House moving advice

[lnr]

Has anyone reading this moved house and used the removal firm to do the packing as well as the moving? I've never done this before, and I wonder is there anything I need to do before the packers arrive on Tuesday? And what will they leave out for us until the move itself on Wednesday?

Thanks.

Oh yes, and we won't have a car.

Comments

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, do not forget to have sugar available. Removal men generally want sugar more than people who are moving house do. I had to go to the shops and buy some sugar when my mum moved, because she'd packed the damn sugar bowl and they wouldn't move the sofa until they had tea with 3 spoonfuls of sugar.

Would it be useful (I have never had packers but thought the idea might be either useful or informatively disproved by somebody who has) to buy a big pile of bright coloured stickers like the explosion-shaped ones you find in cash & carries, and stick them to the things you want to leave behind with LEAVING BEHIND written in black marker on them?

[lnr]

I *think*, with the exception of the cooker and the fridge, I can put everything we're leaving behind in the cupboard under the stairs, or the shed. Which should work quite well.

[aendr.livejournal.com]

Yes, sugar! and plenty of milk! plenty! (We had to go out for more.)

I labelled things with "leave this" written in big letters on sheets of A4 scrap paper (i.e. with stuff printed out on the other side*). Sometimes I wanted things to be in a different room but than they started, so I either moved them (if small) or labelled them (if big.) I also used colour coded sheets of paper in the second move - furniture with blue paper and living room label into room with blue paper marked living room on door. You can't be everywhere at once telling 4 different guys where to put stuff, especially when tea is desired. I wouldn't use sticky labels unless they were really big and obvious and not likely to leave residue or damage the item when removed.

* which got amusing when one guy looked at the stuff on the other side and looked scared - it was one of the more mathsy pages of my PhD thesis from when I was proof reading (which I usually did 2 sided except when the printer failed to cooperate).