Recently, I moved to Milton Keynes (MK) with my wife so I would have less of a commute to where I work at The Mover Magazine.

We chose to do the move without the aid of a removals company on this occasion because we are both reasonably fit, resourceful and strapped for cash.  The distance between our old home (near Luton) and MK wasn’t that big either, so our backs weren’t against the wall when it came down to muscling up and just doing the work ourselves. Why Milton Keynes, you may ask yourself?

 

Before moving up here, I tried to conjure up my idea of Milton Keynes. I rounded up all my memories, prejudices and had a general fact retrieval.  Thinking back, the first appearance of Milton Keynes on my radar was a ‘Little and Large’ sketch on the TV where they pass a skeletal hitchhiker clutching a sign for said destination by the road side. So in short, it was a butt of jokes mainly because nobody wanted to come here. It had a reputation of being a soulless new town, a ghost town clinically designed for London commuters. But that was the 1970s and 1980s. Nowadays the trees are fully grown, the place is teeming with wildlife and there are obvious signs of a thriving community.  Personally, I like the space between the buildings, you can see the sky, breathe the air. You could also walk for miles without having to cross a road or see a car. I actually favour the modern, glass veneers of the buildings along Midsummer Boulevard to the higgledy piggledy unkempt mish-mash of Luton Central.  If you like straight lines and grids MK is for you. It is for me.

 

My shift up here from Bedfordshire was probably the shortest in distance compared to my previous moves. But this move was certainly the biggest (stuff-wise) by a long shot. As far as the actual packing and moving was concerned, my wife, Rose, who is an extremely resourceful person, sourced help and methods like the use of a pulley system (I’ve forgotten the proper name for), lots and lots of packing material (thanks Nikki!) and two strong and willing men, who would work for food (thanks Jon and Graham.)   It took two full trips with a 3.5 tonne van, the largest kind that your average ‘man on the street’ can hire without a HGV license.  The whole move did set me thinking about how the process would have been easier with the help of a professional removals firm. What was preventing us from employing the services of one?

 

Maybe if removal firms were to consider hiring out a porter as opposed to a full service then I could actually make my father-in-law stay at home.  That way we could take the back seat and take our orders from a professional. Our helpers were excellent and ultimately tireless, we were all full of banter and there were no tantrums or tears but that’s the type of bunch we are. We get our back into it with no qualms.  Are we control freaks? I wouldn’t say so, but if we’re capable of doing a job ourselves, we’ll do it.

 

There’s a lot of ‘what-ifs’ in this story and like ‘A Passage to India’ my story is a plot-less wonder. I could sex it up – but we actually did a great job in moving a house full of furniture, a giant library of books, 4,000+ vinyl records, 1,000 DVDs and the world’s heaviest television set. It was all relatively calm with no villains or car chases. To my knowledge the only thing that got wrecked beyond repair was a cardboard box.

 

I would say that it would have been an even better experience if I’d perhaps looked into hiring a professional porter for the day – so that my aging Father-In-Law could have sat this move out (I did ask him to but you can’t fight genetics).  I wonder if removals firms offer this service?

 

I’d also like to know if any insurance companies extend home insurance for when your kit is on the road. For instance, are my precious Public Enemy records insured against an in-transit car/van crash between destinations?   Also, with the limit to the size of truck I can hire without a HGV license meant double the trips between Luton and Milton Keynes. So there was an added time factor. I wonder how much time would have been saved with one lorry and a couple of porters? So thinking forward, there will definitely be a need for a removals professional if we move any serious distances and gain more house clutter.

 

Next time I move house, and I hope it’s some time off yet, we probably will look into seeing how a removal firm can help us. I’d certainly be interested in a service where I could ‘pick-n-mix’ whichever aspects I could make use of whilst both my missus and I are still fit and able. Whilst I’m capable of lifting and moving my stuff, I’ll still want to be involved.

 

Photo: Ed, Rose and Matthew