Buying a home | How NOT to move house

AKA how we moved house.

So you've exchanged contracts, congratulations! It's time to start thinking about the practicalities of moving your life from one place to another.

I missed this step. Our house purchase was difficult and teetered on the edge of falling through for a good two months while we tried desperately to sort everything out. Because of this I became very superstitious (not like me at all!) and couldn't even think of the light at the end of the tunnel until we had the keys in our hands. Miraculously this did happen and the keys were ours. But then we suddenly had less than a week to move in and we wanted to spend most of that painting the new place. Oops.

We packed in a rush. Everything in boxes and black sacks, I labelled the first two boxes then gave up and just packed things where they would fit, regardless of what room they came from or whether I'd remember which box they were in (unsurprisingly I didn't). It took much longer than I expected and we had much more stuff than I thought we did. I hadn't prepared enough bubble wrap or protection for fragile things so anything slightly squishy was used to pack up breakable items. And as the boxes weren't labelled we just piled them all into our new living room, with no idea which one went where. It. Was. Stressful. Here's the only photograph I had time to take!

So with my cautionary tale out of the way - I've created a pinterest board with some links to people who clearly have the whole packing thing sorted. Listen to them.

My favourite tips are using a black sack to pack clothes together while keeping them on hangers (massive timesaver) and using coloured tape or washi tape on boxes to signify different rooms at a glance. Find more here.

Happy moving!

Previous buying a home posts - three things I learned when searching for a house and top tips for once your offer is accepted.