The big job in a downsizing move is the house you are leaving. Four or five bedrooms, a loft, a garage and a garden shed hold decades of a family’s life, and much of it will not fit into a two-bedroom flat or a bungalow. That makes downsizing a sequence of decisions rather than simply a smaller move, and the decisions are where the time goes.
This guide is about sorting a family home into three piles before the move: what comes with you, what goes into storage and what leaves for good. For the move itself, see our house removals in Manchester page.
Start with the new home, not the old one
Begin with the house you do not know yet. Get a floor plan of the new place with measurements on it, from the agent or the developer, or spend twenty minutes there with a tape measure.
Then measure the pieces you most want to keep: the sofa, the dining table, the bed, the wardrobe and anything else you would be sad to lose. People part with furniture that would have fitted perfectly well, and keep things that will not go through the door of the new place. Measure the way in as well: a narrow door or a turning staircase decides what can get in, whatever the room size says.
Move, store or clear: a test for each item
With the plan in front of you, every item gets one of three answers.
- Move: it has a place in the new home, and you use it.
- Store: you want to keep it, but there is not a place for it yet, or you cannot decide while the house is still full.
- Clear: it is not coming, so it is sold, given away, passed to the family or taken for disposal.
A useful question is not whether something is worth keeping but whether it is worth moving. Everything that comes with you goes in a van, at a cost, and up another set of stairs.
The rooms that disappear
- The dining room. A large table and its chairs are the first thing to measure against the new plan, and the first to decide about.
- The spare bedrooms. Beds, wardrobes and chests of drawers from children who left years ago. Ask the family what they want before anything else happens to them.
- The loft and the garage. These are the spaces people forget to mention, and the ones that most often change the quote. Our guide to what to do with the loft before you move covers how to sort one and the tip run that follows.
- The garden and the shed. Mowers, tools and garden furniture have nowhere to go in a flat. Mowers and strimmers need draining before they travel, because we cannot carry fuel.
What to put in storage
Storage is for things you have decided to keep but cannot place yet, and for the things you genuinely cannot decide about while the house is still full. Used that way, it separates the move from the decisions. Everything definitely coming goes to the new home, everything definitely leaving is dealt with, and the undecided pile waits.
A month after the move those decisions are far easier, because you can see what fits and what you actually use.
What storage should not become is a loft you pay rent on. If you are weighing up the options, our comparison of self-storage and removal company storage in Manchester sets out the costs, and our guide to how long you can store furniture during a move covers how long a gap between dates can last. For our own service, see storage in Manchester.
What to clear, and who clears it
- Family first. If a relative is collecting the piano or the dining chairs, fix the date. It is easy a fortnight ahead and impossible on the afternoon of the move.
- Charity collections. Book them early, and check what the charity will accept before you promise it a three-piece suite.
- Sales. Keep the list to the few things that are genuinely worth the effort of selling, and list them early.
- Disposal. Clearing waste is work for a registered waste carrier rather than a removals crew, so keep anything for disposal separate from anything for the van.
Some things we cannot carry at all: paint, chemicals, gas cylinders and fuel. Deal with those well before moving week.
Moving part of the load somewhere else
On a downsizing move it is common for part of the load to go to a relative, a storage unit or a second property, as well as to the new home. That is one job, not three, if you tell us at the start. Mention every address when you ask for a quote, so the day is planned rather than improvised.
What this does to the price
Removals is priced mainly on volume. Everything that leaves the house before the survey is volume that is not in the quote, not in the van and not carried up another set of stairs at the far end.
As a guide, our removal costs guide puts a local four-bedroom move in Manchester at £1,100 to £2,000 and a five-bedroom house at £1,600 to £2,800 or more. Clearing before the survey is the one part of the job that lowers the cost of the move itself, so do it first.
Packing, dismantling and the other end
Our packing services cover the whole house, the kitchen and the breakables (the most popular choice), or a room at a time. We can unpack at the far end too, which is particularly useful for older people moving: the boxes are emptied and taken away rather than left stacked in the hall.
Furniture that has to come apart is part of the move rather than an extra. Flat-pack is the least tolerant of being taken apart and rebuilt, which is worth knowing when you decide whether an old flat-pack wardrobe is coming. See furniture dismantling for what we take apart.
After the move: Council Tax
If you will be living alone after the move, check your Council Tax. In England, gov.uk says you will get 25% off your bill if you pay Council Tax and either you live on your own or everyone else in your home is disregarded. You need to apply for the discount, and gov.uk says to contact your local council if you are unsure whether you can get it.
When to book
Four to six weeks is comfortable, and longer for July, August or the end of a month. For a large house, more notice is better, because it lets us put the right crew and vehicles on your date. Start the sorting before you book, so the survey sees the house as it will be on the day.
Getting a quote
Send us both addresses, the size of the house you are leaving, what is coming, what is going into storage and any other address part of the load is going to. Tell us about the loft, the garage and the shed. A written price follows, usually the same working day. Call 0161 768 2056 or contact us.