We finally managed to buy a house, the next step was moving house. The most difficult part is to set the date for moving, set your budget and decide how much you want to pack. This process is very tedious and requires a lot of time and energy, however, it is the first step towards starting a new adventure. At the end of the process, although very excited about moving to my new house, it took us one week to recover as it was a very tiring process.
We bought our house on December 2017 and the estimation delivery date was set to end of June 2018. Therefore, the stress was waiting until the exchange of contracts to start the next step of the process.
The first step was deciding the moving date, as everything depends on this. We decided that the moving date will be 5th July 2018, this date was one week after the promise delivery date just in case the deadline was not met. We picked this day because it was a Thursday and gave us a bit of space to complete this process on Friday and then have the weekend to unpack.
The next step was to get quotation for the moving. The easiest way to get the quotation was to use a comparable website like reallymoving, which gave various quotations with one application. I requested the quotations around March 2018, after the contracts were exchange and we were just waiting for completion.
I got five quotations and I chose the cheapest quotation. The quotation requested was for a two-man job with a large vehicle for a one bedroom flat, with some furniture. The quotation included dismantling and reassembling of furniture, and insurance. The quotation was an hourly rate, which I found very appropriate.
We also needed package material, therefore, we requested another quotation. However, we though that packaging was hard work and we thought that we rather paid for professional to do the job. Therefore, our final booking was divided in two parts: packing rate (including all the material needed for packing the house) and moving rate (with all the necessary care to avoid breakage). We agreed with the final quotation and the expected time for both was 4.5 hours, this agreement was finalised middle of May. The booking was finalised for arrival on 5th July 2018 between 12.00 and 14.00.
Once the moving date was set, the next thing was to start pre-packing and for that we needed the moving guide (https://www.reallymoving.com/help-and-advice/moving-house-checklist). Therefore, the first step is to buy packing materials necessaries to start pre-packing.
I started pre-packing the fragile items inside my display cabinet and all around the living area, to make sure that nothing brakes. My storage system is based on plastic boxes, therefore, I made sure that the boxes contained all the fragile items for easy mobility and the plastic boxes are stronger and keeps the items dust free for future storage. It is also important that I packed myself all your values in a lockable suitcase to make sure that just you can open it.
The moving guide checklist aids you in the stressful process of moving houses and allows you cover a variety of topics from contents insurance to booking extra storage space for all your items. The first thing to do, is to start with the change of address for all your main correspondence, however, it is also worth to consider requesting a forwarding mail system to avoid missing any essential correspondence for the next three months but is more advisable for six months. During this process do not forget to notify the relevant utility companies of your departure or set new accounts if you are using them on your new address.
The majority of people recommend that you should start getting rid of things you no longer need but this is useful when you are doing all the packing. However, since we hire a company to do all the packing this process is better achieved when unpacking at the new address.
It is recommended that during this period, you buy any new furniture for your new house. Just make sure that you arrange the delivery when you are all move into your new address as this can take some time to delivery.
The moving date is fast approaching and you finished everything that you could do in advance. The only thing remaining for you to do is to pack the various bags with essentials: 1) with clothes and toiletries for each member of the house for at least two weeks; 2) with food and kitchen essentials for having a nice cup of tea when you arrived to your new house; and 3) with bed lining and towels.
The moving date has arrived, before the movers arrived made sure that everything that you wanted to pack is packed and you have a cold bag to put everything from the refrigerator just before leaving.
The movers arrived six hours late because they had another moved and they were very exhausted, we offered them a drink and we explained what we needed to take and what was supposed to stay. I advised the movers to label the boxes from the room that they moved them as this would help me better to place them in the correct room, and this was easier for the movers to label. It is important to have a basic coding system for your boxes, if someone else is moving them; however, if you back yourself be as specific as you can as this makes unpacking easy.
I decided that the faster way for this to work was to make sure that only the items that needed to be taken were put on the truck and for this we sat in the patio and check that every item was correct and label accordingly.
The movers took eight hours to pack like 90% of our belonging, as the truck run out of space. However, we make sure that the big items that we could not take ourselves made it to the truck. The truck was closed at 2.42 a.m. and we were ready to for the next leg of our moving date.
We arrived to our new house at 3.20 a.m. and then we started the lengthy process of unloading the truck, for this process my husband and I took two different positions. I was positioned at the entrance of our new house so that I could tell the movers where to put each box according to the label code design. My husband was positioned next to the truck to make sure that while the movers were unloading our boxes, the truck was always guarded to avoid any theft.
The movers were very careful with all our possessions; however, we had more things than anticipated and the unloading process took until 8.30 a.m. the next morning. By the time our movers finished unloading the truck, two more trucks arrived, as we moved to a new built and all the people were given possession of their flat at the same time, so everyone was moving around the same time. Before the movers leave make sure that everything that they dismantle is armed back in the correct position to avoid further moving.
After nine hours of moving, we were so tired and ready to sleep couple of hours before starting some basic unpacking. We had all our furniture arranged in one bedroom and a place to eat. We knew that the process of unpacking will take couple of months, as we both have full-time jobs and limited time to unpack.
The suitcases made our life easier to unpack the essentials. Over the weekend, we built the entertainment centre in the living room, we unpacked the bedroom, and finally we unpacked the kitchen. These allowed us to have a we had a place to sleep, food to eat, a place to entertainment and finally bathroom essentials.
The last part of a successful moving is to return to the old house and make sure that everything that you own is packed and out of the house. In our case, as the truck run out of space, we had enough things to fill our car three times over. We finished moving over the weekend, as we needed the car to finalise the moving as I do not drive.
On Monday 9th July 2018, we made our final checks to the house making sure that everything that needed to be taken was taken and everything that needed to stay was there. The last step on the day was to do the check-out inventory and returned the keys, and we this step the process of moving finalised and the only issue remaining was to pay for cleaning and the returned of the deposit.
The next step is to unpack all the boxes, arranged the furniture and decorate the house with all the essentials to have a comfortable living arrangement.
The moving process is long and stressful. The best way to make this process manageable is to develop a good logistic, as this process takes a long time and patience as needs to be done in order.
Before the moving, the first step is by downloading the movers checklist (link above), as this tracks everything that needs to be done in order. The next step is to finalise the moving date, as everything depends on this decision. And the last step is to decide whether you will pack everything and just hire a team of movers or hire a team of experts that will do everything for you.
The day before the moving, do not forget to pack the essentials in bags. One for each member of the family containing enough clothes and toiletries for a 2-week period, another with the bedding and towels to be able to sleep in your bed the first night, and finally the essentials for kitchen.
During the moving, make sure that all the boxes are label for easy unpacking and remember to take everything on the truck. However, if you are not able to do just leave small items for easy transportation. Before guiding the movers to the new address, packed all the food in the refrigerator in a cold bag.
After the move, make sure that your bedroom, kitchen and living area are ready for use, as the unpacking is going to be a long process and you need to be comfortable during this process.
My recommendation for moving is to be patience, have a good strategy for packing to make unpacking easier, and pack essentials so that you are able to feel at home from the first night. I will also recommend to take some days off from the day of moving, as the process of packing and unloading take a lot of time, and it is not recommended to go to work after a sleepless night. In any case, enjoy the process as moving is the first step of this new adventure.
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