Service
Packing and storage
Two services that solve the two most common problems in a move: not enough time before, and nowhere to put things in between.
Packing
Almost everyone underestimates packing. It is not the heavy work — it is the slow, relentless, three-evenings-a-week work that has to happen alongside everything else a move demands.
You can take as much or as little of it as you want:
- Full pack — we pack the entire house, usually the day before. You carry on living normally until then.
- Fragile only — we do the kitchen, the glass, the pictures and the ornaments; you do the clothes, the books and the obvious things.
- Materials only — we supply proper cartons and paper and you do the lot.
Whichever you choose, everything is labelled by room against the plan for the new house. It takes a few extra seconds per box and it is the difference between unpacking a house and excavating one.
Unpacking
Less commonly asked for and often more valuable. We unpack into cupboards and rooms and take every empty carton away with us. The alternative is a fortnight of stepping round flattened cardboard in the hall.
Storage
Most storage bookings start with the same sentence: the sale and the purchase have not lined up. It is one of the most common things that happens in a chain and it is entirely normal.
Goods go into sealed containers with a written inventory, into clean dry storage, and come back out when you are ready. Because it is containerised rather than a unit you walk into, your things are handled once at each end rather than repeatedly shuffled.
When storage is the right answer
- A sale completing before the purchase, with a gap in the middle.
- A renovation, where the house needs emptying before the work starts.
- A relocation to the Science Vale, where a start date arrives before the rental is found. See removals in Didcot.
- A student vacation, covered on the student moves page.
- Downsizing, where some things are going to family later rather than now.
What does not go into storage
Nothing hazardous, nothing perishable, and nothing living. Plants do not survive it and food attracts exactly what you would expect. We will tell you at the survey what is better sold, given away, or kept with you.
Materials
Purpose-made, not whatever the supermarket had
Supermarket boxes are free, uneven, already weakened and impossible to stack safely in a vehicle. Proper cartons are uniform, they stack, and they survive being loaded twice.
-
Wardrobe cartons
Hanging rail inside. Clothes go straight across without being folded, creased or bagged.
-
Picture and mirror cases
Adjustable, corner-protected. Frames and glass do not travel flat in a box of books.
-
China and glass cartons
Double-walled, with cell dividers. Plates travel on edge, not stacked.
-
Book boxes
Deliberately small. A big box of books is a box nobody can lift safely.
-
Mattress and sofa covers
Sealed against dust and damp, particularly for anything going into storage.
-
Tape, paper and bubble
Supplied if you are packing yourself. Newspaper marks china — we supply clean packing paper instead.
Next step
Need packing, storage, or both?
Tell us how much time you have and whether there is a gap between moving out and moving in. We will put together what actually helps rather than selling you the full package by default.