One move, five stages

Nothing else works if this stage is guessed. We walk the property — in person for a bigger or awkward job, over video if you’re pressed for time — and count the actual volume: rooms, wardrobes, the garage nobody mentions, the loft that’s fuller than anyone admits. We check floors, lift or stairs, and the parking, because those three decide how the day runs more than the box count does.

You come away with a written scope: what we’re moving, what we’re packing, what’s included, and the handful of things that would change the figure if they changed. If the survey turns up something that makes the job cheaper to do a different way, we’ll say so.

Some people want the whole house boxed and off their hands. Others pack their own everyday things and just want us to deal with the china, the mirrors, the artwork and the flat-pack that shouldn’t really be moved assembled. Both are normal, and the quote follows whichever line you draw.

When we pack, we label by room and keep an inventory as we go, so the unpacking end isn’t a treasure hunt. Fragile and high-value items get wrapped properly and listed separately. If you’re packing yourself, we’ll drop materials ahead of time and tell you which items are worth leaving to us.

Loading is where care shows. Furniture gets blankets and straps, not a hopeful shove. Doorways, banisters and floors get protected on the way out — particularly on the terraced streets and upper-floor flats where there’s no margin for a scuffed wall. Everything is checked against the inventory as it goes on.

We load in the order it needs to come off. On a local move that’s a small thing; on a European load where the van might be shared or part-loaded, the sequence is planned around what comes off first at the far end. Either way, nothing is stacked by luck.

For a Medway move, transit is a short, direct run to the new address. For a European one, this is the stage that earns its keep. We plan the route off the M2 to the Channel — the Dover ferry or the Eurotunnel shuttle from Folkestone — and on to the destination’s motorways.

Since the UK left the EU there’s customs paperwork on both sides: an inventory, a transit declaration for the goods crossing the EU, and the transfer-of-residence forms where they apply. We prepare it with you and handle the lodging. Rather than promise an arrival day we can’t guarantee, your quote gives an estimated window and we keep you posted as the load moves.

A move isn’t finished when the van is empty. We place things in the rooms they belong in, reassemble what we took apart, and take the packing materials away if you want them gone. The inventory gets checked off so you know everything that left the old place arrived at the new one.

If your dates don’t line up — a completion that slips, a gap between homes — we can hold your things in storage and deliver when you’re ready. That’s a normal part of a lot of Medway chains, so flag it early and we’ll build the bridge into the plan rather than scrambling for it later.