Helpful Tips for Your Sussex Move

Moving home is one of the three most stressful things people do (after divorce and bereavement, depending on the study). It doesn’t have to be. Most of the stress comes from the fifty small decisions that pile up in the last fortnight — not from the move itself. The tips below are the ones we wish every customer had read three weeks before move day. Read what’s relevant, ignore the rest, and don’t panic.

Six weeks out

The work you do six weeks out is what makes move week feel calm. Concrete things to handle now:

• Book your remover. Better movers fill up 6–10 weeks ahead, especially for end-of-month dates. We always recommend getting a survey done first, because the survey will surface things (a piano, a pond, a cat that lives in the loft) that change the quote.
• Start decluttering room by room. One room a week, in 30-minute blocks. Anything you haven’t used in 18 months is a candidate for donation or sale.
• Get a floor-plan of the new property. Mark where each piece of furniture will go. You will save hours on move day if the crew knows which corner the wardrobe lives in.
• Tell the schools. If you’re moving outside the catchment, give the new schools time. Most Sussex primary schools want at least a half-term’s notice; many secondary schools more.
• Start your address-change list. Council, doctor, dentist, optician, vet, gym, bank, building society, employer, HMRC, DVLA, pension, insurance (car/home/life), TV licence, energy, water, broadband, mobile, streaming, every shop loyalty card. Use the moving checklist — we’ve done the list for you.

Two weeks out

• Pack rooms you don’t use daily. Spare bedroom, dining room (if you don’t eat there), back garden, loft, garage. Don’t touch the kitchen or main bedroom yet.
• Confirm parking and access. Tell us if a parking suspension is needed. We’ll arrange it with the council if it’s a permit zone — this takes 5–10 working days to authorise.
• Take meter readings. Gas, electric and water at both addresses on the day of completion. Photograph them with the date stamp on.
• Inform pet boarders. If your dog/cat is staying with someone on move day, confirm dates now. We strongly recommend pets not be on site during the move — lorries, strangers and open doors are a stressful combination.
• Cash in any vouchers. Local-business gift cards, restaurant credit, leisure-centre memberships — either spend them or transfer them.

Move day

• Be there when we arrive. 8.00–8.30 typically. Coffee for the crew is appreciated but not required.
• Walk through with the crew leader. Confirm what’s moving and what’s staying. Point out anything especially fragile or unusual.
• Final meter readings. Before the new occupants’ clock starts.
• Leave a note for the new owners. Where the meter cupboard is, when the bin day is, what the broadband password might be. Small kindnesses go a long way.
• Don’t supervise the lorry. Let the crew load. They’ve done this thousands of times. Your job is to handle the new property arrival and direct the unload.

Money-saving moving tips

• Move mid-week, mid-month. Tuesday-Wednesday of the second or third week of any month is the cheapest. Friday end-of-month is the most expensive.
• Avoid August. School-summer holiday weeks have surcharges across the industry. June or September often saves 10–15%.
• Self-pack the easy stuff. Books, clothes, linen — pack these yourself. Let the professionals do the kitchen and the fragile.
• Use second-hand boxes. Our materials page offers used cartons at ~40% off new.
• Sell, donate or recycle before you move — not after. You pay to move everything that comes with you. The cubic-foot-pence add up.

The five tips most customers wish they’d known earlier

If you read nothing else on this page, read these five. They’re the recurring “wish I’d done that differently” comments we hear from customers after their move.

1. Label boxes by destination room, not by source room

Write “kitchen”, “master bedroom”, “loft” based on where the box should END UP, not where it came from. The crew unloads to the correct room first time, you don’t spend day two carting boxes across the house.

2. Photograph your existing furniture layout

Phone-snap every room before the crew arrives. Saves arguments about “where did this used to go?”, helps with insurance if something arrives damaged, and gives you a reference if you change your mind about the new layout.

3. Keep your day-one essentials in your own car

Not in the lorry, not in a labelled-essentials box at the back of the load. In your car. Kettle, mugs, tea, toilet paper, hand soap, phone chargers, prescription meds, important documents, one mug per family member. The kettle alone makes the difference between a stressful first evening and a calm one.

4. Identify the awkward items at survey, not on move day

The grand piano. The 200-year-old wardrobe that’s wider than the front door. The collection of mounted antlers in the loft. Tell the surveyor about every one of these. Surprises on move day cost time, and time costs money on hourly extras.

5. Be at both ends, or appoint a representative

The crew needs someone with authority at loading (to confirm what’s going and what’s staying) and at unloading (to direct where things go). It doesn’t have to be you — a trusted family member or friend works fine — but it has to be someone, and the crew lead needs their number.