Eco house move tips

As I may have mentioned, I moved house last year!

I was asked for some tips on making it as eco-friendly as possible.  There's no doubt about it, when you're moving house, there is so much going on and trying to do things as sustainably as possible is probably far, far, from your mind.  But it doesn't have to be a burden.  As with anything, whatever small steps you can do all count for something!

So, my FIVE tips for eco-friendly moving?

1. Let's start in the run up to the move.  Declutter. As I've talked about plenty times before, I decluttered massively before the move.  You can do this yourself, you can get friends and family in to help you, or work with an organiser like Orjenise.  A friend of mine questionned why I was paying someone to help me rather than eg getting my mum to help.  Aside from the fact that my mum and I would not have been able to actually get rid of stuff, the money spent on Jenn helping me declutter saved money on removals!  It makes sense financially not to move too much stuff, but is also better for the environment - fewer items, means fewer/smaller van(s), means less emissions.  

I'd also recommend checking through your cupboards and freezer when you know you will be moving house, then you can use it up in advance rather than getting to the last few days and trying to get through it then, or worse still, having to throw it out. It's easier to use up what you have in your cupboards sooner rather than later, and then just buy bits to top it up rather than it all going to waste because you ran out of time to have it.  

2. Second tip: Don't just throw everything out! Yes, I know, complete contradiction of my first tip but by this, I mean: A lot of people use a house move as an excuse to buy loads of new furniture and houseware.  Yes, it's wonderful to decorate a new house with new stuff, but maybe instead of buying a load of new stuff, you can try different furniture in different rooms, or just see what it looks like when you move and then see what you might wanted in the new house rather than just buying a load of new stuff.  (If, however, you do want to get rid of furniture then there are some good ways to do it, like donating to charity or selling through Facebook marketplace or Gumtree).  We got rid of the sofas we'd had for over 10 years (and had in our first two houses).  We donated them to British Heart Foundation, who came to collect them from us.  In our new living room, we used the sofa bed which had been in one of the other rooms, and a couple of armchairs from the dining room.  It was supposed to be a stop-gap solution but I actually quite like it!

3. The main thing that people think about when moving house: packing boxes.  You can rent boxes from some places, or get them preloved!  We got a load from friends who had moved recently so gave us their boxes (as well as using boxes, both cardboard and plastic, that we already owned).  We got some more from the local freebie group on Facebook.  And then when we were running out on the last day, I contacted some local businesses to see if they had any (from deliveries etc), and got quite a few extra boxes that way!

4. And of course, you want to make sure that whatever is in the boxes is properly protected.  Bubblewrap is a common option and if this is your material of choice, see if you can get it preloved (like with the packing boxes).  Better still, use what you already have, like newspapers, packaging from online orders, towels, bedding or curtains.   

5. And don't forget your resuables for moving day!  Perhaps you want a coffee for the drive, or simply want some water bottles on standby for when you've packed the glasses away.  And think about what food you might want.  Perhaps you could make up sandwiches the day before so that you have something for your lunch.

And a extra tip (admittedly, not one we did) - maybe you could look for a sustainablity focussed removals company or one that uses EVs for the removals, to help lower emissions.  If you can't, then consider fewer trips (see above re less stuff) both in terms of the move itself, and the decluttering eg combine charity/skip runs rather than making loads of separate trips.