Materials
Cartons, paper, bubble, tape and wardrobe boxes delivered in advance. You pack, we top up when you run short.
Packing & storage
Packing, and the gap nobody planned for
Two services that keep the rest of it working. Packing is what stops a moving day running into the night; storage is what stops a failed completion becoming a crisis.
Fragile only
Kitchen, glass, pictures and anything that would keep you awake. You keep the books, the clothes and the loft.
Full packing
Every room, usually the day before loading. You are left with documents, valuables and the cat.
Unpacking
Cartons opened, contents placed, packaging taken away. Worth more than people think after a long move.
What packing actually costs you if you do it yourself
Time, mostly, and more of it than anyone budgets. The reliable pattern is that a household is two-thirds packed the night before and finishing the kitchen while the crew waits — which turns a planned day into a long one.
If it is looking unlikely a week out, ring. A crew packing costs less than a loading that starts late and finishes in the dark.
The five mistakes we see every week
- Books in large cartons. Nobody can lift the result and the bottom gives way. Books go in small boxes.
- Plates stacked flat. On edge, wrapped individually, like records — flat they break from the middle out.
- Half-filled boxes. Air collapses under weight. Fill the gaps with paper or linen.
- Labels on the lid only. Write the room on the top and one side; the top is what ends up face down.
- The loft last. Always bigger than remembered, always done in a hurry, always the reason the day overruns.
Storage, and the Kent chain
Long chains with London buyers at one end are the normal shape of a Kent sale, and long chains slip. The household needs somewhere to be that is not a relative's garage.
Goods are inventoried as they are loaded, held securely, and redelivered when you say. You get a copy of the inventory; access is by appointment rather than a walk-in arrangement. Arranged in advance it is a line on a quote.
Packing for storage is a different standard
Everything dry going in. Clothes boxed rather than left loose in furniture. Nothing with a residue on it, no batteries left in, no fuel tanks. A carton that survives an hour on a lorry is not automatically a carton that should sit sealed for months.
Say the load is going into store and we pack to that standard, or tell you precisely what to do differently if you are packing yourself.
What we will not take
Nothing flammable, explosive or corrosive — fuel, gas bottles, paint, solvents, fireworks. No perishables, plants or anything living. Documents, jewellery, cash and irreplaceable papers stay with you.
Storage usually attaches to a house move, a long-distance job or a move abroad — describe the whole thing and it gets quoted as one piece of work.
Worth knowing
Packing and storage, in plain terms
What are the packing options?
Materials dropped off for you to use; fragile-only, where the crew does the kitchen, glass and pictures; full packing, usually the day before loading; and unpacking at the far end. Most households take the middle option and wish they had taken the third.
How much packing do people underestimate?
Roughly half, consistently — not through carelessness, but because a kitchen looks like one room and packs like three. If it is looking unlikely by the week before, ring us; a crew packing is cheaper than a delayed loading.
How does the storage work?
Goods are inventoried as they are loaded, held securely, and redelivered when you say. You get a copy of the inventory, and access is by appointment rather than a walk-in arrangement.
Does anything need to be different for storage?
Yes. Everything must be dry going in, clothes are better boxed than left loose in furniture, and anything with a residue, a fuel tank or a battery has to be raised beforehand. Say the load is going into store and we will pack to that standard.
What will you not take?
Anything flammable, explosive or corrosive — fuel, gas bottles, paint, solvents, fireworks — plus perishables, plants and anything living. Documents, jewellery and irreplaceable papers travel with you.
If the chain looks fragile, say so now.
Storage arranged in advance is a line on a quote. Storage arranged at eight on the morning of a failed completion is everybody's bad day.