Where things go
The new place
With you, to the smaller house
The part everybody thinks the whole job is. It is usually the smallest of the four, and it is the one that goes best if the measuring happened before the deciding.
What it actually involves
Far less than you expect, and much less than will fit in the van. The common pattern is a household that comfortably filled a large house arriving at a property with perhaps half the floor area and a third of the storage.
Measuring is the whole trick, and it has to happen before the deciding rather than after. Not the rooms — the walls. A wall that will take a particular sideboard is a fact; a room that "should be fine" is a hope.
Built-in storage is what you actually lose. Lofts, cellars, garages, airing cupboards and the run of fitted wardrobes in a 1930s house are rarely replicated in anything newer or smaller, and they are where most of the volume was hiding.
Some things should go first and be placed properly rather than arriving with everything else. A chair somebody actually sits in, a bed made up, a kettle. The first evening in a smaller place is better if it is not spent in a maze of boxes.
What we do
Measure the new property properly — walls, doorways, turns and what is already built in
Tell you plainly which pieces will not go, while there is still time to decide about them
Deliver in the order the new place needs rather than the order the van was loaded
Place furniture where you can actually use it, and put the beds up before we leave
The hard part
Accepting the measurements. Almost everybody has one piece they are determined will fit, and it is worth finding out in a tape measure rather than in a stairwell.
Get in touch
Start whenever you are ready
Including if that is a long way off. We will come and look, talk it through, write it down and then leave you alone until you get in touch again. There is no obligation and we will not chase you.