We unexpectedly sold our house on Xmas eve and have a 30 day settlement so potentially leaving the house on or around 23 janruary. We have dome nothing tirades moving back and have bit packed or sorted anything, we have dome literally nothing and are now in a bit of a tailspin not knowing what to do or where to start. HELP!!!!!

Where do we start?

We got to get a family of 6 on a plane in 4 weeks lol. Looking forward to the adventure though.

What exciting times you have ahead of you. I have to get a family of 1 (me) on a plane in 8 weeks and I am overwhelmed!!


Good luck and well done!!

1) Get a removal company out fast to quote with a full packing service.
2) chuck out the junk
3) Book tickets
4) Go out for a meal and celebrate!
5) Arrange your leaving party.

Have you got a place to go to when you get back to the UK?

Have a huge garage sale weather permitting and get the kids set up with a table of their own to sell off all the stuff they don't want to drag home.
Start boxing up all the family pics and precious stuff so you can see what you have to get rid of.

Do you have to go back as soon as your house is sold?

You could take a holiday apt or such for a couple of extra weeks to get a bit more breathing room

Bev

Don't panic. When we finally made the decision to move we had 13 days to everything sorted and lived to tell the tale.

The big ones that you want gone now are car, excess furniture, shipping, vacate clean (if you need to there), flights, a bit of time to say goodbye (we didn't do much but to be honest I would have been an emotional wreck if I'd dragged it out).

Some of your decisions depend on your personal situation. We have 3 small children so the thought of staying on with 15 pieces of luggage for another 2 weeks would have driven me mad. We also wanted to get the kids back into school here and that took 3.5 weeks when we arrived so again we didn't want to mess about any longer.

Well done for making the decision. One chapter closes and another opens but I can tell you this much. I look at the UK in a completely different way to how I did before I moved overseas and that I am truly grateful for.

Good luck. You can do it.

hi,

We just arrived back in UK after having packed up in 6 weeks, its pretty easy so don't panic.....

1) Get removal quotes, pick a firm and book date for packing and loading container

2) Book flights, propbably a few days after leaving house (to give you time for any final handovers etc)

3) Book hotel for last few days

4) Arrange UK accomodation for your arrival, to give yourselves time to find rental etc.

5) Think in regard to selling car(s)..We used Carsales and then used redspot rental to cover last couple of weeks with a cheap hire car.

6) Setup Forex account to transfer funds as required from Oz to UK. Decide whether to retain some cash / bank account in Oz. Re-establish UK bank if you don't have one.

7) Get UK mobile sims so that you can give people your new numbers.

8) De clutter, we paid 6600 for 20ft Melbourne to South West UK, would have been around 8800 for 40ft.

9) Keep smiling

Peter

Hey mate some great advice there. Who was that quote with as our best is 7500.

Justbto let you know, we paid $6800 from Adelaide for a 20ft but we packed non breakables ourselves

Hth

Chess Removals. We packed small bits ourselves, and they did the furniture packing. If you pack the smaller stuff, you have time to find pieces that fit in the gaps and maximise the usage of space, If they pack they are on a tight deadline and can't be hunting high and low for a triangle shaped object

Peter

The key factor to a lot of the cost is how far from the ports (at both ends) you are.

Hey Welsh, was wondering how you made out? Home yet?

Flying a week Wednesday.

Happy days.

where are you moving to in the UK ?

How did all the sorting and packing go?