Materials only
Cartons, paper, bubble, tape and wardrobe boxes dropped off in advance. You pack; we bring more when you run out, which most people do.
Packing & storage
Packing, and somewhere to wait
Two services that belong together, because the households that need one usually need the other. Packing is what makes a move survivable; storage is what makes a slipped completion survivable.
Four levels, chosen honestly
Most people underestimate packing by roughly half — not through carelessness, but because a kitchen looks like one room and packs like three. Pick the level for the house you actually have.
Fragile packing
The crew packs the kitchen, the glass, the pictures and anything else that would keep you awake. You handle the books, the clothes and the loft.
Full packing
Everything, room by room, usually the day before loading. You are left with documents, jewellery and the cat.
Unpacking
Cartons opened, contents placed on surfaces, packaging taken away. The option people most often wish they had taken, particularly after a long move.
Packing an old house is not packing a new one
A Wealden cottage and a new build outside Ashford want different approaches. Older houses have uneven floors, narrow turns and more pieces that have to come apart, so the packing runs alongside the dismantling. Newer houses are quicker but want care about plasterboard walls and stair spindles that mark if a carton brushes them.
What goes wrong when people pack themselves
- Books in big boxes. A large carton of books cannot be lifted and will fail at the bottom. Books go in small cartons, always.
- Plates stacked flat. Plates travel on edge, wrapped individually. Flat, they break from the middle of the pile outwards.
- Half-full cartons. Air is what collapses a box. Fill the gaps with paper or linen.
- Labels on the top only. Write the room on the top and one side — the top is what ends up face-down.
- Leaving the loft. Always bigger than remembered, always packed last and badly.
Storage, and why Kent needs it
This county sits at the end of long chains — London sellers buying out here, local families moving up, and the whole thing dependent on a solicitor nobody has met. When it slips, the household needs somewhere to go that is not a driveway.
Goods are inventoried as they load, held securely, and redelivered when you say. You get a copy of the inventory. It turns a crisis into a scheduling decision, which is all it ever should have been.
Packing for storage is different
A carton that survives a short journey is not necessarily a carton that should sit sealed for months. Things must be dry going in, clothes are better boxed than left loose in furniture, and anything with a residue — a barbecue, a vacuum, a half-used tin — causes trouble later.
Tell us if a load is going into store and we will pack to that standard, or be specific about what to do differently if you are packing yourself.
What we will not store
Nothing perishable, flammable or corrosive: no fuel, gas bottles, paint, solvents, fireworks, plants or food. Documents, jewellery, cash and irreplaceable papers are better kept with you.
Storage usually arrives attached to a house move, a long-distance job or a move abroad. Describe the whole picture and it gets quoted as one piece of work.
Worth knowing
Packing and storage, in plain terms
What does full packing include?
Materials, labour and labelling. The crew brings cartons, paper, bubble, tape and wardrobe boxes, packs room by room, and marks every carton with the room it belongs to at the far end.
Can we pack some of it ourselves?
Most people do. We will drop materials off beforehand and tell you plainly what tends to go wrong: books in big boxes, plates stacked flat, cartons filled to a weight nobody can lift, and no labels on the sides.
How does storage between completions work?
Goods are inventoried as they load, held securely, and redelivered when you say. You get a copy of the inventory. It turns a failed completion into a scheduling problem rather than a crisis.
Is packing for storage different?
Yes. Things need to be dry going in, clothes are better boxed than left loose in furniture, and anything with a residue on it causes trouble months later. Say if a load is going into store and we will pack to that standard.
What will you not store?
Nothing perishable, flammable or corrosive — no fuel, gas bottles, paint, solvents, plants or food. Documents, jewellery and irreplaceable papers are better kept with you.
If the chain looks shaky, say so early.
Storage arranged in advance is a line on a quote. Storage arranged on the morning of a failed completion is a scramble for everyone.