Forum menu
.....It's too late to say don't .......
We have a van that ought to be big enough for all our bits. We have oodles of boxes and tape and have started packing.
I plan to buy a sack truck and some straps for in the van to tether things down.
Seems toooooo straightforward?
It is just Me and Mrs Letmetalktomark and we plan to pack up a day before everyone plays musical chairs.
Soooooo any pearls of wisdom other than don't 😉
Done quite a lot of self-moving. It's always hard. Get some mates round to help. It will take longer than you think to load. Start packing a week before if not sooner. Prior to that bin/sell/donate as much as possible. So really you need to start 4 weeks or so out. I always get injured in house moves too so if you are like me factor in physio/ recovery.
But for our last move, we paid for movers. They were awesome. Cleared our old house in 2hrs and unloaded in 1.75hrs. Spot on.
Pack up as early as possible
Do not under estimate how much room stuff takes up!
Room won't be your issue.
Unless it's a 7.5t lorry you'll be over your payload long before you fill the van.
Pay a man. I love to DIY but after 4 DIY rental moves....ie no furniture. if I ever move house again I'll pay a man.
Firstly don't... but as you are, then small boxes, and more of them rather than large ones that end up too heavy (unless filling with light things like duvets etc.) Good luck!
Don't. There are some things always worth paying for. Removals is one of those things (along with getting sewers unblocked and hedge trimming)
If you must do it yourself though, when you run out of boxes, don't put stuff in black plastic bags and store them near the stuff which needs to go to the tip. Advice that I did not follow
The one obvious one is have a box with essentials in ready to be unpacked first (ie, kettle, coffee, cups etc).
It'll be reyt. My advice would be get/use one of those weightlifting belts.
Buy boxes all the same size so you can stack them neatly.
Aldi woven carrier bags for clothes bedding etc. Load up the night before if you've got the van, bodies at both ends, Mrs at the far end to direct incoming
I've moved many times. and only once did we do it ourselves...
And go for the full packing option, usually barely more expensive.
Load up the night before if you’ve got the van,
Just remember that you have just paCked up all your worldly possessions into a nicely mobile van in view of all passers by and that it's very likely uninsured unless you specifically have moving /transit insurance.
We're in the midst of getting ready for a move in 3 weeks. Half of our stuff has been in storage for a year. We gave away/chucked anything we didn't want before packing, including most of our furniture. Get decent boxes - cheap ones collapse / rip / don't stack. We're using a removal company because it's 4 hours and 2 ferry crossings each way
McDonald's frozen chip boxes, all the same size and take the weight 👌
Removals are expensive at the moment
Box everything up well in advance
Write on boxes with marker pen which room they are to go in think about which room you want to fill first (last in first out)
Strengthen the bottom of boxes and keep a hand underneath when carrying
Some wrapping film is handy for bundling some stuff together or even wrapping some books in book cases if not too big and heavy to save a packing unpacking job
Wrapping film
Get extra bodies if you can
If you are not used to big vans go slow and take corners wider than the car. Get vehicle excess insurance
Finish with bottle of something and a takeaway
Ohh and label boxes clearly (and where the labels can be seen when stacked). Organise the loading and unloading logically and by priority (ie, all the stuff for your bedroom goes straight into your bedroom, all the stuff that can sit in a box for the next six months is labelled as such and goes straight into the spare room or whatever.
Did it a few times between flat/houseshares, even then it always took way longer and more effort than I possibly imagined.
Then did a removals service (we packed, they moved stuff). Amazing. The following time also got them to pack everything - a team did in 4 hours what would have taken us weeks. Would 100% do again.
Just remember that you have just paCked up all your worldly possessions into a nicely mobile van in view of all passers by and that it’s very likely uninsured unless you specifically have moving /transit insurance.
FWIW our home insurance has always covered the contents in transit between houses (buildings+contents with Nationwide).
We have a van that ought to be big enough for all our bits
It isn't
Box up what you can in advance (probably already done this I guess) and position the van as best you can to aid moving stuff out of the house and into the van. One of our house moves the Pro's backed up their van right upto my front door...pissed off the neighbours for a few hours but hey, not seen them since and they were done and dusted very quickly. But negotiating things and snaking around corners while carrying stuff will get very tedious after your 100th trip to the van!
It will be a long and tough day I'm afraid. The only time I've done it was when I cleared out my mums house after she died. Me and my brother. did about 9 trips to the tip and it took all day.But sounds like you're bracing yourself for a tough day so you'll be fine. The warm weather wont help either!
A list of things I will always pay someone else to do
1/ shifting stuff from one house to another when moving. And agree with a point above - the extra service where they just turn up and pack everything for you is just brilliant...
How far are you moving? If staying local then I'd recommend renting a storage unit for at least a week either side. Get the non-essential stuff in there and out of the way while you concentrate on the essential stuff on the moving day.
And no, the van probably isn't big enough. Stuff takes up a lot of space and is always awkward shapes that make the 3D tetris difficult.
…..It’s too late to say don’t …….
In that case I have nothing to add
pay someone else - its so much better.
FWIW our home insurance has always covered the contents in transit between houses (buildings+contents with Nationwide).
Indeed it may. But I'd want it in writing that parked outside my house over night was deemed in transit.
I'd also want it in writing it covered doing the move your self - because the hire company's insurance won't be interested should anything go wrong in between ....
Lots of mates, lots of box, pref same size to stack/Tetris with.
A lorry with a tail lift (oh yes)
Lots of straps, ropes and blankets/padding materials, taller/big things in first, well padded and strapped to lorry, soft stuff (duvets, cushions etc etc)in bags, bin liner can be chucked on top.
Make sure boxes well labelled(and marked fragile or nothing on top if required) - contents and target room in new house so people know where to put them without asking, id have the heavy boxes ready to go in first Make sure kettle/tea/biscuits box easy to get to.
Try to pack boxes in terms of - everything isn’t needed for a while or we need all this so you don’t need to unbox everything at once.
*its a lot more efficient to take stuff to the tip before moving, most people move it then throw it out a while later.
Ps you’re taking advice from someone who paid £1700 to have his parents garden stuff moved from Scotland to Oxford, then gave most of it away on gumtree, have fun.
Thanks folks.
This may be a learning curve that is both steep and not to be repeated. We have safe storage for the van over night. Critically bikes are/or will be dealt with separately.
We have a Luton with a tail lift for the couple of heavy things.
As a side it was less around the cost of paying a removals firm more availability and having started packing already they (all) wouldn't cover what we had packed!
Seeing a family move earlier and watching the removals men makes me think we have done the right thing!
I will be moving house in August/September. I have a Wife, 18yr old son and 14yr old daughter. We will be moving ourselves.
I did it to move into my current house which was a 2 bed to a 3 bed house. When i say I, i mean just me. It was no big deal, i did about 3 or 4 trips in a L3 size van.
This time i will be doing the same. I expect to have it done in 3 or 4 trips (Its only about 5 miles away). My son can help me with most of the big items and he and his mum and him both drive so we can load the cars up with stuff as we take each van load.
In preperation i noticed someone getting rid of about 50 packing boxes all flat packed on facebook marketplace for free. I have them in my garage ready to go. I ordered a 100m roll of bubble wrap for £15 last week and if i run out i will get another. My wife has already boxed my son and daughters gear up so it will just be clothes and bed to move on the day. Plans to do same with our room and garage over next few weeks.
Towards the end we will just slowly pack up kitchen stuff and have it all nicely boxed and ready to move.
We also have the use of a family garage to move any big stuff like bikes etc which we cant be bothered to do on the day.
Honestly, i cant see why i would even consider paying someone for it. I have access to any van i want but i am sure its just as easy for someone to hire a luton box van with a tail lift for the job to make it even easier.
if there's any furniture that you want to replace in the next 12 months, don't move it. We had an old bed and sofa that we binned/flogged and just had new bits delivered to the new house. Was a nice treat when it arrived, and a whole load less faff on the day
It's a good opportunity to get rid of crap and be generous to charity shops. If you have to pack it and move it but won't need it, then give it away or chuck it.
Don't take food with you either, i'm sure there's a supermarket near your new house.
Leave the cleaning products till last as you will need those for both your old and new home.
FWIW our home insurance has always covered the contents in transit between houses (buildings+contents with Nationwide).
Ours would only cover contents if packed by the movers. Worth checking before driving your whole life across country / parking it outside etc
Cable tie clothes hangers together in groups of 10 and cover with a bin bag.
I moved from a rental to my own place which was only 10 miles away, I decided to use the removal van budget to keep the rental for an extra month and move at a leisurely pace over the month. I have a Fiat Panda 🤦🏼♂️
What a silly little prick!
We've paid for removal company once - when 5 of us moved from Sheffield to Loch Tay. I didn't fancy the double run 😉
McD's have hundreds of just right size boxes.
Make sure you label everything well.
Have your hand tools and combi drill to hand.
Get food lined up already and know where the kettle is.
Start early and just keep on until it's done.
If you can have both places for an overlapping 2 days - you can go back and clean, get a list few bits etc.
The van isn't big enough. We moved from a 2 bed small (almost an old fashioned 2up 2down) house, the Mrs and I 5 years ago. It was like something out of the Waltons!
1 long wheelbase high top transit, my car full and my 8ft trailer full, my Mrs car full with the horsebox full, my dad and his truck full with a 14ft trailer with the big furniture on, in laws with their car full. We'd also been filling a storage unit locally for a couple of weeks before the move with stuff we needed but not regularly.
Seriously, your van isn't big enough!
We did have help (mostly to drive the motors!) Many hands make light work, we'd never have managed just the two of us on our own. Cost us cider and a takeaway, bargain.
Ex removal man here.
Mostly good advice above.
Use tail lift at half height. 1 person stays in van, othets gather stuff. Biggest first, then wdge mirror ets in gaps. Ypu will need more boxes than ypu think, amd tape amd newspaper. Wrap anything of value in newspaper.
Thrpw away anything yoy haven't touched in 3 years. It will consume the same dpace, on the same shelf as before, and still ne useless.
Start early, take break every 90 min, especially if its hot
Dont forget shed and garage if full of tat
Suitcases can be filled with clothes
Do not full boxes with books, a few books amd a lampshade or duvet will share the load
Do not move on a friday
Tell lawyers, estate agemts, bamks etc tjst 1200 is transfer time,
Get help at other end
We have had an offer accepted and will hopefully be moving this summer.
My Mrs has persuaded me to pay for a removal firm. I'm very glad after reading all that!
When one firm turned up to give us a quote the said "you do have a lot of stuff" which worried me somewhat 🙂
I'm moving this Friday. What is the problem with moving on Fridays?
Luton van with a tail lift and help from family and friends for me. Then again, I'm only moving 2 streets away and I have a friend over the road whose shed I have already stuffed with loaded boxes.
Remember to put a kettle, milk/ tea/ coffee/ biscuits /chocolate etc and loads of cups in a box for new house, pack last unload first, plug in, switch kettle on and have a drink before you start and plan where stuff is going over a cuppa.
Been to aquite a few house moves and no kettle or drinks , not good.
Too tight to pay for people to lift and move stuff that we're quite capable of lifting and moving ourselves. However...
One piece of advice... Don't get absolutely shit-faced the night before!
As above your van ain't big enough.
small 3 bed semi with garage, 3x 14ft trailers, two luton vans and 4 estate cars.
Also - cling film (packaging grade, not foodstuff grade). It’s much better than masking tape / sellotape etc for wrapping drawers / wardrobes etc so doors etc don’t come flying open. It’s also good for wrapping things like sofas to protect the fabric. I got a huge roll when we moved for not much at all (off EBay) and it’s come in handy several times since for wrapping things prior to storage.
In fact we wrapped a sofa in the stuff when we moved into our present house 7 years ago - it’s been sat in the garage since but I know it’s going to be okay when I do eventually get it back out as it’s been protected from all the dust and stuff.
Double wall cardboard boxes.
We filled our Volvo estate, LWB transit and hired a tail lift Luton for the big stuff.
Renting with no furniture - 2 trips with hiace van
Renting with some furniture - half dozen trips with mondeo estate, less than a mile
Renting with 2 bed house of furniture - many octavia estate trips plus a couple of 12' trailer loads, a few miles but generous overlap to bought property.
Hard to say on the last move as it went into storage in 3 different barns with some to the house to allow for renovation, but used a 3.5t Luton, octavia estate, transporter, land rover and 16' trailer over several days
Point I'm getting at, is a 3.5t Luton doesn't take much unless you are minimalists in a 1 up 1 down.
If you fill it airtight like I used to with an events company, you'll be around to 5t. We'd even fill the fridges and ovens once loaded to use every bit of space.
Edit to add: if you fill the van, you don't need tie straps, it all wedges itself. Big bit of ply is more useful for stopping stuff jamming the roller door. Or just stop hard at destination 😆
I moved with 2 Luton vans. My T4 and an estate.
I haven't moved my garage yet....
FWIW our home insurance has always covered the contents in transit between houses (buildings+contents with Nationwide).
I've only seen this cover in a couple of companies but Ross us correct that nationwide do it:
Permanent household removal and temporary storage.
Accidental loss or damage to your contents while moving from your home to your new permanent home within the British Isles. This includes while your contents are kept inside temporary storage for up to seven days in a row.
Restrictions will no doubt apply if stuff disappears from the van itself, so you'd have to load and unload sharpish, otherwise a limit of about £1k would apply. Edit. Actually I'm not sure they do! Blimey. You could drive a Luton van through the gaps in the wording.
Also, breakage of fragile items (china, glass, pottery) isn't covered unless packed by a professional.
Biggest thing is distance, how far are you moving, as this will provide info on how many runs you can do, if i move a distance, then it's always removals company, if it's within an hour, i do it myself, i've moved many times! Also, what time limit do you have, is it a chain, do you have to be out same day as someone moving in, etc, etc.
Big tips i always do is get rid of the crap prior to moving, several skip runs, sell off tat, etc.
Then it's prep work, others have said everything that needs to be said, you're getting a sack barrow, but are you getting ramps for the doors, how are you moving the fragile items, when i move the likes of the TV, pictures and so on go in the car.
Get help is the biggest bit of advice, they don't need to be strong, they just need to be at the both ends if you're doing runs, having people lining up stuff means less stress and time between runs.
As someone also said as well, make sure you factor in all the dirty stuff, you really don't want to empty the shed and stick that stuff next to the bed or whatever, again, if you can do separate runs you can plan this, if you're doing long distance then it'll be a hell of a job!
Start packing well in advance. Get as much newspaper/ bubble wrap / packaging materials as possible. Keep your eye on Gumtree / Freecycle / FB marketplace for boxes or find a friend who works somewhere that has lots of boxed deliveries (lots of supermarket boxes are rubbish - science labs are a good source) Buy twice as many rolls of brown parcel tape as you think. Buy a parcel tape gun. Have lots of old blankets in the van for packing and protecting. Big things in first then pack the boxes in the gaps. I preferred medium and small boxes as it was too tempting to overfill big boxes with heavy stuff and it's easier to find small box sized spaces in the van.
I'll be surprised if your van is big enough. I used a 7.5T van with tail lift. 1 trip is easier than multiple trips. The empty return journey may be a pain
Check your house insurance - it may not cover self moves.
Goods in transit insurance is worth it for peace of mind against losing everything you own if the van catches fire, has an accident or gets stolen or the contents get stolen.
Why not Fridays
Everyone wants to move on a friday. Everyone wants sn early finish as its friday, everyone is tired as its friday
Alot of places are short staffed on a friday. When i did removals in tje 90s boozy fri lunch was still a thing. We would sit outside houses for hours waiting for solicitors and estate agents to ring to confirm money transfer completion
Had some proper nightmare ones with stroppy teenagers im the middle of a messy divorce having to downsize to a flat and thinking by staging a sit in the move wouldnt happen
Old owners leaving, locking the door and driving 200 miles away with the keys....
Full lorry, then owners say what about the sheds...
I thought you would do the packing on the day....
Full lorry then owners decide to put some stuff into storage while they decide if they want to keep it...
Full lorry outside new place waiting for a clean team to come in and do a deep clean prior to unloading, then 3 useless kids roll up with a Henry and can of jif spray...
It all depends on how much stuff you have and what kind of move it is. How far? And/or are you exchanging in a chain at both ends (i.e. your house has to be empty and keys with estate agent to transfer money and get new keys, i.e. it has to happen in one go)? If you have to empty in one go you should consider storing excess stuff at a storage place for a few trips before the exchange date, or finding friends and family who will take bits. If there is a chain on both ends, you need to be out and house cleaned and keys handed to estate agent so that the money transfer can go ahead - don't be the arse that holds up the chain.
Agree if it were me, be as organised as possible boxing everything up well ahead, with labels or what is in it and where it goes, on the side and on top. If you haven't done much packing, do mix up heavy and light objects, or lift the box when 1/3 and 1/2 full to make sure you can both happily carry up and down stairs - if it is too heavy to do that repack it (books/crockery/pans + clothes/bedding). And yes have 1-2 boxes that are 'needed' on your first few days that go in the car - enough kitchen stuff + microwave to make food if you have any problems the other end, clothes and toiletries etc. We have always taken beds apart the night before and just camped on the bedroom floor, so that minimal camping gear goes in the car with us. And your fragile things - TV, monitors, laptops / desktop PCs, camera equipment and anything else that can't be boxed but won't handle things banging into it, all goes in the car. Then if things go wrong or we are just knackered we can make do for the first few nights in an otherwise empty house. I would have the van hired for at least 1 day after removals, so if you are knackered or one of you injures yourselves you can get assistance emptying it and carrying stuff upstairs etc. And yes a tail lift and sack truck for the white goods is helpful, especially if only 2 of you.
All our (buy/sell) moves have been over long distances (4+ hours drive each way) and we've only done it ourselves when we actually had both houses mortgaged for a while because we were both working in different places (me completing a fixed term contract while my partner moved) and wanted / needed our purchase to go through and the chain wouldn't / couldn't wait for our buyers. So in that case we probably spent 6 weekends moving stuff between houses that would fit in the estate car, and then hired a long wheel base for the final move of most furniture and other 'bits'. It's the tectrix tessellating everything that is a pain. And lots of 'stuff' that doesn't fit in boxes - bikes, canoe, gardening stuff (from lawnmower, strimmer, chain saw and PPE to spades and loppers, potted plants (actually a dwarf apple, agreed with the buyers we were taking it)), power tools and hand tools that can't be boxed. We actually don't have much furniture. It takes up a lot fo space because it doesn't tesselate or happily sit on top of other 'bits'.
You could drive a Luton van through the gaps in the wording.
I was aware of the wording of most policy's being vague as hell. Hence I'd want it in writing that leaving a van outside my house all packed up with my world possessions was covered. After all anyone that has passed your house that day knows what's in it....
Noted that you said its too late to get someone else to do it, but:
It will take longer than you think to load
And the pros will do it quicker than you could imagine possible.
When we moved a few years ago, the van drove over to the new house, while Mrs pushed the pram an babe over on foot. By the time she had arrived they had unloaded and gone.
money well spent.
My last move was just to the next street up. So close that the back garden of the new house almost backs on to that of old house. However, we still used a moving company with a massive lorry and so glad we did. As the new people were moving into ours on the same day we got the keys to the new place it all had to be done in one go so there is no way we would be able to have done it ourselves. It was funny seeing the moving lorry pack up and leave only to arrive at the destination about 2 minutes later.
I had done previous moves myself with a hired van when I had a place to store things temporarily but it's a horrible job so happy to pay someone else to do it.
Thanks folks.
I'm remaining hopelessly optimistic that it will all fit. We are now passed the point to worry too much more. We have a large family bus that we can convert to van duties and a hatchback that can be brought into service and will be disassembling as much as we can.
I'm not going to read anymore comments now - I may further scare myself but will update you on how we get on once complete 🙂
Thank you for all the tips - I need to get some packing film.
M
I’m remaining hopelessly optimistic that it will all fit.
When we moved last I filled our 3.5t horsebox, only took the contents of the (single) garage 🙂
I'm in the process of DIY moving myself. For the last 3-4 weeks I have been slowing packing things in boxes, and at the weekend started to move them into storage. So far it has been one van trip and about 5 car trips to fill most of the storage unit. On the day, i am hiring a Luton van to carry the rest of the house stuff, sofas table, bed mattress etc. I hope it all fits in one go 😀 but as it currently stands it looks to cost about £250 to do, instead of the £1000 the movers were asking for. As the house isn't far it seems like a viable option, though i have roped my brothers and dad into helping too.
Seeing a family move earlier and watching the removals men makes me think we have done the right thing!
No idea how much stuff you have but when we moved at the end of last year, we filled our T5 7 or 8 times with stuff beforehand to shove into parent's garages etc (stuff we didn't need immediately after moving) and then on the day we had an 18t wagon and a smaller XLWB box van as well as the car and our own van full. That little lot took us weeks to pack up.
Last 2 times we've moved we've used a removals company, previous 2 times we DIY'd but that was when we were much younger, minus kids and moving to/from smaller houses. Absolutely not a chance in hell I'd ever DIY again.
If you have any use for them after the move I can recommend buying heavy duty stack able storage boxes, clear tubs mean you can see whats in them. Much more robust than cardboard boxes (we still used cardboard boxes as well)
We bought a load of them, now used in the garage and loft, also a couple as kit boxes
So, trying to get some prices for our house move - which will actually only be the big items we can't get into our 2 estate cars over the 3 weeks we'll have the keys for, one luton van loads worth, going 2 miles.
A few years back I did 2 moves via anyvan, got some good quotes back - cost me £223 for a 3 bed to 3 bed full house move a couple of miles, and £205 for a 1 van load from Bristol to Kent.
Now, it seems they only do an 'instant quote' which has come out to £466. No option from what I can see (and I've really dug around!) to actually get quotes from people, like you used to? What a waste of time. Now going to have to email around trying to get prices.
Shiply for 2 miles ?
Admittedly it's been a while since I used it but basically you post a want ad and folk respond. Not sure I'd let my possessions out my sight mind
Admittedly it’s been a while since I used it but basically you post a want ad and folk respond. Not sure I’d let my possessions out my sight mind
That's exactly how anyvan used to work, but not now it seems.
Edit: worked out how to do it the old way! Go to your profile page and under jobs, go to 'create a job' and that then lets you list one to have people quote on.
Got a 'Quick book' price back for £239. Seems they pick a random number for the anyvan quotes, given the exact same amount of stuff...