago and only found out recently that my old company had a very generous relocation policy which they didn’t advertise. They would’ve paid for literally everything, not only the move, but also the cost of a couple of trips to the area to do property viewings, solicitor’s fees for the conveyancing etc, storage costs, getting proper movers (instead of muggins here doing it all myself with a hire van).

Too late now because I don’t work for them any more and the policy said expenses have to be claimed within 3 months!

knicol46

Make sure you read the estate agents contract in detail before signing.  I had agreed a fixed fee to cover everything upon a sale at the home report price which I was ok with.  The estate agent then suggested an 80/20 split on anything above the home report price which was an incentive for us both.  I agreed to this.  I automatically assumed I would be getting the 80% as no estate agent could be that greedy - I was wrong.  They had deliberately and knowingly attempted to take 80% on everything above the home report price and it got worse - they would still take a further 20% vat on the 80% already taken.  I was fuming.  The estate agents response  'you signed the contract.'