Family moves
Moves that fit around everything else
A family move rarely gets a clear week to itself. It happens around a school run, a shift pattern, a job starting and somebody else's solicitor — so it gets planned around all of those rather than in spite of them.
Short moves are still full days
Most family moves in this county are short — Wigston to Oadby, the city out to Birstall, one village to the next. Because the drive is nothing, people plan as though the day is nothing.
It is not. Loading a family house takes the same hours whether the new one is ten minutes away or three hours, and only the middle shrinks. We plan them as full days, which is why they end at a reasonable hour.
The start time comes from the street
On a city terrace the parked cars have to clear before a vehicle can get close. In the commuter villages along the A6 and the M1 the streets empty by themselves and an early start is best. In Melton and Market Harborough a market day changes the answer entirely.
We set the time from your road rather than from a default, and we say which it is at survey so you can arrange the morning around it.
Children on the day
Better elsewhere while the house is being loaded, honestly. A hallway with a wardrobe going through it is not a safe place to stand, and the day finishes sooner for everybody.
Where that is not possible, tell us. The crew have all done it before; it changes the order things come out in rather than whether the job works.
What to set aside
- One box per person for that evening — kettle, mugs, chargers, medication, pyjamas
- School uniform for the next morning if term has started
- The toy that is not negotiable, and the blanket that goes with it
- Documents, keys and anything irreplaceable, which travel with you rather than with us
August is the difficult month
Two universities in the county mean the student market and the family market move in the same weeks. If your move has to happen in August, book earlier than feels necessary — that is not a sales line, it is simply how the calendar works here.
Moving into Leicestershire
A steady direction: families moving out of London and the south for space, usually with the M1 doing most of the work. The access surprises are at this end — a village lane, a gravel drive, more staircase than the viewing suggested — which is why the Leicestershire property gets the survey and the far end is read from photographs.
Worth knowing
Family moves, the real questions
Can the move work around the school run?
Usually, and on some streets it has to — the parked cars have to clear before a vehicle can get near. Which applies to your road is a survey question rather than a guess.
What do we do with the children?
Elsewhere for the loading if that is possible; a hallway with a wardrobe in it is no place for anyone small, and the day ends sooner. Where it is not possible, the crew work around them.
Will the beds be up that night?
Beds come off the load first and are rebuilt before the rest goes in, then the kitchen boxes. Everything else can wait for daylight.
We are moving within Leicester for a school place. Anything different?
Only the assumption that a short move is a short day. The loading and unloading take the same time whether the new house is ten minutes away or three hours; only the drive shrinks.
What should we set aside?
One box per person with what they need that evening — kettle, mugs, chargers, medication, pyjamas, school uniform if term has started, and the toy that is not negotiable. It travels last on and first off.
Tell us the fixed points. We'll plan around them.
A school day, a shift, a start date, a completion you cannot control. Those set the plan more than the furniture does.