The families who find moving easiest are the ones who started eight weeks out with a box and a fifteen-minute timer. Everything below is a version of that: small, finite jobs done early, so moving day is just a day rather than the end of a month of panic.
Here is how to get a house ready for a removal, from the first sort-out to the van pulling away.
Before you start
Clear some space in your diary. Moving takes more hours than people allow for, and the ones you do not book in advance get taken out of your evenings.
A few things worth sorting early:
- Arrange childcare for moving day. A house full of open boxes and a propped front door is no place for small children, and you will get more done without them there.
- Prepare your pets. Bring the boxes in a couple of weeks early so the house changing shape is not a shock, and leave carriers out and open with a blanket inside so they stop being something that only appears before a vet visit.
- Book your removal firm. Do this before anything else on the list, because dates go quickly in summer and at month end.
- Build in downtime. Take breaks, get out of the house, and do not try to pack a room a night for a fortnight. Moving is tiring in a way that is easy to underestimate.
If you are moving within the area, our local house removals service covers the whole job from packing to unloading. We work across Chester, the Wirral and North Wales.
Declutter first
Every box you do not move is a box you do not pay to move, carry, or unpack at the other end. Decluttering is the one job that pays for itself twice.
Take an empty box into a room and set a timer for fifteen minutes. Work through what is in there and apply one test: have you used it in the past year? If not, it goes in the box. Fifteen minutes is short enough that you will actually start, and most rooms need two or three goes.
Give everyone their own room and their own timer. Children will do it if it is a race, and they are far more willing to part with things they chose themselves than things you chose for them.
Move things on
You will end up with several boxes and bags to shift. Charity shops across Chester take donations, including the British Heart Foundation shop, which will collect larger furniture items free of charge if they are in a saleable condition and carry the right fire labels.
Pick one day and clear the lot. Anything still sitting in the hall a fortnight later will end up on the van.
Keep the paperwork together
Get a lever arch file with dividers, or a folder on your phone if you would rather it was digital. Either way, one place for everything.
It should hold your removal quote and booking confirmation, solicitor correspondence, mortgage paperwork, meter readings, your checklists and every receipt connected to the move. Some moving costs are worth keeping records of, and you will not remember which in six months’ time.
Make an inventory
Walk round the house and list your larger and more valuable items, grouped by room. This tells your removal firm what the job actually involves and gives you a record of what went on the van.
Photograph anything valuable, and photograph any existing damage while you are at it. It takes twenty minutes and settles any question about condition later.
Keep birth certificates, passports, deeds and similar documents in one clearly marked container that travels in your car. Those never go on the van.
Measure before you move furniture
Not everything that fits your current house will fit the next one. Measure your large pieces, then measure the doorways, stairwells and turns at the new property, including the width of the front path if you have a wide sofa.
Think about what each room is for while you are there. A room that has to be a spare bedroom and an office needs different furniture from one doing a single job. It is far cheaper to work this out now than to pay to transport a wardrobe that will not go up the stairs.
Plan the day itself
- Arrange your utilities at the new property before you arrive. Electricity, gas, water and broadband, and book the broadband early because installation slots are the ones that slip.
- Pack a survival bag for the day: water, snacks, chargers, painkillers, kitchen roll and a first aid kit.
- Pack an overnight bag each, with bedding, toiletries, medication and a change of clothes, so nobody is opening boxes at eleven at night looking for a toothbrush.
- Put together an unpacking kit: scissors or a box cutter, bin bags, cleaning supplies and a marker pen.
- Buy your packing materials in advance if you are packing yourself. Proper boxes, tape, and wrapping for anything fragile. We supply all of it if you would rather not source it.
Work out your storage
Most moves have a gap somewhere, whether that is a chain that does not line up or a new house that needs work before the furniture goes in. Knowing what storage is available before you need it keeps that gap from becoming a crisis.
Three options cover most situations:
- Household storage holds furniture and everything you will not need immediately, in a secure container at our facility. This is what most people use between properties.
- Business storage takes desks, equipment, stock and archived files if you are moving premises as well as home.
- Self-storage gives you your own locked unit that you access yourself, which suits moving things across gradually rather than all at once.
Where we come in
Britannia Cestrian has been moving families in and out of Chester since 1972, and we are still family-run.
Every move starts with a pre-move survey. We look at what you have, what access is like at both ends and what you want us to take on, then give you a fixed price rather than an estimate. It is also the point at which anything unusual gets planned for properly, whether that is a piano, a chain that might slip, or a fragile item that needs a purpose-built case.
Packing, transport, storage and unloading all come from the same firm and the same site, which means one point of contact when something changes.
Ready to book?
Get in touch or call 01244 521 950 and we will arrange your survey. The earlier you book, the more say you have over the date.
