Can you move house any day of the week?

by James Draper Owner

Planning when to agree on a completion date and time of exchange of contracts can be challenging. You will need to juggle your work and daily life around the house move, and if you are getting friends or family members to help you move too then you’ll need to make sure it works with them as well. Part of you wants to just get on with it as soon as possible, because it has likely been many months since your offer was accepted and you are probably dying to get into the new house now, however you have to keep a cool head and think things through carefully. Planning and organisation is the key to success with a smooth house move.

So when it comes to picking the day of completion, there are plenty of factors to consider

There are certain things that you have to prepare in advance of your house move, and they can only be done on weekdays usually.

These include hiring a Luton van to help you move, or hiring a removal company to assist you with the move. Both of these options have their merits, but both will need organising in advance of your move. You won’t be able to sort these out on the day of the move, and they need to be organised a week or two before you need them. Typically you can only pick up a Luton van on weekdays not weekends, and the same with removal companies.
You’ll need to make sure you have the right packaging materials for your move, which will include packing boxes in many different sizes, as well as bubble wrap for sale and strong packing tape, as well as some packing tissue paper and wardrobe boxes. You can order these online from a packing specialist, but this needs to be done a day or two before you need them. Again they will usually only deliver on weekdays.
As we mentioned before, if you are getting some friends or family to help you to move, then you have to ensure that they are free and not at work on the day that you plan to move. This is tricky and will vary, so you need to contact everybody involved and organise it.
If you decide to move house over a weekend, you need to consider the extra traffic that is on the road between your old and new property. This can slow down your house move, and makes the risk of damaging your household items a bit higher too. Driving a van which is full of your household possessions can be difficult, because the weight of the van will be much higher than you might think.
You need to remember that after you have moved you will also need to unpack all of your things in the new house too, out of boxes and high quality bubble wrap, which can take several days to do if not longer if you wanted to re decorate. If you move house on a Monday and take a day off work, but go back to work Tuesday, then you’ll be living out of boxes for the whole week until the weekend.

Recommendations

You can in theory move home on any day of the week, but you have to remember that if you are moving on a weekend, you have to organise the packaging materials (boxes, bubble wrap for packing) and moving van / removal company in advance.
Really it will depend upon the help you are getting to move from friends and family and when they are free, along with your personal work commitments.
Ideally moving home on a Friday is the best scenario, because you will then have the whole weekend to unpack your things. If you take a week off after the move too, this is great because it gives you plenty of time to settle in and discover the local area and decide exactly where you want to put your furniture etc.
You should start moving and packing the removal van as early as possible on the day of the move, to allow yourself plenty of time. Always remember that you have to be out of your current property by the time of completion, because you won’t own the house from that moment. Try to set the time of completion for late afternoon ideally.
If you are using a professional removal company to assist with your move, it is unlikely they will work on a Sunday. Occasionally they might, but they would charge you extra for this, so really you will have to move on a weekday or a Saturday. Some removal companies won’t work on a Saturday either.
If you are hiring a removal van instead, they will usually charge more to hire over a weekend than a weekday. They usually charge more than double the price over a weekend in fact, so if you are looking to save the pennies, then a weekday move is certainly going to be more attractive.
When ordering packaging materials and bubble wrap rolls near me, you will need to do this before the date of removal because you need to pack your belongings up before the moving day. It will take too long to do this on the same day of your move, so it is best to prepare this in advance, no matter what day of the week you decide to move.
Solicitors will often only work Monday to Friday, and they are the ones who will do the completion and exchange of contracts. They might not be able to do this for you over a weekend, so this is obviously a very important factor. This will vary from one solicitor to another and the time of the year too, so you’ll need to speak with them individually about that. It will also involve the seller / buyers solicitors in the rest of the chain as well.