Moving!

[Mathew Newton]

On Thursday, August 30, 2012 8:15:49 PM UTC+1, The Medway Handyman wrote: =20

Get a removal firm in.

I've done both DIY and professional removers and the latter wins hands down= .

It's not just the fact they've got a bl00dy great big lorry to swallow ever= ything up but they are just so damn quick (without compromising being caref= ul). We could just put our feet up if we'd wanted... I'm not the type to be= able to do that but my help to them was minor.

Seriously, my Northern thriftiness is still alive and kicking however I rec= all at the time thinking I'd got myself such good value for money - and I e= ven went as far as tipping them well which is not something I normally do.

Mathew

[Dave Liquorice]

It was snowing when we moved into here...

Agreed but make sure that a kettle tea coffee sugar biscuits mugs are packed into a box and you know where it is, like personally taking it from one place to the other and unpacking it straight away. Left ina box= it's justa box to shoved out of the way ina cupboard...

The British weather is wonderful so have shorts and T shirt and woolies =

and waterproofs available. If it is pissing down have a "wet" crew to carry stuff from transport to the doorway(s) and a "dry" crew to take it= from there to the relevant rooms. Wet feet and dripping coats will soak =

the place very quickly.

Random sized cardboard boxes will be a PITA when stacking in a van. Try =

and get ones all the same size and not too large. We used mainly 14 x 14= x 18" boxes, might seem a bit small but anything bigger when full will b= e too heavy. Even so with books in they are almost glued to the floor. Whe= n packing a box write on it the room it should end up in at the destination.

And =A3800 (inc insurance?) how much is the beer and pizza bill going to= be?

[Andrew Gabriel]

Probably cost you 10 times that if you're not out by 1pm (or whatever time it says in your contract), depending on the length of chain and extra costs you end up forking out for the other peoples' removal companies working after 3pm.

[Bob Eager]

When we last moved, we moved 200 yards. We still got the men in. My wife was 7 months pregnant for a start!

So quick and efficient it was ridiculous (we had the luxury of moving in the day after the vendors had moved out; it was the same removal men and they already knew the house, too).

But we were quoted figures up to 2.5 times what we actually paid - that was a reputable local firm. We packed boxes (provided) ourselves. We could have paid even less for a rather more dodgy one!

[Andrew Gabriel]

1. If you need to do a final cleaning after all the stuff has gone, make sure all the cleaning products you need haven't been packed and buried somewhere in the depths of the van.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I've helped my brother with DIY moves twice before. I made it very clear I wasn't doing it again, and with the most recent move, he had a company do it. We were all busy with other aspects of the move, and there's no way we could have done it in the time allotted anyway. (With the previous DIY moves, we had a couple of days, not the few hours you get with a same day simultaneous move out/move in.) It was well worth it, with the

3 or 4 guys working very hard, and doing a superb job. They dropped off the boxes a week before, and they dropped by a few times when we'd unpacked enough to make it worth them picking some up.

[tony sayer]

Done it twice not a lot of bother if you plan it well.

Like make sure that you have a kettle and tea and moo juice..!

Jobs a good 'un....

[Tim Streater]

Well, you're not moving so far as we did, but:

Take with *you*, i.e. with *you* in *your* car, stuff for the first few days, but more importantly, valuable stuff. By that I don't mean your Ming vase (well perhaps I do) but your important papers, cheque book, cards, tools. That way if someone's vehicle crashes and burns you don't have the tax man saying "Your name is, *what*, again, we don't have you on the system, oh yes we do, you live in Bristol don't you and owe us a trillion quid".

Start packing well ahead of time, like a month. If you've been there for

30 years you can expect to throw away a couple of skips' worth of crap you didn't know you had.

[Tim Streater]

I can let you have three collapsable wardrobes if you need them. Tube frame with hanging rail and with a soft plastic covering, zip opening. Tall enough to hand suits in, style of thing. We had 'em up here for several months.

We also got 50 boxes from the removal company and used the lot. What are you doing about that aspect?

[ss]

Some good advice in the replies, adding my take without repeating too much. If you have a few weeks then .... Bin as much crap as you can. I got banana boxes from supermarkets strong and all the same size and stack well, with handles. (and free, I did start collecting a year ahead though) I packed a room at a time and kept stuff in room til nearer the time (labelled it room +contents) Couple of weeks before brought it all together in one room. Kept minimum crockery/cutlery for daily usage, 2 plates 2 forks 2 spoons etc. Its all about planning if you want to reduce stress.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

This Desmond bloke, is he anything like WVM's sidekick Darren?

[damduck-egg]

1 HGV class one licence holding mate borrowed a trailer and one container from work, on the day of moving in he had to work locally so half dozen of us packed the container and put various things on the rest of the flatbed like potted plants,lawnmower, sofa ,rabbit in a hutch etc. Looked a bit like a carnival float, he then popped back with the tractor unit and moved the loaded trailer to the new place a couple of miles away. Quite a refined road the residents of which judging by the twitching curtains and surreptitious looks over hedges were most concerned to see an artic trailer left in the road. We unpacked most of it by the time his work day finished but it had to stay with the tractor unit coupled overnight as his hours had run out which elicted one comment of "hope you don't make a habit of that" "Course not" our mate replied " It's normally a noisy refrigerated trailer I'll be bringing back" . Not he ever did. 2 The same gang helped another member move with a largish hired van. Took about three loads to the new place in an adjoining town and we travelled in the back with the goods. At the final load the van was well and truly full and as there were only a few items left it was decided to take the few small items left and ourselves in our cars rather than bring the van back. As it departed someone asked, anyone know the address? None of us did and having travelled blind in the van we hadn't a clue where to look. It was decided to go to a place where we would be found and went to a pub. By the time we were found we were unable to drive. Our mates missis went mad as apparently we had her jewellery in amongst our boxes .

G.Harman

[The Medway Handyman]

We have built in wardrobes & we have bought 2 huge wardrobes from the guy who's house we are buying. I have 1 person in a car designated to sort that job.

I bought 40 new cardboard boxes, + tape, + bags, + bubble wrap on Amazon for £30. Also have 20 x 40l plastic boxes from Tesco Direct @ £2 each.

[The Medway Handyman]

Great point!

Dunno, but at least I'll get beer & pizza. :-)

[The Medway Handyman]

No, Desmond is very useful indeed.

[Brian Gaff]

Given the stress factors involved, have you made a will? grin..

Brian

[Brian Gaff]

That sounds pretty reasonable to me. Some folk have paid a lot more and still ended up with a total disaster.

Brian

[RJH]

Decent middle ground might be Men-Ven - cost me £100 last time, and they did all the lifting.

Rob

[stuart noble]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

+1 If you've got all day to move in at your leisure, d-i-y might be ok, but it takes a lot of manpower to empty a house by midday.

[tim.....]

Decent middle ground might be Men-Ven - cost me £100 last time, and they did all the lifting.

Rob

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You must live in an area where jobs are hard to come by

Round ere (which is where TMH lives) I can see anyone doing 8 hours of lifting at less than 100 pounds a man, and then there's the cost of the van hire/fuel/etc.

Even a man with van is going to struggle to do a full (3 bed, with garage and garden) house move for under 250