Two tips for a short-notice house move

A short-notice house move can be a nightmare. If, for whatever reason, you only have a few days to get organised and pack up all of your possessions, here are a few tips that should make this challenging experience a little easier.

Ask for help 

If your removalists are due to arrive in a couple of days, you will almost certainly need some help from your friends and family. Ask at least two or three people to assist you with the packing process.

Try to avoid turning this into an opportunity to socialise; if you all pack up things in the same room, you'll be more likely to get distracted and end up reminiscing over things like old photographs and other mementoes that you come across during this process. Whilst this might be enjoyable, it will also waste the limited amount of you time you have available. Instead, assign each person one room and leave them to do their work in peace.

If you have any valuable or fragile items in specific rooms that need to be carefully wrapped before being put into boxes, make sure to let your friends and family know about this before they begin so that you don't discover boxes full of broken goods when you arrive at your new home.

Be resourceful when it comes to packing supplies

If you're moving house in the very near future, you might not have time to order cardboard boxes, heavy-duty bubble wrap and moving blankets. As such, you will probably need to get a bit creative when it comes to your packing supplies.

You should be able to get free cardboard boxes, in all shapes and sizes, from your local supermarket. Although they will not be quite as sturdy as the double-walled corrugated boxes that are available online, they should suffice if you're in a hurry. Whilst you're at the supermarket, pick up as many newspapers as you can afford; balled-up sheets of this type of paper will serve as an excellent replacement for bubble wrap, helping to prevent your dinnerware, glasses and fragile ornaments from shattering during transit.

If your furniture removals company cannot provide protective blankets for your more fragile furniture items, your own household duvets can be used instead. It's important to note, however, that to provide the same level of protection against scratches and splinters as a heavy-duty moving blanket, you may need to use two thick duvets per item.

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