Thinking of moving home soon? Whether moving from a flat to a house, moving to a bigger home or downsizing, our tips can help make your move go more smoothly. You will be wishing you’d seen these sooner!
Moving house can be an extremely stressful time. There is so much to do so it’s important to get organised to ensure that nothing gets missed out. Having a good selection of tips and hacks up your sleeve can really help you out in the moving process.
With so many years experience of in helping our clients move house, we’ve picked up a few tricks and tips over the years so we thought we’d put our heads together and put together a list of our favourite ones.
12 steps to a happier house move
Redirect post using Royal Mail redirect service
In the lead-up to your house move, contact the postal service to arrange a redirection. This way if you forget to inform any organisations of your change of address, your post will still find its way to your new address.
Put pets in a kennel or cattery for a few days
Moving house can be really stressful for pets and with doors being left open during your move, there’s a chance that your pet can escape and go missing. To stop this from happening it’s worth either booking your pets into a kennels for a few days or asking a friend or family member to look after them.
Arrange childcare
Trying to manage childcare for young children whilst also moving house can also be challenging logistically. If you can move whilst the children are in school or nursery this can help. Alternatively, if a family member can take them whilst the move goes on, this also reduces the pressure and stress on you as well and you are less likely to loose favoured toys in the move.
Turn off and defrost your fridge & freezer the day before the move
It’s surprising how few people remember to empty and defrost the fridge and freezer the day before their move. In the lead-up to your move, try to use up the contents of your fridge and freezer so that the few things that are left can be placed into a small cooler box. You can then switch off, defrost and clean and dry out your freezer so they aren’t leaking water during the move (and over your floors).
Dismantle beds
On the day of your move, take the time to dismantle your bed. Place all the components including allan keys etc in a small bag and tape them to your furniture so that you know where they are on arrival. It might also be worth videoing the dismantling so that you know how to put the bed back together on arrival. We’d also suggest making the reassembly of your bed at your new home a priority so that you don’t have to rebuild and make it when you are ready for sleep.
Remove casters off furniture & sofas so they fit through doors
A lot of furniture items have casters on them to prevent damaging carpets and to make them easier to move. It can also make them difficult to move through doors. You can usually unscrew them from the furniture making it easier to get them in and out your new home.
Put cardboard down to protect carpets if necessary
If you are worried about carpets getting dirty or damaged during your move (particularly if the weather is bad or the access is muddy), put down cardboard to protect the carpet.
Empty attic space and declutter
Don’t forget your attic! Make sure you don’t leave it to the last minute. In the months leading up to your move, go through everything in your attic, let go of what you can and collect any boxes and suitcases that you could use for packing.
Pack as much as possible in boxes as they are easier to move as boxed items are also less likely to get damaged
Make a plan to pack your items and stick with it. Boxes are the easiest way to move items as they are less like to get damaged and make sure you package well. It’s worth decluttering in the lead up to your move so that you don’t move anything you don’t want to take with you and can reduce how much packing you need to do.
Label all boxes with contents & final room location
It’s so much easier for us, your moving team, if you can label all the boxes with their contents and where they need to go. A colour-coded floor plan with boxes labelled in co-ordinating colours is a fantastic idea and saves us asking where an item goes and which bedroom is bedroom 2 and which is bedroom 3 etc. For more advice on packing your items take a look at our article offering 20 tips on packing your things for a house move.
Put box with kettle, tea, coffee & sugar in last!
Take a look at our moving survival kit post and first-night box posts for tips on putting together last-minute boxes that have everything you need to stop you hunting through boxes for the bottle opener and glasses when you want some bubbles to celebrate your move. These normally go in the delivery van last, or better still they stay with you in your car so that you know exactly where they are.
Trust your removal team, they are doing this every day!
Finally, trust our friendly removal team and listen to their advice on the day. Our teams help clients move house all of the time so we know what we are doing and can offer advice and suggestions based on their experience to help your house move go off without a hitch!
Plan your move with Evesham Transport Ltd
To make the process of moving into your new home much easier and less stressful, we also offer a re-assembling service to set up your furniture in your new home so that you can focus on unpacking and get settled in more quickly. Contact us to find out more.
To book Evesham Transport as your removal company or to ask us any questions you might have, please use the contact form or call us on 01386 244452. Our friendly team will be happy to assist you with your enquiry.