Case Study Features - 160 mile move
- Major downsizing
- Elderly but able
Grandparents Mary and Matt had enjoyed living in their family home in the west of a large city, knowing they had the perfect solution for downsizing their home without losing their location. In their sixties, they had built in the large grounds of their home, a smaller home to retire to. This home still enjoyed ample gardens for Matt to work on, and because they had the room to build, was still big enough for family generations to stay. It was also big enough for the bulk of family possessions and furniture to be moved in with them. That was fifteen years ago, and now none of the children (and their children) live locally any more, one even lives in the US.
SmarterMoves were commissioned to assist the move, both because of the distance involved and the realisation that they shouldn’t really be taking on such a major task without assistance. SmarterMoves were able to be precise about the transfer process from the existing household to the new address. “When we showed the new property details to Chloe Darker, she waited until we had completely toured our house without saying a word. Then she said calmly, “you’ll have to halve what you have now, to move to the bungalow.” said Mary. “We knew we would have to get rid of some things, but half! That was quite a shock. But she was quite right of course.“
“She encouraged us to have an auction, which they organised, and then they suggested a car boot sale of what was left over. They even organised this for us! This actually got rid of most of what had to go profitably, (we made £80 from the car boot sale!) with the remainder going to Oxfam. “SmarterMoves also arranged for cleaners at both ends. I had had the house done from top to bottom, but once you move everything out….. “They also turned up at the new property in advance. It had been closed for three months, so there was some work to do to prepare it for living in.”
“SmarterMoves were there to meet the vans when they got to the bungalow, so we knew we didn’t have to be there from the start. In the event, I had a puncture when I was within a couple of miles of the house, and when a missing key component meant the punctured tyre couldn’t be replaced, was very late. While it was inconvenient, it wasn’t a worry because everything about the SmarterMoves service had meant that I didn’t really have to be there for the move to continue.” said Mary. “When I finally arrived at the house, everything was already going in the right places and the kitchen drawers and cupboards were furnished. Because we had taken bedding separately, we could have stayed that first night. The removal was always going to be over two days, so we had booked into the local hotel.”
“The service really was first class. We couldn’t have contemplated how much there was to do on our own, and the service really meant that at no point did we ever really have to worry about anything,” said Mary. Matt, who was accused by his wife of leaving packing to the last day, felt that the idea of using SmarterMoves, made the move possible. SmarterMoves had helped organise the reduction of an enormous garden tool collection he owned, amassed over more than one generation. “The moving service we received”, said Matt “meant that house moving was something that we always remained in control of.” |