Can anyone suggest any tips for removals day when the house isn't being emptied entirely (i.e. leaving things for tenants).

Did anyone use a "sticker" system i.e. red for "don't touch"!

Do you tend to go round with the removal team literally telling them item by item?

Also, if we have boxed and labelled some things already, is there a way to re-label by room, when the removal team no doubt unpack and repack into their standard size boxes?

Also, did you do the Goods to Follow list based on the removals inventory or did you just do your own?

A friend of mine was making a salmon bagel in the kitchen, nipped to the loo and when she got back the bagel was gone... Packed and in the crate. Six months later in storage and they got to see it again!! Just wondering how crazy the removals folk are!

Wow that's dumb! There is a wiki on this, which may help. http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Goods_To_Follow

Thanks TJ. I did look through that prior to posting but it's more general tips on removals when you are leaving behind things in the house I'm after.

Did anyone else rent out their house before leaving?

For one move we had to put some stuff into storage and ship the rest so we put bright yellow post-it notes on the stuff we wanted to put into storage. It worked for about 90% of the stuff however they did provide us with lots of UK guide books (not exactly useful) that we had wanted to store and there were a number of things we really wanted which ended up in storage. It seemed like they had just grabbed handfuls of stuff to top up a box and not checked for the post-its. On that occasion we weren't able to supervise the packers and the result was a lot of broken / damaged stuff. We learnt from that and in future insisted on fewer packers who we chaperoned.

ha ha, the bagel story is a shocker! i'd hope MOST removal men would have the common sense that shouldn't be packed...especially due to regulations on food shipping!

anyways, I'd recommend combining the options you mentioned. Stickers work great for 'stays' and 'goes'. Then i'd make sure when your crew arrive you take 5 minutes to explain your system and stress that if an item doesnt have a sticker they should consult you as to which it should be and not to guess/assume (That covers you incase any stickers fall of or, like when I last moved you 'forget' to mark any items up). The walk through also gives you a chance to make sure the team leader knows any special requirements you have or things to be careful of so that he can brief his team.

Try to separate anything of vital importance that is not to go, like passports and important papers - just in case.

With your pre-labelled boxes explain to your crew what you'd like them to do if they are being re-boxed - whether you would like them labelled with the room they came from or the room you want them put at destination, the crew should be flexible to handling this however you want them to - so don't be afraid to ask whilst you're doing your walk around.

Biggest tip regarding your concerns is once the crew say they are all packed and loaded do one last walk around with the team leader before you let them depart. Make sure you're happy everything you wanted gone is gone (dont forget things hanging on the walls or inside cupboards) and that nothing you intended to stay is missing - much easier to rectify any errors whilst the vehicle is on site than afterwards.
In addition they should leave you with a copy of the inventory of what they've packed/loaded so you can check that over to see if you're happy with everything before waving the crew on their way.

Hope that helps!

Not that we rented our house but there were still things that were not to be packed that we were either selling, giving away or needed to clean the house up after everything had gone plus some bits and pieces that we were going to pack into our cases etc. We had just two removal guys attend our property who were really good. We just explained to them at the start the bigger items such as a few pieces of furniture that were not to be packed and all the small items we stashed in our cloakroom with the instructions that nothing in there was to be touched and everything went as planned. The two guys wrapped and packed everything really well taking about a day and a half to do it.

We certainly didn't need to watch over them. In fact we'd already moved out a day or two before, staying with family, to make the pack up process easier so by the time we came back to the house the second day, they'd virtually finished anyway!

Yes, our goods to follow list was nothing more than the inventory prepared by the packers.

The bagel story is good. We had nothing like that fortunately but friends had a story where when their stuff was unpacked they found all the paper etc in a box from where the removal team had obviously had fish and chips for supper whilst packing!

On our experience of house moves, the removal men will pack anything that doesn't move unless you specifically make a note of things & make it very obvious. We have sometimes allocated one room & shoved everything in there that we didn't want to go - then the door was shut firmly & they were told not to enter. Seemed to work ok. Saves a lot of worry & you don't have to be on tender hooks the whole time watching them like a hawk. The one item that never mistakenly gets packed is the "kettle" - I wonder why??

We were able to put most things we didn't want packing into one room and then went round with the movers on the first day so that they knew what they could and couldn't pack - they were really accomodating and even agreed to leave our bed and the basics in the kitchen to the last day so we has something to sleep on and somewhere to cook etc.

I assumed that I would go around with the removals guys and we would decide what would be packed for shipping and what would be packed for coming with us in our luggage, I envisaged a nice civilised three days of sorting and packing - yeah right! They came in like a swarm of locusts clearing out a room of stuff I wanted packed and the stuff I didn't in no time at all. Eventually they agreed to give me 30 mins to grab clothes and other things that were coming with us on the plane and put it in one room. The worst thing was I had spent days cleaning all the outdoor toys, bikes, boat, roller blades, scooters etc. as we had heard that Canada was very strict - the packing guy packed the filthy cloths that I had used for the job and thrown in a corner of the garage! Luckily I spotted them before the box was sealed. Moral of the story - be organised BEFORE they get there.

When we unpacked we found a radio, very carefully wrapped, which in fact belonged to one of the removal men!