I really hope I don’t have to move house ever again!

[Cabinetman]

I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but this has taxed us to an extreme. My wonderful Pam has lived in her last house since her and her late husband built it 20 years ago, full of memories and tons of memorabilia from children and fun times. Luckily we found a good moving firm to come in and box everything up.
Yes we have spent weeks going through “stuff” and the amount removed from the final pile was considerable. Two 30 ish year old men were in the house with masses of newsprint a stack of boxes and a ton of padded blankets, then loading the trucks.
Towards the end of the third day it was obvious that they were running out of time and a call went out to the firm who sent a third removal truck and 8 more men who unfortunately were not all of the same calibre of careful at all!
Have you ever tried to keep an eye on 10 men packing and loading when it’s getting late and they’re in a hurry? I don’t recommend it at all!
Things that didn’t go to plan, the Hoover and the stepladder’s were spirited away without us noticing, the laundry basket full of dirty washing and the washing machine full of wet washed clothes were loaded, just discovered a large box full of bits and bobs to be left for for the new occupants has ended up at the new house, all my best laid plans to mark every box with it’s contents and destination soon went out the window, they were marked but with not enough information so that now we’re here it’s a mess!
We just weren’t ready by a couple of days, oh well, couldn’t be helped. Not helped by Pam cutting her hand badly in two places just before the packers arrived. Also we were a little restricted in what we could do in preparation as if we packed anything it wasn’t insured.
And so to our new house 7 hours to the North near Boston. On the drive It was noticeable that the trees were much further on with wonderful colours as we went North.
Three guys in three trucks unloaded two the first day, very skilful and strong with seemingly endless energy, every room in the house was packed full of boxes and furniture including the baby grand reassembled without a mark.
The house we left had a superb huge basement ( very good for storing lots of “stuff”! ) the new 200 year old house has a dry-ish rough stone walled cellar so all the extraneous overspill went into the barn, so that’s an end to the workshop build for a few weeks, literally can’t move in there, and I had just got three new double glazed sash windows ready to fit in preparation for the winter but that will have to wait now.
I soon realised that that the huge volumes of clean white newsprint used to pack everything would take forever to throw away, but this wasn’t something that I would have done anyway so every sheet has to be roughly flattened out and rolled into bundles, along with the flattened boxes they will help someone on FB Marketplace getting ready to move.
But that’s a little way in the future as we are driving back down South tomorrow all the way to Asheville N Carolina for a wedding, everyone thinks we are nuts not flying but we are treating the two day 15 hr drive as an adventure and a break from the move. Might even get to see a few sights on the return, I keep joking about the Worlds largest ball of string that I’ve read about and would like to see.
If I have any advice about moving (apart from don’t do it) is don’t make all the mistakes we made. Preparation is everything.

 

[RogerS]

Ian..I share your pain. Trouble is even though one can plan to the nth degree and my missus is superb at that having packed most of the boxes and entered the contents into a reference book (no that was never lost) reality is the opposite.

Phase 1 of our move had us trying to get rid of stuff. Either giving away or selling. I said to LOML ‘I’m never doing up another house again’ and promptly threw away all those bits of plumbing connectors. Those electrical back boxes et al.

We weren’t brutal enough - especially me - and that’s come back to haunt us. Our plan was for the workshop to be packed first because Day 2 I was starting the long drive in the S2000 from Northumberland to Somerset to collect the keys to the rental and get ready for their arrival.

However the removal company had a vehicle problem….the one driven by their nominal leader who therefore wasn’t present when the rest of them arrived. The older man simply said ‘We like to do the house first’ and as you all know that resulted in the Hammer C3-31 being left behind. I told them it was heavy. The arrogance of their removals ‘consultant’ was such that that simple fact was ignored. You know the rest of that story.

The simple fact of moving is that the Swirling Dervishes will descend on your home and walk through picking up anything that will go into that wee space in the removal van. They like to fill that van totally. No empty volume…just a solid wall of your possessions gradually working its way down the van to the rear doors. Every nook and cranny filled.

Lack of knowledge and arrogance of said consultant resulted in unwrapped antique furniture and subsequent damage and claims and hassle.

Arrival at the rental, I’d made the logical (or so I thought) decision to use CutList Optimiser to work out how we could densely pack our furniture into the rooms at the rental so that it would all fit but still leave some rooms habitable. I’d printed layouts and photographs to show what went where. It simply failed because the stuff coming off the van was in no particular order and an attitude of ‘We don’t do it this way’ and so after two hours of ‘Where do you want this put’ being asked simultaneously by four blokes I lost it and yelled at them to ‘Just put it where you f*****ng well like. There was a plan. ‘ and went for a walk.

Four months at the rental saw me selling most of my equipment since there would be no room at our tiny new home. Still didn’t get rid of enough stuff …it might come in handy at the new place. You never know…..so far it hasn’t.

So then came the reality of Phase 2 moving an hour down the road to our tiny, tiny, tiny house. This time we had the A team and they did a much much better job. Not too much damage this time although. They did lose one set of legs for the designer kitchen table. Left it on the van…it got swept up by another group of removal men the next time the van was used, put into someone else’s belongings in storage but eventually surfaced after four weeks.

Then reality kicked in. We had had the keys to the new place for a few months and I’d been commuting daily to work on the house. Way way more work than we’d realised or planned for. Including plumbing….why did I throw away those bits…ditto electrics. No workshop ..bought a Lumberjack table saw and P/T for emergency use (and my sanity). Cleared the house of all my tools prior to the removal men coming. Garage …much damper than thought…full. Tools and stuff lost and/or hidden. I’m a daily customer at Screwfix.

It will be Christmas soon. Hey ho.

Never again. At least we have a decent wedge in the bank and can, as we recently did, hop across for a few days in Paris and the opera.

 

[Mike G]

It's always a trial, Ian, but to add in a monster drive, and an injury......

The other approach is to do it often. Not only do you get really disciplined about what you keep and what you throw, but you develop quite a knack for organising so that mistakes are kept to a minimum. Not insured? I'd take the risk with most stuff, bar kitchen crockery, and pictures. We're in our 9th house as a couple, and when I was a child I lived in at least 7.

At least in driving back you'll be able to take back the stuff which was meant for the new owners of the previous house.

 

[Windows]

Moving is tough and unpacking takes months to years if you’re anything like us. Sounds like the worst of the stress is over though.

Our last move, we gave all our possessions away to charities and family. Nieces and nephews were fortunately at the age to be setting up their first homes so they could take furniture. I also gave everything away on my first move to the States, but I was young and didn’t have much stuff. The return trip meant disposing of the contents of an entire house. It’s not a strategy that can work for everyone.

We’ve done a couple of big international moves with professional movers. Fortunately no wet washing, but a trash can full of (dry) trash did get shipped. The labelling was good, but we’d done a lot of prep in grouping and labelling items so that the movers could see exactly what the labels should be without having to guess or ask. They were really good at wrapping. Something got wet on the boat, but i don’t think we had any knock damage. I’ve not heard of a move with zero damage.

 

[Cabinetman]

Thanks Roger, you’ve made me feel a lot better! Strange I also did the workshop first, but I was able to do that bit myself so no great problems.

It's always a trial, Ian, but to add in a monster drive, and an injury......

The other approach is to do it often. Not only do you get really disciplined about what you keep and what you throw, but you develop quite a knack for organising so that mistakes are kept to a minimum. Not insured? I'd take the risk with most stuff, bar kitchen crockery, and pictures. We're in our 9th house as a couple, and when I was a child I lived in at least 7.

At least in driving back you'll be able to take back the stuff which was meant for the new owners of the previous house.

Yes, we shall be able to have a swop with the new people who we have got to know quite well. It’s usually different over here where the buyers hardly ever even meet the sellers, never got to meet our sellers in our new house and there are times when it would be handy to know something.

Moving is tough and unpacking takes months to years if you’re anything like us. Sounds like the worst of the stress is over though.

Our last move, we gave all our possessions away to charities and family. Nieces and nephews were fortunately at the age to be setting up their first homes so they could take furniture. I also gave everything away on my first move to the States, but I was young and didn’t have much stuff. The return trip meant disposing of the contents of an entire house. It’s not a strategy that can work for everyone.

We’ve done a couple of big international moves with professional movers. Fortunately no wet washing, but a trash can full of (dry) trash did get shipped. The labelling was good, but we’d done a lot of prep in grouping and labelling items so that the movers could see exactly what the labels should be without having to guess or ask. They were really good at wrapping. Something got wet on the boat, but i don’t think we had any knock damage. I’ve not heard of a move with zero damage.

Yes huge sigh of relief when the movers left and we sat down amongst the chaos for a cup of tea. Apart from tools and a very small amount of personal items I, like you got rid of everything when I moved over here, it’s quite liberating but it’s also a bit final!
Up to now just one bit off damage, poor old Piggy lost a leg, broken off but we shall have to see in the weeks to come - I do hope it’s not months.

 

[AJB Temple]

We don't mind moving. 6 UK places in the past 15 years and one German. Prior to that, post uni, I must have lived in at least 15 in the UK, Hungary, Switzerland and the US. Never actually counted but it always seemed like fun.

 

[Cabinetman]

We don't mind moving. 6 UK places in the past 15 years and one German. Prior to that, post uni, I must have lived in at least 15 in the UK, Hungary, Switzerland and the US. Never actually counted but it always seemed like fun.

He’ll, you must be a glutton for punishment Adrian, no way I would willingly do this again!
Interested to hear which country does it best? I imagine the Germans to be organised as usual?

 

[akirk]

We moved in here one week into the first Covid lockdown... a small local company were contracted to move us / our buyers / our sellers - and then half their workforce refused to come in because their girlfriend / wife / mother / aunt / dog said that it was dangerous...

led to an interesting weekend before the move when they were meant to be packing our house - fortunately I had arranged for them to drop off boxes and materials early - so we did it... but it was fairly chaotic. A bit of British Blitz spirit surfaced and our seller provided us with an empty room to drop stuff in - as we did for our buyer, allowing the move to take place over several days starting before completion - fortunately it all worked!

 

[AndyP]

Every move I’ve done to date, 5 I think, has meant either all or part of the move was carried our by myself and mates/family with a hired van. Coming here 18 years ago I insisted on moving the workshop and my dining table ourselves. Glad I did as the removals company left half or our stuff in the UK and were incredulous when I pointed out, as soon as they opened the back of their lorry, that it was not all there. Took another two weeks before we could actually sit around the table. That was 18 years ago and I certainly do not have the will to get involved next time.

 

[AJB Temple]

He’ll, you must be a glutton for punishment Adrian, no way I would willingly do this again!
Interested to hear which country does it best? I imagine the Germans to be organised as usual?

Work and women Ian.

Switzerland was unbelievably organised. But you get what you pay for with removals. We used Bishops a few times and they did all packing and labelling. It was slick. Cheerful and efficient.

US (New York actually which is a weird bubble) was not really a move and nor was Hungary. We just lived there for work, company paid, and we just set up new homes with new stuff for a few years. Most difficult challenge was the kids / education. Germany was a non issue as in-laws were on the ground in situ and my FIL is very persuasive . I forgot about Amsterdam with ex. That was interesting as we inadvertently bought a place previously owned by a drug dealer who was in prison and was to say the least not super happy. Turns out Dutch estate agents were just as dodgy as UK ones at the time Former life.

I think it's an attitude thing really. I quite like change.

 

[JamesHow]

I feel your pain.
Try doing it twice whilst going through a difficult brutal divorce, first to a rental house and then to my own house.

 

[Cabinetman]

I feel your pain.
Try doing it twice whilst going through a difficult brutal divorce, first to a rental house and then to my own house.

I understand a difficult brutal divorce, but easy peasy move. I let? her have everything for the children’s sake.

 

[JamesHow]

I understand a difficult brutal divorce, but easy peasy move. I let? her have everything for the children’s sake.

I did too all if the household stuff. I didn't want them tbh. Too many memories. She gave me anything she didn't want.