Moving home - Am I mad to consider hiring a van?

NotAGolf

NotAGolf

NotAGolf

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I've been in contact with about 10 removal companies to try and get a quote for moving home.

Half didn't bother to respond. 1 responded with a bunch of questions that I'd already answered, 3 gave quotes for at £1300-1600 (move only, no packing/dismantling, and it's only a 2 min drive from my current house), and the last gave a quote I'd be happy with (£900), but now isn't responding :-/

I didn't realise I could drive a Luton van on a standard license. I priced it up and I could hire a van, a sack trolley and hire some boxes for 3 days for between a third and a quarter of the price of the quotes I'm getting.

There's no way I could fit my whole house in a Luton van, but my in-laws live nearby so I was thinking the day before completing I could move half my gear into theirs, then on the day of the move I could put all the big stuff in the van, and I can unload at 'leisure' as the van wouldn't be due back until the day after.

I realise it'll be hard graft, but I'm reasonably fit and we don't have much stuff. I'm confident between me and the missus we could carry everything we own no problem apart from the big American fridge freezer, but I could rope my brother in to help with that.

Am I mad for considering this?
 
Hmm, some of you are suggesting to do multiple trips. How does that work if you're in a chain? I thought at X o'clock you get a call that basically says get out of your house and into your new one. I.e. No time to shuttle back and forth as your buyer will move in the moment you move out? (Hence why I was thinking I needed to do a single trip on completion day).

Sorry if it's a dumb question. Last time I was a FTB so never sold a house before.
 
Thought I'd update my own thread with my feedback in case it helps anyone else.

I hired a Luton van and moved myself in the end. I moved everything myself, apart from a few bits of heavy furniture where I roped my brother in.

To be honest, it went pretty smoothly. The only slight hitch was not allowing myself enough time to get the doors off the American style fridge freezer.

HOWEVER (and it's a big however) I was able to move our stuff into my in-laws a few days before my moving date. So I moved a bunch of smaller boxes earlier in the week, then hired the Luton the day before the move to move a bunch of the big stuff, before doing a final run on completion day. If I didn't have the temporary storage, there is absolutely NO WAY I would have been able to do it all on moving day. There would be nowhere near enough space in the van, nor would there be enough time to load it.

I'm sure the pros would pack the van better than I could, but by the time you get 2 sofas, 3 beds and a couple of pieces of furniture in the van, you really don't have much space left for everything else. Then you've got awkward stuff like bikes, lawnmowers, bbq's, chairs, etc which are an absolute pig to stack in an orderly fashion.

So to summarise, unless you have some form of temporary storage, have several vans and an army of mates, or are moving from a 1 bed flat, get the pros in. Otherwise, got for it!
 
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