Moving Tips That Will Make Your End of Tenancy Stress-Free
Moving out of rented accommodation can be one of the most stressful things you can do. I say this from experience. When my partner and I decided to trade our small flat in for a house, it was awesome. We were going to have so much more room, a garden for our awesome Labrador and an office and a spare room.
We were so excited, all we needed to do was move out of the flat and into our new house. However, the week that we were due to move out, my partner ended up having emergency surgery. Don’t worry, she is fine now. However, this meant that it was up to me to move all of our stuff out of the flat and into our new home.
To say I was stressed would be a slight understatement. I was working a 45 hour work week, packing up our stuff and visiting my partner in the hospital whenever I could. So, here are some things that went wrong when I was moving and some tips to help make moving out of a rented property stress-free. I used all of these moving tips during this time, and they helped massively.
Start packing sooner rather than later
The moment that me and my partner signed our new tenancy agreement for the house and gave our landlord notice on our flat, we started packing. We packed everything that we wouldn’t need before the move. We packed books, DVDs, surplus cookware, plates and cutlery, spare bedding, clothes we weren’t going to need and anything else we could, including my partner’s massive collection of Lush products. This meant that the week of moving out (when my partner went into the hospital), all I had to pack up was the bare minimum, and this really helped.
Find a storage space
As we started packing so quickly, we had a lot of boxes dotted around our small flat, and we wanted to get rid of them to have some space. We were really lucky as my dad lives a few miles down the road from us. We commandeered his garage (with his permission) for a few weeks. This allowed us to move out a large chunk of our stuff way before it HAD to be gone. Whether you’re lucky enough to have free storage space like us, or you rent a storage space for a few weeks, it makes the whole process of moving out so much easier. On the day of end of tenancy, you only need to remove the very few items left in the property, not your whole life.
Get help
As I just mentioned, my dad lives a few miles away from us. When we told him we were moving into our house, he did the courteous thing of saying he would help. Then my partner went into hospital, and his role in helping us suddenly became a full-time position! On the day of the move, he helped move every box out of the flat and into the new house until we were both incredibly tired, and my friend came and saved the day. Friends and family are invaluable when moving out of rented accommodation. They are always happy to lend a hand, and they are perfect if you don’t have the budget for a moving company. If you have the budget for a moving company, I would strongly recommend using them. They can help with storage and make moving out one of the easiest and stress-free things possible. Hiring a reputable, local moving company is a sure-fire way of ending your moving day with a glass of wine rather than a headache!
Have a plan in place for your rubbish
While me and my partner had been quite savvy and planned as much of the move as we could, we are not perfect, and we forgot about the sofa! We had already ordered a new sofa and our very cheap and nasty one from the flat was to be thrown away. We had hired a transit van for the move and thought, “we will take that to the local tip; it will be easy”. At 10am on moving day, these words echoed around my brain as I remembered that you cannot take vans to our local tip without a license. That nearly pushed me over the edge!
Thankfully, the company that my partner worked for said that if me and dad needed any help that day, give them a call, and they would be there. I phoned my partner as she lay in her hospital bed recovering from surgery, panicking, stressing and swearing. She made one call, and a superhero called Glen came and picked up the sofa and took it, and all my troubles, away! I can’t promise that Glen the superhero will be available on your moving day. So if you plan on getting rid of any big furniture, do so well in advance! You can sit on camping chairs for a few days; they are way more comfortable than the situation I was in that day!
End of tenancy cleaning
When my partner and I got our awesome Labrador Polar, we sign an agreement that stated we were to get the flat professionally cleaned when we left. So, we booked an end of tenancy cleaning three weeks in advance. About two hours before my partner started having symptoms that landed her in hospital for a week, that cleaner cancelled. I called my dad, who called the cleaning company that cleans his work, and we managed to get those guys in to clean the entire property, including the oven and the carpets. End of tenancy cleaning is probably one of the easiest ways of making moving out stress-free. They cleaned the entire flat from top to bottom, made it look ready to move in to in just a few hours. Had my dad and me been left with that task, we’d probably still be cleaning it, and this was a year and a half ago!
I hope my experience of moving out of a rented place has helped you. If I have any advice to give, it would be to plan and have a backup plan for if things go wrong or people can’t make appointments. Make a list, pack things up long before your moving out date and store them somewhere else. Also, rely on your family and friends. They often have quick solutions to problems that can cause you a lot of stress!
Thanks to everyone that helped me that day, moving out of our flat was actually pretty stress-free. Our landlord was really impressed with the condition of our flat. I know this situation is pretty unique. Not everyone’s partner will end up in the hospital the week you are moving out. However, it taught us both that we needed to be more prepared, we needed to ask for help, and we couldn’t do everything ourselves. I hope these moving tips and my stories about moving out were helpful and maybe a bit entertaining!