Okay, let’s be straight about it from the start: if you’re moving house, you are going to have to lift a finger. But you’re certainly not going to need to lift any boxes. You don’t even need to lift a book off the shelves to place in a box, if you don’t want to. Here’s how you can move home the effortless way.
Start early
Rule #1 is to start planning your move as early as possible. Good removal companies book up quickly and, during the time of Covid restrictions, may be operating at a limited capacity. Plus, given how mad the rush is to finalise home purchases before the Stamp Duty holiday comes to an end in March 2021, demand is higher than ever.
To get a good head start on your planning, you’re going to need to know exactly when you can pick up the keys to your new home. Given how complex and unpredictable the homebuying process can be, advanced notice of this date can be hard to get.
We always recommend pushing for confirmation on when you can move. As the contracts and deeds are being finalised, make it clear you need to know as soon as possible. But make sure you go to your agent, not the seller of the home – they will have lots to be dealing with themselves, so any push from you could result in conflict.
Donate unwanted stuff
Moving home is the perfect time to declutter – toss the clothes you don’t wear, the DVDs you don’t watch, the ornaments you never liked, the games console you never play.
If there are some valuable items in your pile of stuff to get rid of, you know what to do: jump on eBay, Gumtree, etc, and flog it.
For the rest of the stuff, donation is always the best way to ensure your unwanted goods get the chance of a second life. You can, of course, bag it all up and drive it to your chosen charity shop, but this requires lifting and heaving: sweaty brow stuff.
Instead, you can donate to one of the charitable organisations you’ll find online who come to your home to pick up your donations, saving you any more trouble than answering the door.
Clean
We’re getting to the really crap jobs now: cleaning your current home before you leave for the final time is a chore. There are no two ways about it.
Your first thought might be to make the kids and the pets do it, your second is probably to do it yourself. But there’s a third, much more convenient, option: hire a professional cleaning company.
If you’ve lived in your current home for a long time, even for the most fastidiously clean people out there, a final deep clean is going to be difficult. It’s not just a case of dragging the vac around and twizzling a duster. Have you ever tried to clean the thick layer of dust which builds up on the carpet underneath a bed? It’s a nightmare. The vac won’t get it up, you can’t mop a carpet – what do you do?
Professional cleaners know the answer and already have the required tool for the job. The point is, they know what they’re doing and they’ll do it properly. If you’re leaving rented accommodation, your landlord could get stingy with the security deposit if you don’t clean the place well enough. And even if you own the home you’re moving out of, what sort of person leaves the place dirty for the new owners?
Plus, doing it this way, you still haven’t had to lift more than a finger.
Packing, moving, unpacking
This is the worst part, right? First packing everything you own, then loading it all into the van (or the five hatchbacks belonging to friends you’ve guilted into helping), then driving it all to your new home, then lugging it out of the van, into the house, up the stairs, and then unpacking!
It’s never an enjoyable experience, yet we all assume it is our duty as good citizens to roll up our sleeves and get on with it. Not so!
I know what you’re thinking: most removal companies will do all the loading and unloading of the van, but I’m still going to have to lift more than a finger to pack everything I own. Not so.
Just hire one of the largely undiscovered removal firms who will actually pack everything as part and parcel of their comprehensive service. They will even provide all of the necessary boxes and handle the whole process of getting your belongings into place at your new home.
If that sounds decadent, it’s because it is. Unnecessary for most, definitely. But we live in the age of service providers. Everyone wants to provide them, and everyone wants to use them. And, in this case, it’s a surprisingly affordable option with most firms quoting only a fraction more to include packing than they do for a basic removal. Why not take advantage of it?
Are you moving home? What tricks are you using to make it as easy as possible? Drop us a note in the comments section below and share your knowledge with our community.
