Moving Mistakes to Avoid Making

It’s a bit of a cliché but failing to plan when moving house really is planning to fail.Here are some common mistakes that people make when they move house:•    Try to move yourself – Let’s face it you wouldn’t (hopefully) attempt to carry out the legal aspect of moving home by yourself. Instead, you would employ a specialist conveyance solicitor to handle all the searches and paperwork needed to complete the sale and purchase of a property. So, why would you risk putting all of your hard-earned, hard-fought-for possessions at risk by handling the removal process yourself? Unless you absolutely cannot afford expert help, or you are a super-organised person with an army of willing helpers who are prepared to give their time on moving day, we recommend that you use some experts to get the move done. But, don’t be tempted to just use the cheapest removal company or man with a van that you come across. Get some quotes; compare the services on offer and then sit back and relax knowing that you have done all you can to ensure an efficient and stress-free removal day.•    Fail to properly plan finances – There really is nothing worse than finding your dream home; moving in and finding out that you’ve landed yourself in more debt than you can cope with because you hadn’t fully researched the extraneous costs involved in moving home before you started your search.

You want to start life in your new home happy and relaxed, so do what you can to ensure that this happens. A little bit of work now can save an awful lot of worry later.•    Carry out last minute packing - Don’t bury your head in the sand and leave your packing ‘til the eleventh hour. Start as early into the move as possible.

Prioritise your packing so that you gradually pack away the things that you use least often and work towards your every day essentials.•    Forget your ‘needed-immediately’ box – this box should travel with you rather than in the removal van where it is likely to get shoved to the back of the van where nobody can get at it. You (and your removal team) are going to want a drink when you arrive at your new home – the ‘needed-immediately’ box should be able to cater for this and should contain a small first aid box – just in case.•    Don’t take what you don’t need – it is a complete waste of time (and potentially money) to take any possessions which you no longer want or cannot use in your new home. So, take the opportunity of the move to purge yourself of those goods and chattels that you’ve held onto for no good reason. The general rule is: if you haven’t used it, looked at it or appreciated it in the last twelve months, you probably don’t need it. Charity shops are always grateful for any good quality items that they can use to boost their funds – see you get the feel-good factor too.•    Cater for the heavy and large goods – while we’re talking about packing make sure you have a plan to deal with large, heavy or cumbersome items. Nobody wants to start their new life in their new home in pain – remember prevention is better than cure.There is a lot to think about and there is a lot to do but if you organise yourself properly, get started early and have a ‘to-do’ list to work from you really can achieve that stress-free move that we all dream of.