We have all read the advice given out in countless home moving blogs about how to move home cheaply, and it sounds easy and stress-free if we follow just a few simple steps.
Many people have never moved home before and the process can seem daunting at first. I have moved home many many times, locally, nationally, and internationally, and sometimes it still seems a daunting task.
So I thought you might like to read about a real world example of moving home as cheaply as possible, my latest in-country international move from the 12th floor of a city centre apartment block to a village house.
Like many of you, I moved home on a budget. I wanted to move as cheaply as possible, but preferably cheaper than that if I could.
It was only a 17 kilometer move with a family of four and a dog, but as I have learned previously, 17 or 1700 kilometers makes no difference, there are still the same challenges to face, and work to be done.
And of course, time, or lack of, is always a factor. There is still your normal life to live, with working or looking after the family and home to be done. Moving home is just another task to add to the usual never ending to-do list.
I have been in the home moving industry years and have moved many times so am a proficient packer, but even if you are moving on a budget, I would always recommend you paying for professional packers. The time and inconvenience it costs to do it yourself is just not worth it for how little it costs to get it packed by professional packers.
Moving home rarely goes to plan, and as you will discover in this story, planning for each and every eventually can save your sanity.
So this is my recent home moving story which I hope you find useful when planning your own budget home move.
Everyone will tell you decluttering is the most important home moving task to get done. And it is.
If you want to save money, the fewer things you need to pack and move, the more money you will save.
Even though I thought there was very little to move, when you start opening cupboards and drawers you soon find out just what useless and redundant things you have been hoarding for no reason.
I was ruthless, there was no way I was going to waste time and effort packing things I was never going to need. So if I had even the slightest doubt that I was going to use an item, out it went.
But decluttering takes time, no matter how big or small your move is, so allow plenty of time to not only sort things through, but to dispose of them.
Any old clothes that did not fit, and were no good to anyone else, were used as packing materials and then repurposed as cleaning rags at the new house.
Paperwork. That took forever to go through. Why keep paper copies of bills when they are all online? There were guarantees and handbooks for electrical items that had been gotten rid of years ago. Receipts for grocery shopping??? Why were they in the paperwork folders? It takes time to read and sort through all your papers, but it is well worth doing.
What did we do with all the things we no longer needed? Recycled some and left out other things for people to help themselves to.
We did not have the time to organise a car boot sale, or to sell the things online. But if you have the time and inclination, you would certainly raise some money towards your home moving costs.
Finally, we were left with just the things we really needed or loved.
Sounds easy right? Rock up at your local grocery store, grab an arm full of boxes, and job done.
The reality is a lot of boxes are single walled, damaged, and totally unsuitable. And many items are delivered to stores plastic wrapped these days, not in cardboard boxes.
Every day for a week we scoured every store and rubbish skip looking for good quality boxes. It was time consuming and inconvenient. Were the boxes we found perfect? No. Were they free? Yes.
If you have the time and inclination to go searching for good quality moving boxes they are out there. But don’t think it is as easy as you believe it will be.
Packing for a cheap home move does not have to mean cutting corners or reducing the packaging materials’ effectiveness at protecting your valuable items.
The plan was to use scrunched up papers and old clothing as packing materials to protect the fragile items.
We salvaged a few broken cardboard boxes which we were going to rip up and use as protective dividers and padding.
There were strong boxes for the fragile and breakable items to be packed in. Single-walled boxes for light things that needed to be boxed.
Books were packed in suitcases and holdalls, taking care that they were not too heavy to move.
Our shoes are normally kept in shoe boxes so that was just a case of putting the individual boxes into cartons.
Quick and easy packing of hanging clothes
Clothing was left on hangers and strong plastic bin liners slipped over them. I tied the plastic bags around the hangers, rather than make holes to slip the hangers through, as then we could reuse the bags later. Also, this means that if anything slipped off the hangers, they would fall into the bag not onto the floor.
Crockery and glasses were wrapped in paper with cardboard as protective dividers packed in double-walled boxes.
We used the Russian doll method of packing. If something could fit inside something else, then that is where it was placed.
Everything else was going in super-strong rubbish sacks. The sacks could then be reused after the move, effectively costing us nothing more than we would normally spend.
Clothes were rolled into tube shapes before placing in the sacks as this prevents the clothes from creasing. Packed in layers, the bags can hold a surprising amount of things.
There was a microwave, oven, washing machine, TV, and large upright fridge freezer to be moved. They were wrapped in old blankets to protect them.
The majority of the packing boxes were on the small side as they are easier to handle.
If the unthinkable happened and the lift was out of service on moving day, which is not unusual by any means, then there were 24 flights of stairs to walk up and down to the car park. So using small, easily manageable boxes made sense.
Light items that had to boxed were put into larger boxes as again this made handling them easier.
By using very strong rubbish sacks for clothing and bedding, if the lift was out of order, we could drop the sacks down the side of the stair wells to the next floor, saving time and energy.
Not ideal, but it could be done, and it is always a good idea to consider what to do in a worst case scenario.
Having to move the few appliances we had down to the ground floor without a lift would be impossible, and would have had to be moved later.
The moving boxes were lined with scrunched up paper to create nests. The fragile items were then wrapped in paper or old clothes before being placed in the nests. Any gaps were filled with paper to stop the contents from moving about.
Glasses or plates that were layered (edge down, not face down) in a box had a thick layer of cardboard between to help protect them.
Finally, and very importantly, the box was labelled as to what was inside and what room they were to be placed in.
Cleaning materials were placed inside buckets so they were easily accessible and if they did leak, they would leak into the bucket, not within a cardboard box.
Half used spice and ingredient packets, and dried foods, were sealed with elastic bands and then put into small plastic bags before being placed inside cooking pots or pans.
The pans were then wrapped and placed in boxes.
The fridge/freezer was emptied of food a few days before we moved so that the freezer could be defrosted and the appliance cleaned.
The kitchen appliances were cleaned and the shelves removed and wrapped in layers of paper before being boxed.
We have a huge number of pot plants and these were moved over the course of 10 days. We planned which plants were being moved on which days, and did not water those particular plants in the preceding days so that the plants were neither too heavy nor created a damp mess when moved.
Whilst you can box plants, it should not be underestimated how much space they take up on the removal van, so if you too have a large number of plants this is an important consideration.
Packing is boring and takes a lot of time. The family soon get bored, even if they just have their own bedroom to pack.
As our teenagers are easily distracted by the internet, we broke the packing tasks into small sections so that they did a little over many days.
Despite our constant nagging, there were still things to be packed the day before we moved. Come moving day you just want the absolute bare minimum of essentials left to pack.
Packing Tips for Your Moving Day Box
Use cardboard to protect between layers of fragile items
One essential box to pack is your moving day box, all the essential things you will need on moving day.
This move was unusual in that there was a 10 day period between getting the new home keys and actually moving, so it was really a pre-moving day essentials box.
Just to give you some ideas of what you might like to pack if you are doing the same kind of move:
Change of working clothes. A set of workwear to change into
Gloves. Thick gloves for cleaning and workwear
Cleaning materials
Soap / wipes / towel.
Toilet paper.
Kettle and coffee. Essential.
Plastic knives, forks, cups and plates. Rather than messing around washing up, we took disposable cutlery and plates. There was also the possibility that the water would be off whilst I did some repairs.
Food and water. I did not want to have to waste time shopping for food so we took enough food and water to get us through each day.
Tool box. Even though we just planned on cleaning and redecorating in those two weeks there was likely to be the odd job that needed tools, so I took a full tool kit.
Drill and electric screwdriver. Two essential power tools.
Zip ties, duct tape, selection of screws and nails
Extension leads.
Torch and spare batteries.
Spare light bulbsand fuses.
Pen and notepad. As we went through each room cleaning and decorating we could note the things we needed to get for the next day’s work.
Radio. Working is always so much easier and more fun to music.
For the last three weeks we had basked in unbroken sunshine and temperatures in the mid 30’s. So what happens on moving day? Yes, it rained. In bucket loads.
We hired a man and van by the hour so we planned on making the loading and unloading of the van as efficient as possible.
Early morning we moved everything out of the apartment down to the lobby area. Thankfully the lift was working flawlessly which was a good start to the day.
The plan had been to get everything into the car park and load it straight into the van as quickly as possible. The heavy rain meant that we now had to keep the stuff in the apartment block foyer until the van arrived. No real problem, but it would add extra loading time.
We had ordered a long wheelbase, high top sprinter type van to move the few belongings we had. So what actually turned up? An open-backed lorry. Oh, the joys of moving home!
Nothing we could do, the company had no other vehicles, so it was a case of just getting on with the job.
Plan B had been to use another van hire company, but after renegotiating the price for this lorry, it was decided to just go for it and get the items moved as quickly as possible.
This is always a concern when hiring a van, or man and van service. Double booking or the right van being unavailable on moving day is a common problem. Always have a back-up plan just in case this happens to you.
Not ideal, but we broke nothing
With a human chain we managed to get loaded in about 20 minutes, but lifting a washing machine and upright fridge freezer onto the lorry with no tail lift was no fun.
The rain stopped long enough to allow us to load without getting drenched, and at least we had a tarpaulin to cover the few appliances we were taking.
At the other end, we unloaded the stuff into organised piles in the garage, we would move it into the house at our leisure. Again, less than 20 minutes to unload.
The loading and unloading was fairly straightforward and quick and efficient.
We always advise people moving home to plan for every eventually. So I had a box full of everything I could envisage us needing on moving day. This included torches and extra batteries as well as camping cooking stoves.
As it happened, we needed both as the previous homeowner had decided to take all the ceiling light fittings leaving just bare wires hanging from the ceilings, and a cooker that had not been cleaned in years.
And just to finish the day off, the village had its first power cut in over a year.
Unpacking after the Home Move
As we finished decorating each room we were able to take the boxes from the garage and unpack them. Each box and bag were clearly labelled making the process so much easier.
Having used thick sacks to pack the majority of things there was not the issue of having to dispose of packing materials either.
Nothing got damaged during the move and the extra time we spent carefully packing the fragile items was time well spent.
Lessons Learnt From a Real-Life Home Move
They had even taken the light fittings
We were lucky. The house was vacant before we moved in, we had 10 days between getting the house keys and the end of our apartment lease.
Those ten days were invaluable. We were able to thoroughly clean the house, redecorate the inside, and have time to clean the apartment before we handed it back.
Would I have done this move any differently?
The move itself was not without its hiccups but nothing that was a show stopper.
The lack of time during the run up to the move was the biggest problem. Trying to organise and execute a home move around what little spare time you have available is not easy.
A professional packing and removal company would have been worth paying for. The time and effort saved would have been worth the cost.
In nearly every home moving scenario a professional packing service is always worth the cost.
If I had a number of high value or sentimental items I would invest in high quality boxes to protect them. The boxes we found were not robust enough to stack but did the job with zero breakages.
There were relatively few items of furniture to move, but if the lift had not been working there was no way I could have gotten those items down the stairs, a removal company would have been able to.
If we had not have had those 10 days between taking possession of the house and the end of the apartment lease then putting things into storage whilst we cleaned and redecorated would have been an ideal solution. This is something that I would strongly urge you to consider doing.
If we had moved the things straight into the house, then we would have had to move the furniture and things numerous times whilst we painted each room. That would certainly have made life harder.
Having cleaned and painted, when we did move our things, we could put them straight into the rooms they were destined for and unpack the boxes straight away.
And the number one home moving tip is always to plan for every eventually and have a plan B for when things inevitably go wrong.
Stay positive, and with the right preparedness, you will move home on moving day no matter what little mishaps you will encounter along the way.
I hope you have found a few tips to help moving as easy as possible for you in this story. Good luck with your home move.
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