Is moving home as much of a nightmare as people would have you believe?
Is every removal company out there just waiting to rip off the unprepared?
Is moving home a bottomless pit of money and despair?
Of course not, but just as you should check under your bed each night for ghosts and ghouls, it is best to be cautious and do everything in your power to ensure all goes smoothly on moving day.
There is a very real message behind the lightheartedness of this week’s home-moving blog.
Yes, there are many pitfalls to avoid moving home, but fear not, we are here to hold your hand and cast the demons into the abyss.
There are hundreds and hundreds of home moves carried out daily across the UK and those that end in disaster are usually a result of poor research and poor preparation.
So our advice to you this Halloween will help prevent a moving day horror story
Our Top 5 Home Moving Tricks
Follow our home-moving tips for a Happy Halloween Home Move
#1 Make Use of Home-Moving Checklists
Like a priest preparing to exorcise a haunted home, be prepared and well organised. Make use of checklists to ensure that nothing is forgotten during the move. Here is a guide that provides you with every home moving checklist you will need. Many people use a home moving binder to keep everything organised, so we have created this guide to home moving binders for you.
#2 Declutter Your Home Before Moving
Scythe your way through all your belongings and get rid of things you no longer use, need, or want to take with you to your new home. The fewer items you move, the cheaper your home move will be. This guide will help you successfully declutter your home.
#3 Choose a Removal Company Wisely
Whatever voodoo, choose your removal company wisely. Just as not all spells will work on every Hex, not all removal companies are equal. Seek out the best removal company by thoroughly researching all you can about them. Although the price will be a factor, the service and value for money the removal company provides should be the overriding factor. Be sure to get answers to every question you have about your home move (this is a useful guide: Questions to ask a removal company), then compare the removal companies who have given you quotes (worth reading: How to Compare Removal Companies), before making a final decision.
#4 Read Removal Company Reviews Carefully
Pay attention to the reviews of the removal companies as you would in your witchcraft and wizardry classes. Not all reviews are fair or relate to the special needs of your particular home move. What is important though is that the removal company takes time to respond and rectify the issues raised by previous customers. This guide will explain how to make the most of removal company reviews.
#5 Avoid Moving Home By Yourself
Carefully consider the costs and hardships involved in moving home yourself, often moving home yourself can spell trouble. So that you can make an informed decision as to whether you should attempt a home move yourself you may like to read: Moving Home Yourself vs Hiring a Removal Company.
Save time and money on your move
Save up to 40% on your upcoming move and get a quote from reputable moving experts.
It is possible to save money on your home move and these 10 sneaky tricks to save money on your home move will show you how.
#4 Take Good Home-Moving Advice
There is a whole library of free home moving guides, hacks, and tips for you to explore in our resources section. These guides will help you save money, explain the best ways to pack various items and answer nearly every home-moving question you may have.
#5 Get Free Quotes for Your Home Move
Save your sanity and your bank balance by getting a free no-obligation quote for your home move in just a couple of minutes.
A Halloween Home Moving Horror Story
Beware of the shady removal company who will try to rip you off. Follow our tips for a safe home move
This Halloween we want to share a home-moving tale with you, one where the home mover had their fate firmly in their own hands, but where costly mistakes brought their world crashing down around their ears.
But the story we share with you this dark autumn night is not an isolated incident. Bad removal companies lurk in every corner of the internet.
People who thought a self-move was cheaper and easier were left exhausted and out of pocket, and home-moving mistakes are waiting to pounce and devour the unprepared home mover.
Moving home can be a perilous journey, where a careless decision can see your hard-earned cash, and even your precious possessions, vanishing, never to be seen again.
So if you are about to embark on the long and treacherous quest of a home move, we are here to offer you some advice that you would be wise to take.
Those brave enough not to heed our warnings this dark Halloween night may just pay the price for their foolhardiness.
Draw the curtains, turn off the lights, and try not to scream too loudly, our Halloween home moving tale is about to begin……….
Outside, dense black clouds rolled across the night sky propelled by a fierce and howling wind.
Rubbish whipped across the deserted pavements as the first rods of icy rain impaled themselves on the street.
Bent by the wind, a tree branch momentarily masks the single street lamp throwing dancing shadows on the slippery wet path.
He was alone yet again, with just the creaking and shifting of the old place to break the monotony of the cold autumnal night.
The cold water tap dripped incessantly, the stainless steel sink echoing the drip, drip, drip of the water torture off the bare walls.
Another howling draft forced itself through the ill-fitting window frames, the tentacles of the breeze catching the leaves of an open magazine as it passed over the kitchen table.
This way of living had to end.
He pondered on where to move next in a bid to escape the ghouls of his prison, where the sun would at least at times make an appearance.
Where life could perhaps offer a glimmer of hope for the happiness he sought.
Of course, the actual destination was of no consequence, anywhere was better than being there. And if you have no planned destination, whichever route you take will lead you there.
He knew moving home would not always make you happier, especially if the demons you are trying to escape from actually reside within you.
You may also like to read: Can Moving Home Make You Happier? In this guide, we look at whether your current home is making you unhappy and whether moving home is the answer to your problems.
But he knew it was time to get out. To start afresh. To move home.
He grabbed his mobile phone and searched for someone who could whisk him away to his new life.
Desperate people do desperate things, and during desperate times, devastating events can unfold.
He booked the first man and van who answered his plea to get him away from this place two days hence.
He traveled light, it was quicker that way, but still, he had possessions that he held dear.
And although a last-minute home move does not have to end in tears, it surely can. However, he had no tears to spare, nor a second to lose.
The decision was made. He had less than two days to pack his life into boxes and be ready for his escape.
He hastily began to throw his belongings into bags, suitcases, and the old dusty boxes he had stored in the attic, paying no heed to sorting nor protecting his things.
This seemed to make sense, he could sort everything out once he made it to his new home.
You may also like to read: How to Move Home Quickly. Sometimes life throws you a curve ball and you need to move home quickly. But there is a right and wrong way to do so. In this guide, we offer some tips for a safe and easy, but quick home move.
But rational decisions can be elusive when you rush around as the sands of time slip relentlessly away.
He frantically piled all his things in the hallway ready to make his departure.
Staring at the piles of boxes he could sympathise with the bottom box that was being crushed with the overwhelming weight of the boxes on top. He felt much the same about how life treated him.
Do your research before hiring a removal moving and before it is too late
In the early hours of the next morning, a rusting hulk of a van billowed smoke as it careened to a halt outside his home, the toxic fumes adding to the already black-stained brickwork of the building that had failed to become a home.
Two dark forms swung out of the cab striding purposefully towards the front door.
The first smiles that he had seen in a long time stretched across the faces of the removal men as a large gnarly hand was extended towards him and money exchanged hands.
No words were needed, they knew a helpless victim when they saw one.
After a cursory scan of the things to be moved, they insisted on being paid more money, there were more things than he had been quoted for and the walk down the old rickety porch steps were longer than they thought.
The last of our hapless movers’ money was taken and quickly vanished into the removal guy’s pocket.
You may also like to read: Moving Brokers – What You Need to Know and Why. Brokers are often booking agents and will not actually do your home move, they sell your move to the highest bidder. Come moving day it is sometimes the case that your costs will rise dramatically. Read all you need to know to avoid Broker Scams.
Within minutes the sound of china scraping together within the flimsy, mite-infected boxes filled the house like the high-pitched scream of a banshee.
A pirate’s wooden peg leg scrapped across the bedroom floor, like fingernails being dragged down a chalkboard, or perhaps it was his furniture gouging the wooden floorboards?
Who knew, or cared?
A mirror shattered into a thousand pieces, flashing like the eyes of the bugs that lay in wait for him in the dark corners of every room each night. But another seven years of bad luck was of little consequence to this home mover.
The possessions he had spent his life acquiring, one by one, disappeared into the back of the van.
The heavy boxes crushing the life out of those fragile items beneath them.
Furniture scratched and gouged at each other, deep wounds appearing on every surface.
The mattress material savagely tore from the springs within, like a lion ripping flesh from a bone. Dirt and debris smeared like the camouflage of a jungle fighter, that mattress would never be used again.
An hour later, he stood, alone in the world with only the clothes he wore, as the van roared off into the dense fog drifting in thick clouds across his world.
Gone, perhaps never to be seen again, an eerie silence envelopes our hapless home mover, as it suddenly dawns on him just how costly this moving day will turn out to be.
Every day here at Removal Reviews we get to hear horror moving tales. Below we will share with you a true story and some advice on how you can avoid being the victim of a moving day horror story.
A final Halloween Home Moving Tip: Autumn is a great time of year to move, it is outside of the main moving season so it will be cheaper.
Halloween falls on a Tuesday this year, one of the cheaper days of the week to move home, midweek home moves tend to be cheaper than a Friday, so that could be your first treat this Halloween.
Remember to follow our home-moving tips and advice and it will be a Happy Halloween for you.
And don’t forget to leave a review for your removal company saying fangs for a job well done.
*At RemovalReviews we will connect you with a professional moving company. Please note that we may not be affiliated with
and you may be speaking with another licensed provider.
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