Clearing a flat - now is your chance to repaint without the nuisance of moving furniture. (Some decorators and carpet layers refuse to move furniture or will move only three items.) It also reduced the risk of damage if you paint a room with no furniture, then put down fresh carpet.
If the carpet is old, you can clean to remove stains and carpet beetles or insects which might infect furniture. Dust, get in the corners, remove mould. Paint with mould-resistant paint, allow the paint smell to disappear.
Before or after this you may need to remove your own or the previous tenants' leftovers. Dust the tops of high shelves and cupboards. Down comes dust (which otherwise upsets your skin, or lands on new paint). You may find small items, CDs, packaging, rolled up posters, items you'd lost or forgotten. Also look behind shelves, bookcases, sideboards. Out come lost bills, library tickets, Xmas cards and more.
Check wardrobes and cupboards. Identify screws and tubes. Save them. A day later you'll notice the loose shelf and wish you still had that bracket and screw you found on the floor and chucked out.
Check behind, beside, and inside in all the white goods. The bathroom cabinet will have old toothbrushes and q-tips. The tumbler and washing machine are hiding the odd socks.
I've lived overseas, moving there and back. Even with professional packers items get left behind - such as the post in the postbox, the washing in the washing machine.
Inside the washing machine and tumbler are old clothes which started dirty, or went mouldy because they were left damp. The dishwasher may have dirty items starting to smell. Or clean ones - the fourth, sixth or tenth or twelfth item missing from the set of cups or plates or cutlery.
If there's a postbox, check that. Oops - council tax. That's for you.
Departed tenants' medical records - your local doctor in the UK is still claiming the NHS payment for the year and maybe turning away new patients, whilst your ex tenant has missed the call for a checkup or who knows what vital test result. Tesco card coupons, Xmas catalogues, National Trust membership, and vital bank statement, bills, court demands, unknown documents, labelled urgent, which you must return to sender because you are not allowed to open them.
Before throwing away packing, check boxes for guarantees, and proof of delivery and proof purchase for tax.
Finally empty the fridge of the milk you took for your tea and coffee while waiting for the removal men or the letting agent.
And the fridge! You need a cool bag to transport all frozen food. And it keeps open bottles away from your Or time to dump unwanted or defrosted items in bins as you leave.
When you reach your destination unpack as soon as you can. otherwise 24 hours later you find wilted plants, milk going sour, frozen food which must be eaten now and can't be re-frozen.
Tips
1 The size of items you need to transport mysteriously doubles.
2 The van your hire or borrow is dirty so everything must be covered.
3 If you life anything from the top, the top comes off, or the bottom falls off. The bottom breaks. (We carried a simple white painted board bookshelf, base, middle, top. The top came off, fell and broke.)
4 Plastic bags are shredded by anything with a corner - even a lightweight half empty box of Cling film.
5 Large sheets of thin card, bubble wrap, or blankets or car rugs are needed to protect large items such as mirrors, posters.
6 Boxes not needed for the original items will be handy for grouping other items.
7 Keep a large clipboard with vital information such as the address you are going to.
8 Check you have all keys before going to destination. This includes: Key to the building's communal front door. Yale key to the front door. Key to the other Chubb or mortice dead bolt lock - even if you don't usually use it because somebody else such as your work colleague, letting agent or tenant might have thought it wise to use the additional lock. Key/instructions to turn off the fire alarm you might set off as you open the door.
Key to the back door. Keys to windows. Keys to postboxes. Spare keys for the letting agent.
9 Phone number of letting agent / porter /neighbour, other keyholder in case you are locked out. Ideally vista your property during the keyholder's office hours in case of emergency and needing the spare key. If you are delayed in traffic, the other key holder can let in removal men, painters, new tenants, whoever.
10 Charger for your phone in case you stay longer than intended and need it.
Lastly, or firstly, light bulbs.
Yes, I've arrived missing the vital key, seen my bookshelf split when carried, missed catching the china vase out of the car boot, broken the table lamp, and needed a ladder/chair to replace light bulbs ...
Yes, lastly light bulbs. Never mind being too thin or rich. You can never have too many light bulbs, except when you are short of the spare plastic bags, already packed, the chairs and ladder, already gone, the last light bulb goes pop, and hands full of surplus light bulbs, you crash out through the front door ....
If the carpet is old, you can clean to remove stains and carpet beetles or insects which might infect furniture. Dust, get in the corners, remove mould. Paint with mould-resistant paint, allow the paint smell to disappear.
Before or after this you may need to remove your own or the previous tenants' leftovers. Dust the tops of high shelves and cupboards. Down comes dust (which otherwise upsets your skin, or lands on new paint). You may find small items, CDs, packaging, rolled up posters, items you'd lost or forgotten. Also look behind shelves, bookcases, sideboards. Out come lost bills, library tickets, Xmas cards and more.
Check wardrobes and cupboards. Identify screws and tubes. Save them. A day later you'll notice the loose shelf and wish you still had that bracket and screw you found on the floor and chucked out.
Check behind, beside, and inside in all the white goods. The bathroom cabinet will have old toothbrushes and q-tips. The tumbler and washing machine are hiding the odd socks.
I've lived overseas, moving there and back. Even with professional packers items get left behind - such as the post in the postbox, the washing in the washing machine.
Inside the washing machine and tumbler are old clothes which started dirty, or went mouldy because they were left damp. The dishwasher may have dirty items starting to smell. Or clean ones - the fourth, sixth or tenth or twelfth item missing from the set of cups or plates or cutlery.
If there's a postbox, check that. Oops - council tax. That's for you.
Departed tenants' medical records - your local doctor in the UK is still claiming the NHS payment for the year and maybe turning away new patients, whilst your ex tenant has missed the call for a checkup or who knows what vital test result. Tesco card coupons, Xmas catalogues, National Trust membership, and vital bank statement, bills, court demands, unknown documents, labelled urgent, which you must return to sender because you are not allowed to open them.
Before throwing away packing, check boxes for guarantees, and proof of delivery and proof purchase for tax.
Finally empty the fridge of the milk you took for your tea and coffee while waiting for the removal men or the letting agent.
And the fridge! You need a cool bag to transport all frozen food. And it keeps open bottles away from your Or time to dump unwanted or defrosted items in bins as you leave.
When you reach your destination unpack as soon as you can. otherwise 24 hours later you find wilted plants, milk going sour, frozen food which must be eaten now and can't be re-frozen.
Tips
1 The size of items you need to transport mysteriously doubles.
2 The van your hire or borrow is dirty so everything must be covered.
3 If you life anything from the top, the top comes off, or the bottom falls off. The bottom breaks. (We carried a simple white painted board bookshelf, base, middle, top. The top came off, fell and broke.)
4 Plastic bags are shredded by anything with a corner - even a lightweight half empty box of Cling film.
5 Large sheets of thin card, bubble wrap, or blankets or car rugs are needed to protect large items such as mirrors, posters.
6 Boxes not needed for the original items will be handy for grouping other items.
7 Keep a large clipboard with vital information such as the address you are going to.
8 Check you have all keys before going to destination. This includes: Key to the building's communal front door. Yale key to the front door. Key to the other Chubb or mortice dead bolt lock - even if you don't usually use it because somebody else such as your work colleague, letting agent or tenant might have thought it wise to use the additional lock. Key/instructions to turn off the fire alarm you might set off as you open the door.
Key to the back door. Keys to windows. Keys to postboxes. Spare keys for the letting agent.
9 Phone number of letting agent / porter /neighbour, other keyholder in case you are locked out. Ideally vista your property during the keyholder's office hours in case of emergency and needing the spare key. If you are delayed in traffic, the other key holder can let in removal men, painters, new tenants, whoever.
10 Charger for your phone in case you stay longer than intended and need it.
Lastly, or firstly, light bulbs.
Yes, I've arrived missing the vital key, seen my bookshelf split when carried, missed catching the china vase out of the car boot, broken the table lamp, and needed a ladder/chair to replace light bulbs ...
Yes, lastly light bulbs. Never mind being too thin or rich. You can never have too many light bulbs, except when you are short of the spare plastic bags, already packed, the chairs and ladder, already gone, the last light bulb goes pop, and hands full of surplus light bulbs, you crash out through the front door ....
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