Options for moving houses.

Recently our house was sold and even more recently, we purchased our next house. Yesterday, all the paperwork were finalised and everything is locked in for both house to settle in about 6 weeks time.

Our house will settle first and then the next house will settle two weeks later. This will give us about two weeks buffer in packing up and shift across. Luckily, the two houses are only about five minutes drive apart.

Shifting house is always a logistic problem. You have to consider the packing of the house into many boxes, the moving of the boxes, and then the unpacking of it. The weather on the days of shifting also plays an important role as well. What can we do to minimise the cost of the shift. Lets explore the various options

1. Use a moving company for everything - There are many different moving companies around that will help you pack your house into many boxes and shift it across to your new house. Apart from being very efficient, they are extremely expensive. We used a moving company on our last house migration and that cost about $3500. Luckily, we were only shifting across town. It would have cost even more if we moved interstate of overseas. As we were living in an apartment on the third floor, we saved ourselves some backache and got the professionals. Be sure that the insurance is adequate and your are clear on what is being insured.
   
2. You pack, we shift - Some moving company will provide services where you pack your household items into boxes yourself and they do the shifting. This will save you plenty of money as they will not charge your the time of a packer. However, the insurance will usually not cover for accidental breakage as their packer was not used. They usually state they can be sure that the breakables are properly secured. This is a good compromise between completely doing it yourself and having the professionals doing it all.
   
3. Moving it yourself - This is going to be your cheapest way of moving other than outlaying for, perhaps, a moving box trailer. Other than monetary expenses, you will also need a lot of time and plenty of people power. Also remember that you will not be insured for any breakages or damages, so be prepared.

Given that we are only a few minutes drive away, we may end up moving it all ourselves with a couple of friends. I get the feeling that we will be doing a bit of a spring clean as well while we move.

During my research, I came across some nice and helpful resources for moving houses.

1. Property Guide - has a comprehensive list of things to do in the weeks leading up to vacating date.
2. Trent over at The Simple Dollar listed ten things to do when you moved into a new house.
3. David at My Two Dollars has some good advice on unclutter things and getting rid of unwanted stuff.