Our Top Ten Tips For Moving House

Our Top Ten Tips For Moving House

Moving house supposedly ranks in the top five most stressful life events a person can experience – quite an achievement when you consider that death, divorce and major illness also make that list! However, moving day doesn’t have to be a nightmare. Here are our top ten tips to make your transition to your new home as smooth as possible:

Let It Go. Before you even begin packing, a house move is a great time to declutter and get rid of things you no longer need (or that perhaps are still in the box you moved them in). Check your local recycle centre, donate good-quality items to charity shops, and rack up some Ebay sales – you might even make enough to cover the cost of a removal van!

Start Early. Once your sale is agreed, or even once you’ve decided to move, it’s never too early to begin packing. Gradually packing up items you don’t need for everyday use (such as books, ornaments or seasonal clothing) will mean that, by the time moving day comes around, you won’t have the panic of trying to sort everything out at the last minute. 

Make your mark. Marking each packed item with the location where it needs to go (Kitchen, Office etc) makes it easier for your movers to unload, and ensures things are in the correct location when it’s time to unpack. Also, ask your removalist if they’ll collect the empty boxes once you’re finished unpacking; many do, as they can be recycled for somebody else to use.

Set the date. While this may seem like the first thing to do when planning a house move, the conveyancing process means your moving day planning needs to start before you know when you’ll get the keys to your new place. However, once you do have a potential completion date, choosing a time that works for you (and, if necessary) for your family, will make moving less stressful. For example, if you have children, scheduling a move during the school holidays means you can avoid any disruption to their schedule.

Be Prepared to Be Flexible. However, unforeseen delays can sometimes mean that completion needs to be postponed. So, when booking a removals company, check their availability on multiple dates, just in case, and be prepared to make changes to your schedule if necessary.

Handle With Care. Booking a reputable moving service instead of asking friends and family to help will save you time on the big day, as well as make the whole thing run far more smoothly. If you can’t bear the idea of packing, or simply aren’t able to do it all yourself, many removal companies offer a packing and unpacking service, which usually involves them taking all the discarded packaging away afterwards. And, with the cost of petrol these days, booking a removals lorry to bring everything at once will probably work out at a similar cost to making multiple trips back and forth in smaller vehicles.

Turn it off… and on again. Contact all your utility providers (water, gas, electricity, internet etc) to advise them of your move well in advance, and to arrange account transfers to your new property, if possible. The last thing you need is to move into your new home and find out you have to wait a week to get the internet connected (or the electricity switched on!)

Return to Sender. Royal Mail offers a paid service where your post can be either held or redirected to your new address for a specified amount of time. The process can be done online at the Royal Mail website (www.royalmail.com), and they recommend setting it up three weeks prior to your move, so that everything will be in place on your moving date, and none of your precious post will go missing.

Create a Survival Kit. It can take most of the day to get furniture in place, beds made up, and boxes in the correct rooms, so you most likely won’t feel like rummaging through everything to find the kettle and a few teabags at the end of the day. Putting together a ‘survival kit’ containing the things you need most, such as a kettle, teabags, milk, sugar, phone/laptop chargers, batteries, plasters, important documents etc and keeping it with you during the move ensures you can at least sit down with a cuppa once everything is done.

Don’t Forget to Breathe. Yes, moving can be stressful, but it’s also exciting – the beginning of your life in your new home. So take time out to breathe and count to ten if things get too overwhelming, ask friends or family to help out with pets/small children for the day, and think about how wonderful everything will be once you’re settled in.

If you’re about to move house, we wish you all the best in your new home.