Oh my god! That was one of the most stressful and exhausting things I have done for a long while.
If you are planning to move declutter well in advance, then declutter some more and then be ruthless. Take photos and ditch as much as you can bear to. We thought we had until the day came and we realised we still had far too much. Which is perhaps not surprising after 20 years, but slightly heart breaking to take things that I valued for years down to the various recycling points and reclycleries as no time to find better homes.
The removal men were great, 4 huge tattooed and bearded men who were like a tsunami collecting everything in their path until all that was left was dust and debris - and the coffee machine which was well used during the day. I had got what I thought were a lot of biscuits, but could have provided more.
Not that we are ever moving again, but Iāve also learnt to lock away shoes and coats as they vanished into a carton! I had the box of house keys in a cupboard which I rescued from ending up in lorry! You have absolutely no time for anything last minute as they work at immense speed.
And then the cleaning! We had a quote of ā¬1000 from local firm which we declined, and thought we had prepared well like doing all the windows in advance. And had help from one young woman but still 10 hours solid cleaning the next day.
Because of medical appointments our stuff went into storage for a few days, and then once that done we raced the lorry to new home. Arrived 15 minutes before them with just enough time to warn builders about the tsunami.
Again they worked incredibly fast so no dithering about where things went. And my labelling was not good enough so we are going to be hunting for things for weeks. Of course I thought Iād remember which things were in which boxes, but no. My only success was labelling 5 boxes as premier nuit so we had bedlinen and so on.
However the whole experience reinforced my decision that we had to move now. No way could we have done this in 10 or 15 years time!
Well done @JaneJones . We did it after living in the Creuse for 20 years. Incredible how much āstuffā you accumulate. We moved ourselves though, reduced it down to a 2.5m trailer and the biggest box van from Netto (and a couple of mates).
Impressive! We ended up at 70m3, hence artic and remorque. But 25m3 was the garden, 20m3 was our big furniture. And of the rest 76 paintings took up a lot of room as we were insistent that they were loaded very carefully, with some in tailor made crates from when they arrived here.
i was very happy not to have done it ourselves - been there many times and not again!
Sorry Jane, point of order, that is not an artic and remorque, it is a lorry and remorque (non-traditional) or wagon and drag (caravan type) in UK parlance.
But I am pleased it all went off well for you, and am very glad that I will never have to do it myself again in this life.
Well done, been there and done that in 2022, never ever again thank you very much. I also had all the tools and equipment plus big woodworking machinery to dispose of, brings out all the villains who use LBC I can tell you. I always say if you havenāt used it since five years ago, get rid of unless it part of something you are using. I donated over 300 scaffolding tubes and fittings to the village school for their ācollecte de ferrailleā, helped raise a lot more money.
Iām not moving but I am sorting out each room in my house here to remove items.
After having to empty a deceased relativeās house in uk it made me realise I could not put that on to my sons who live in uk.
There were papers and items wrapped and tapped in every drawer, bank statements and other paperwork from 2012 which could not be thrown , had to be destroyed. I found presents I had sent for Christmas & birthdays unused obviously put back in the wrapping and they had said how much they enjoyed them
It felt like I was in a hoarders house but everything was tidy, put in cupboards. Each room looked like a show room so I was not expecting to have to deal with everything that was hidden.
So many trips to charity shops who are unbelievably picky about how much and what they would take and only on certain days. Two expensive complete dinner and tea services and almost new Barbour jackets refused.,So different here where so much is greatly appreciated. I gave them to their friends who had helped in the past, much better idea . Still needed house clearance as just didnāt have enough time, just four days to do everything.
I have been grouping things together, some taken to sons in uk which I showed on FaceTime to ensure they were items they wanted. I have almost done the house so one of the barns will be next to clear, lots there after doing renovation so much in there āthat might be useful laterā all those things are definitely going !!
So I would advise you do the odd clear our regularly so
itās not a huge burden for others.
Good advice, so rarely followed. When our respective parents died it was pre-Brexit so we just cleared their 2 houses into vans and bought it here. With the full intention of slowly sorting it out. Which of course we didnāt! And still havenāt. But I will!!
When we moved here on a permanent basis just after the Brexit referendum (and before anything had really kicked in) we had my house, my partnerās house, his recently deceased motherās house and the contents of our business premises to move. We got clearance people in but a huge proportion of the stuff came over in big lorries and into our barn for us to sort out a bit at a time.
I donāt think I need to complete that particular story
Iām planning a spring declutter, but Janeās advice on have everything youāll need during the move secured where the movers canāt find is well worth heeding.
When we moved out of London to 47 we had everything we needed for the 15 days before we got the keys to our new place packed in the car and the cat was whisked away to a cattery the day before the movers arrived to pack as it we were certain that heād have been boxed up or stowed himself away in the moverās truck.
Weather is improving so good time to just sort out one cupboard and when you start Iām sure you will do more.
So satisfying and even more so when you go back to the charity and see your items have already gone to clutter up someone elseās houseā.
I found lots of photos and those slides that were viewed through a projector in uk,most got thrown, I did go through them all. You may think that was bad but really who will want them of a building, horse in field etc Had to be ruthless!
I canāt wait for some good dry, warm days to get some of the barn clutter out to sort through. Got lots of heavy nuts and bolts which are too heavy in the box so few at a time will be bagged up taken to charity diy sectionā
I wasnāt so silly as to arrive here in '99 with a house full of stuff to organise later, but I certainly have managed to create far more here in the intervening 26 years.
But it will be ok in the end, because it is in the planning.
My sister, bless her, went through all the family photos and slides. Unrecognisable buildings and landscapes all went, as did unidentifiable people. And then if there were 27 photos of aunt Maisie she kept 1. Only exception was if they were good photos. And then all digitised so we each have a single USB stick. Good job!
That is just what happened to us and we are in the process of packing up now. It is a nightmare and getting things just right for the UK customs approval is even a bigger nightmare. We are getting there bit by bit as we have 63 years worth of things and collections to sort out. We are also in our mid 80ās with no family here but we do have a couple of good friends to help. I shall need a holiday when all this is over. We are going from a 6 bed house to a 2 bed house so a lot of soul searching about what is necessary and what is disposed of but as you say , it is very hard.
So how is he getting to his new home Jane ?