Moving back - where to begin?
 

I'm pretty new to the forums, so apologies if there's a section somewhere on this subject. We have recently decided we want to move back to the UK from the Netherlands, and rather than our usual mutterings about it, which get forgetten about again, we are serious this time. :D We've been here for 13 years, moved for work, and we do have a nice enough lifestyle over here. However, we want to be closer to our families.

The question is - where do we start? We have a house over here, we both work full-time, we don't have kids, but do have cats. :D We are assuming that one of us will move back before the other to try to find somewhere to live, and then the other will follow over later. It's not the other side of the world, so in theory, it should be relatively simple. But in my head, it's all overwhelming. :o

I have been reading through stories from other people, but then I found the threads people had started about their life in the UK, and I loved reading them, until I started to get homesick. Doh!

I know we have to break this down into smaller steps and make lists and so on, but the logistics and timing of it all seems complicated.

Re: Moving back - where to begin?
 

This is the start of a similar thread:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showp...34&postcount=1

Re: Moving back - where to begin?
 

Thanks for the link, I've already made a note of a few things. I am wondering how useful our Dutch documents (car insurance, medical records etc.) will to get things set up in the UK, but will make sure we start putting together documents. :)

Re: Moving back - where to begin?
 

Here is a recent thread ref Car Insurance:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showp...58&postcount=1

If you know where you are looking to return to, if even roughly, you could contact a doctor's or community surgery/health centre to find out what health records to best keep for their updating in due course.

I believe that the plans to create a centralised medical records system for all 50 odd million English NHS patients were shelved or delayed due to security concerns.

Re: Moving back - where to begin?
 

Note that this thread just moved up the "stack":

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showp...58&postcount=1

Re: Moving back - where to begin?
 

Hi KittyB52

Welcome to BE. do you know where you are planning to move back to? Will you be able to stay with family of friends initially? the whole moving process can be a bit overwhelming, but if you start doing little bits here and there it will help. Start sorting your home. What will you keep and ship, donate, sell etc.?

You are right, lists will be helpful. If you have any specific questions, I'll try to help, where I can. I just moved back from Canada, after 30 years, so I know what you are facing.

Good luck.:)

Re: Moving back - where to begin?
 

We would love to be back in the North West somewhere (our families are based in Liverpool and Morecambe), but we will have to go where the jobs are, I suppose. We don't want to be more than a couple of hours drive away from Liverpool area, so that does give us a reasonable area to look at. And we met someone from Wrexham at the weekend who was singing its praises, so that's opened up another area that we can consider. The company my husband works for has a base in Stoke, so somewhere between there and Liverpool (or further North) would be OK.

We could stay with my parents short-term, but I think we'd be wanting to rent somewhere of our own. I'm not sure my Dad would be keen on the cats for too long. :)

The Big Sort Out is long overdue, so we are making a start on that this weekend. I may tentatively start looking for jobs, although I am wary of looking too much, in case I find something good which starts in a month or two. I suspect that won't be an issue. :unsure:

We've mentioned moving back so many times, it's difficult to believe that we could actually do it. It feels a bit unreal.

Thanks for the advice/links so far. :)

Re: Moving back - where to begin?
 

hello Kitty,

we're moving back this year too. No definite date for me yet, but my husband leaves the US at the end of March to start his new job, then it's over to me to get everything sorted this end. My "things to do list" is overwhelming with selling the house, selling the cars, getting 3 cats & 1 dog ready for travel, getting the furniture shipped and having numerous garage sales to rid our house of the unbelievably large amount of sh*te and trinkets we've managed to accumulate during our 17 years here :ohmy:

We are also going to be living in the north west, Wirral to be precise. We already have our house there so we have no need for a rental, however I am addicted to rightmove co uk and know there are quite a lot of reasonably priced rentals to be had there. Years ago my husband worked in Stoke and commuted daily from the Wirral, so I know it's certainly do-able plus you'd be very close to your family in Liverpool too.

It's a beautiful part of north west if you ask me, but then I'm biased of course, having been born there.



Good luck to you wherever you decide to live :)

PS. I understand completely the "feeling a bit unreal" statement. We've talked about this move back for years and now it's upon us, I almost feel like I'm in a dream when I say that I'm going. Strangely too I feel a bit scared despite knowing exactly where I'll be living as we've holidayed in UK at least twice a year since moving to USA and love it more there now than ever! It's weird isn't it?

Re: Moving back - where to begin?
 

Yes, I know the Wirral - lucky you! Although not so lucky at having to get everything sorted yourself. :blink:

We always thought we were 'stuck' here, due to the economic downturn, and while it's probably not the perfect time to try to sell a house, and find a new one, plus two jobs, I think we'd rather be in the UK and take the risk. Plus there are no 'jobs for life', so while we are living comfortably now, there's no guarantee that would last.

Good luck with the move!

Re: Moving back - where to begin?
 

I forgot to ask in my previous post - how do you know you will be able to get everything sold and organised and shipped this year? I know it sounds like a weird question, but we are just starting to think about moving, and it seems like such a huge task, I can't see how we could move this year. I don't know whether we should look for jobs now, or later, when to put the house on the market, when to start looking for a house in the UK (actually, too late, we've already looked on rightmove and seen some we like :thumbdown:).

Re: Moving back - where to begin?
 

I wonder if anyone has put all these activities into a timeline (like managing a business project, for example) so we could see what to do first :)

Re: Moving back - where to begin?
 

That would be handy! :D I suppose each situation will be different though - at least, with regards to timing. Some people will move before finding jobs, others will only move once they have a job and house in place.

I am currently trying not to get overexcited about it all when we still have EVERYTHING to arrange. The only thing we have done is decide to move back. :lol:

Re: Moving back - where to begin?
 

That's pretty much how I have managed all of our moves, both domestic and international (and other large personal projects).

I brainstorm everything that has to be done, then start to look at dependencies and durations and so on.

For our move back from the US to the UK, for the final few days when we only had one car and were staying in a hotel for a few days I printed a timetable of where we would sleep - who would have the car (and where) and what activities we would be doing.

Re: Moving back - where to begin?
 

I have no idea if/when I'll get everything sold and organised at all! I'm giving myself around 6 months really for pretty much everything to be done. At the moment in our area the houses do seem to be selling quite quickly provided they're priced right, which is why I intend on trying to "sell by owner" first, so I can make the price more attractive and not have to factor in the astronomical 6% (or higher) commission that the estate agents charge here.

The furniture I will ship around the end of June over to our UK house, leaving just a recliner, a bed and the telly for me! Obviously I'll still have all the other electricals in the house as we can't take them back to UK.

Anyway, I'm just trying to float along and hope that everything will go the way I've imagined :eek:

Re: Moving back - where to begin?
 

I usually float (well, drift), which is how come we've managed to stay over here so long. :lol: I'd be thrilled if we could get back before the end of the year, but it does seem very soon. Then again, I've looked quickly at jobs online and there are a few about (for me), so maybe it could go a lot faster than we think. We need a good few weekends of clearing out the loft and getting rid of stuff before we really start making moves to get going really.

As for the house, we will most likely make a loss on it anyway, so we're frantically saving up to try to cover at least some of the loss. We will be speaking to our financial guy in the next few weeks anyway, so will see what he has to say.

Re: Moving back - where to begin?
 

And....the husband has been looking at houses already. :thumbdown: I wouldn't mind, but he's just sent a link to one that I really like the look of. This is all back to front, we can't find a house and then look for jobs. Silly husband! :D

Re: Moving back - where to begin?
 

Hi Kitty B52,
here you can find another thread - "Finding Rentals and Home Shares AND Offering Them" in UK
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=789669

Good luck!

Re: Moving back - where to begin?
 

Thanks, will have a look at that.

After the initial excitement over moving back, I am now concerned that we will struggle to sell our house and get 'stuck' here. We are charging ahead with The Big Tidy Up, as regardless of when we can move (PLEASE let it be this year!), it never hurts to do a bit of Spring cleaning. Especially as it seems we might actually be getting some Spring fairly soon. *crosses fingers*

Re: Moving back - where to begin?
 

You will be glad you started early with the "tidy up". I did a clearout before we listed our house and then another one just prior to listing the house and I kept uncovering more and more "stuff". It multiplies in the dark storage areas.:lol: I must say, now that we are back in the UK, it does feel good to be rid of a lot of the "stuff". Good luck with the prep work.:)

Re: Moving back - where to begin?
 

:amen:

Re: Moving back - where to begin?
 

We're taking our second carload of stuff to the tip this evening. Most of it can be recycled, so that's something. How we're going to deal with the unwanted books etc. I'm not sure. I don't even think charity shops are that bothered about them these days, if such things even existed over here.

It does feel quite good to be clearing the clutter, although so far we only seem to have made a tiny inroad in the loft. Still, it's early days yet.

I had wanted us to be out of the house before we put it on the market, but I don't think that's going to be possible. So the plan is to clear as much as we can in the next couple of months, then see about putting the house up for sale.

Re: Moving back - where to begin?
 

I would use google to try and find local groups etc that will take used books.
I was fortunate that the annual book drive for a local charity was underway, so all I had to do was drop off the boxes of books at the local fire department. The local homeless shelter was happy to take my National Geographic Magazines, that I thought I would have to put in the bin, because nobody else wanted them.

The City of Calgary, where we lived, had a good link in its website to recycling facilities for all sorts of things and I found it really helpful. Maybe your local municipality has a similar section in its website. Between, selling, donating etc, I was able to find a home for all of my stuff. Thankfully, very little had to be put in the rubbish. With some things I just put them outside our house with a "free" sign. The stuff was gone in no time.:)

Re: Moving back - where to begin?
 

The 'problem' I have is that all our books are English, and they're not as popular (understandably) over here as Dutch books. I've put some hobby books up for sale on a Dutch site (similar to Amazon), but I'm not holding out much hope. No point listing on Ebay or Amazon, as the shipping costs from here put people in the UK off.

We are planning to take some books back to the UK with us in our suitcase each time we travel, so they can be shared with family/friends or taken to charity shops.

Re: Moving back - where to begin?
 

Of course, that makes it even more challenging. Maybe there is an expats group that would be interested in some of them.:)

Re: Moving back - where to begin?
 

Ooh, good idea. I know there's one in our city, will see if they're interested. :)

Re: Moving back - where to begin?
 

There are some reasonably priced houses available in Liverpool at the moment:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...es-sale-1.html

It is a good approach that one goes in advance and gets setup before the other makes the move. I woudn't worry too much about car insurance, etc now. That can all be resolved in a few phone calls and supplying any necessary documentation from the Netherlands.

Re: Moving back - where to begin?
 

I'm not sure about the 1 pound houses. :D Great idea if it works out though. There do seem to be a lot of reasonably priced houses about. Not sure I can persuade the husband to live in Kensington, he hates that area. :D

I think we will end up with one of us going back first, but that also isn't ideal. Whoever moves back first gets the friends and family to help them sort stuff out, while the other poor soul gets left behind to deal with all the selling the house crap. I think we might have to toss a coin. :D