Moving House: To Store or Not to Store?

When moving home, we often do whatever we can to save money. Sometimes that works OK, but sometimes it can cause you a lot of hassle on top of a stressful move, or worst still, it means you end up having to pay out more money than you saved. 

Because legal companies usually give such as small amount of time between exchange and completion, we often don’t think about planning moving our stuff to the next property or into storage until the last minute – and that’s way too late. 

How do you know whether you need a van, a man with a van or a removal company

The first thing to think about is where you are in the ‘chain’ on moving day. Why is this important? Well, if you are first in the chain, you may well need to be out of your home by 1pm. If you are last in the chain, you may not even get to move on the day you had hoped as the money might not land in your seller’s bank account until the next day. 

So you need to think this through and make sure you have a ‘plan B’ in case your move doesn’t happen on the day you planned. It is also important to take into consideration the weather. What if its freezing cold, what if it’s pouring with rain? If you are planning to move yourself, then this might seriously affect whether you move yourself or use a man with a van or removal company. 

Next you need to look at how much stuff you have to shift – and how difficult it will be to get it up and down the stairs if you have them. Wardrobes and beds will have to be dismantled and this can mean you spend the last week in the home sleeping on the floor with all your belongings all over the place, just to save a few pounds. 

You also need to think through if you have enough people available to move your belongings. If you have kids or pets, they are best off being somewhere else for the day as you won’t be able to look after them and organise moving everything in and out – even if you have removers in. 

Typically, if you have up to a two bed property and don’t have any odd furniture to move, can fit everything into a van as big as a Luton and have four to five people to help you move, you can do it yourself. Anything over and above two storeys, anything which is bigger than two beds, it’s vital to at least investigate the cost of getting help from a man with a van or a removal company.