any advice on moving house ?

[bubbles4920]

hopefully our house sale will be done and dusted within the next month or so. we will have to go into rented as we need to move location due to a job move and we havent found anywhere else to buy yet. any advice please on packing, storage, where to start, help!!!!
also, do you think it is best to store things in a unit rather than store things in a rented house? just thinking if we rented a bigger house then would probably be cheaper than paying for a storage unit too.

[makemesmile]

We recently went thru a similar situation, and (if I had to do it all again, (would we, could we...sorry I digress)) I personally would rent a house with one large room that I didn't need and use as storage. Once everything is sorted and packed (use large boxes) you'll be surprised how well it can be stacked in one room. (Ours was floor to ceiling).

Initially, we arranged for our stuff to be taken into storage. I knew the person we were paying to 'move' our stuff and he was a bit concerned about it. Turned out our stuff was to be kept in a metal container out doors. These are apparently notoriously bad during the winter months (condensation build up). I heard of a very bad tale of someone's carpets etc going mouldy. So I paid for it to be kept in a well ventilated warehouse. However, when I was ready for it to be delivered back, I discovered that when it was all stacked up, it would have actually fitted into one bedroom, and I would have saved myself some money.

Once you've sorted out the stuff you really don't need and the stuff you do need is well packed and stacked up, you'd be surprised how little space you actually need to store it.

[parkesquay]

Firstly I would recommend that you find out about houselhold(self) storage container facilities in your local area or removal companies that have a self storage facility.
For a start they will povide cartons, rolls of bubblewrap and masking tape in large quantities at a reasonable price. For example I have put a website for one in my local area that I used for 2 months:

http://www.dainton.com/index.asp?section=home

I packed up my own stuff but used a local small removal company to take to storage and then out of storage when settled. This included beds and other furniture. The advantage of doing this is that one has a key to the container unit and stuff can be got at as required.

Containers come in many rentable sizes and you may be very surprised at just how much you really have. Therefore as you will probably be moving into rented but furnished accommodation you may not have much space into which to store things.

On a monetary side don't forget that all the time you are not paying for your new property you can use the interest on the unexpended loan to cover such things as removal and storage.

By not looking for a space in a rented property to put your belongings leaves you the flexibilty of not having to pay rent
for a larger property and this saving in rent may very well to pay for the storage facility.

I personally feel that self storage gives a lot more flexibility and choice of times of removal.