Family moves
When the date is the constraint
Most moves have a preferred date. Family moves in this county tend to have a fixed one — a school place, a job start, a tenancy that ends whatever anybody would prefer. That changes how the job gets planned.
Planning backwards
When a date cannot move, everything else has to bend around it. We start from the fixed point and work back: when packing has to finish, when the crew arrives, how many of them, and what happens if the other end is not ready.
The last one matters most. A fixed move-out date with an uncertain move-in date is the commonest family situation in Kent, and the answer is storage arranged in advance rather than a scramble on the day.
Why Kent dates cluster
This county still selects at eleven, so a significant share of family moves are driven by being at an address by a particular point rather than by a house coming up. The consequence is a moving calendar with sharp peaks: the popular dates go early and stay gone.
Tell us the deadline as well as the preferred date. If they are different — and they usually are — we plan for the one that actually matters.
The day itself, with children in it
Honestly, they are better elsewhere for the loading. A hallway with a wardrobe going through it is no place for anyone small, and the day finishes earlier for everybody.
Where that is not possible, say so. It changes the order things come out in rather than whether the job works, and the crew have all done it before.
What to set aside
- One box per person with what they need that evening — it travels last on, first off
- School uniform for the next morning if term has started
- Chargers, medication, toothbrushes, a towel each
- The toy that cannot be in a box somewhere in a lorry
- Documents, keys and anything irreplaceable, which travel with you rather than with us
Short moves are still full days
A family move inside Kent is often a village over or a town across. The drive is nothing; the loading and unloading take exactly as long as they would for a move to Scotland. We plan them as full days, which is why they finish at a sensible hour.
Moving in from outside the county? Long distance covers how those are surveyed at both ends.
Worth knowing
Family moves, the real questions
Our date is fixed by a school place. Can you work to it?
Yes, and tell us that it is fixed rather than preferred. Kent still selects at eleven, so a large share of family moves here are tied to a catchment address by a particular point. We treat that date as the constraint and build the plan backwards from it.
Can the move happen during term?
It can, and mid-week during term is often the easiest day to get a good crew and a clear street. The trade-off is that the children are at school while the house is packed, which most families decide is a feature rather than a problem.
What do you need from us the night before?
Access sorted, pets arranged, and one box per person with what they need that evening set aside and pointed out to the crew. Beyond that, nothing — if we are packing, leave it alone.
Will the beds be up the same day?
Standard. Beds come off the load first and get rebuilt before the rest goes in, so there is somewhere to put tired children while the house fills up around them.
We are moving from London into a Kent village. Anything to watch?
The village end, almost always. Lane width, a gateway a long vehicle cannot turn into, a gravel drive that will not take the weight in wet weather. Photographs before the survey save an expensive surprise.
Tell us the date that cannot move — we'll plan back from it.
A school place, a job start, a tenancy end. Everything else in the plan bends around that one fixed point.