I'm moving house in a week and I don't know how to pack!!!

OTM

I think you're supposed to label each box with which room it's to go in, so you know where to dump things in your new place.

I'd suggest packing a box with the kettle and tea/coffee making stuff + a pint of milk and some nice biscuits, and having that easily accessible so that in the midst of all the chaos in your new home, you can at least have a cuppa quickly and easily.

Have you remembered to get your mail re-directed, and tell the utilities such as gas, elec and phone + council tax people that you have moved out?

Go to your local supermarket and ask them for boxes. You cannot have enough boxes. Then, when you've packed everything (heavy stuff in small boxes, light stuff in big boxes) and moved it, you will spend the first two weeks in your new house throwing stuff away because it's crap and you shouldn't have bothered moving it in the first place.

Start now! Right now! With stuff you don't need. Also buy packing tape and tape up the bottoms of all the boxes before you put stuff in them.

Even if you have chairs, you must sit on cardboard boxes or milk crates for at least five minutes after moving in. This is law.

not if you live in london, though: the pizza (and indeed indian, chinese, thai, etc) places will thoughtfully have kept the vacant property on their frequently updated mailing list.

Do you have any pets? Animals can get very stressed by moving house, so if possible shut them in a quiet empty room at your old house (to keep them calm, and stop them running away) with bedding, water and a litter tray, and then move them to your new house last of all.

We're taking the couches to the dump so we'll be seated on camping chairs until the January sales, same with the bed - we'll be blowing up the airbeds!

What a silly time of year to move house. Gale force winds and pishing rain.

I've contacted everyone except the electricity company, at present we don't have gas but the new property does. When I went online to look for quotes they needed meter readings for the new address which I don't have.

No pets, just a very sensitive plant called Stumpy.

Nonsense, ideal time. You'll know immediately what the problems are, you'll curl up warm in your new house and listen to new noises. And, you have summer to look forward to. It will be marvellous.

Why aren't you packing?

(my other tip: start packing at least a month in advance)

Moving can be a major hassle, but with proper planning, it doesn't have to be. Here are some tips to make your next move as smooth as possible:

**To avoid breakage, glass items should be melted down, then re-blown after moving into your new home.

**Six weeks before moving day, fill one small box with books, seal it tightly, and write "books" on top in permanent marker. Then do nothing more until the day before your move.

**If using friends to help move, show your gratitude by buying them a pizza. Don't mention that a professional mover would have cost about 300 times more than a pizza.

**It is heartless and cruel to leave a pet at the humane society because of a move. Smother it in the bathtub and bag it up for trash day.

**Throw smoke grenades into every room of your new home to flush out any possible Viet Cong.

**Get a jump on things by cancelling electricity and water service several weeks before moving.

**Move to Portland. It's a really cool city. They've got all these awesome parks downtown.

**Waiting until the truck is pulling away to say goodbye to neighbors will make moving day a very moving day, indeed.

**Instead of writing "Fragile" on boxes containing breakables, place a copy of Yes' Fragile on top.

**Let professional movers take care of large, heavy items such as furniture and my cock.

**Boxes are an unnecessary expense. Place all possessions in the truck and fill to top with packing peanuts.

**Don't get too excited when you see a U-Haul truck that says "Moves Only $19.99" on the side. These signs are only intended as a joke.

**After relocating to your new home, remember that you are legally obligated to go door-to-door informing your new neighbors that you are a convicted sex offender.

**Rushing the previous tenants out of the apartment you're moving into is a great way to score free toiletries.

**For the love of God, don't ever move.

Moving day is the 15th but we can't get any help until the 16th, which is the saturday. Mr Rumps is taking most of next week off to make a start but I have to work. I'm terrified at the idea of him packing my stuff! "junk, junk, bin, bin".

He lacks the sentimentality I have for old plane tickets and restaurant bills and will be ruthless in the disposal of such items.

Are you moving out of rented accommodation? Do you have to clean everything at the end of it? Because that is actually the crappest part of moving.

Man, our house is so dirty right now, I would gladly move rather than clean it.

I'm sure the new tenant would have loved our nice lino instead of bare boards, and our practically new hall carpet but hey ho. We also need to take down shelves and remove blinds etc. It's a shame.

We're not obliged to clean anything but I'm too proud not to!

oh, this is so dreadfully true...

I bought small document boxes with lids and hand-hold cut-outs for books, because even full they aren't too heavy to carry. Big cardboard cubes for linens and folded clothes and plastic things like tupperware, and for delicates that are wrapped in bubble-wrap and newspaper and therefore bulky but light. Hung-up clothes: I poked the hanger hooks through the bottom of a garbage bag (and tied them together so they couldn't shift) then knotted the open top, so all could be hung back up right away at new closet.

Dresser drawers were prepped by being pulled out and wrapped over and under with Saran-wrap (HELLO CLING-FILM) so they could be carried any which way (this turned out to be my best idea evar). Actually, anything that wouldn't fit in a box but needed to be sealed got wrapped with Saran-wrap, ie, my wicker basket of mending, my big reading pillow, my jewelry boxes so the drawers wouldn't come open. I taped up my folding bookshelves to keep them from unfolding inconveniently but since the tape took off some varnish in places I'm Saran-wrapping those, next time, too!

Wooden furniture WILL get splintered somewhere around the edges unless you wrap it up. If you have any heirlooms, drape them in old sheets or buy some rolls of bubble wrap or thin foam sheeting and tape it around delicate chair arms or legs or etc.

Hmmm, what else....

If I had to do it all over again (God help me), I would have started the packing process months ago. Better to pay for storage for a couple of months, shift items to their proper spots a few days before the actual moving date, live in your soon-to-be-old residence with just the bare essentials, and then shift those bare essentials on the actual date of moving, than to do it the way I did it and end up with most of your stuff thrown about in the garage or still in boxes, unpacked. Still, at least most other people I've talked to who've moved recently have said their settling-in process lasted months, so I don't feel all that bad.

Oh, and you're going to want as much help as you possibly can. Pay them in money or food or what have you. Shop around for moving companies before the move. I don't know if you have a garage where you live now, but it could be useful for temporarily storing each box you end up filling/packing. Try to keep organized and keep boxes in stacks according to which room they belong to. Trust the heavy stuff to professionals. Um, there's so much more that I could say, but just thinking about the moving process exhausts me these days so I'll have to quit it now. Oh, and hopefully you and your husband are equally strong and can lift boxes together. It has been a royal pain for me, being the only person carrying the heavy boxes and other stuff over from the garage (where it was all dumped) into the corresponding room in the house where it belongs. Though at least I'm developing some pretty nice muscles.