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First of all – best wishes from everyone at MVL on your exciting move across the channel. Whether you’re moving home, relocating your business, or starting the first adventure in your well-deserved retirement, new horizons abound. However, before you get there, you naturally need to organise everything (literally!) for the move. Here are our top tips to get started:

Declutter, donate, and recycle

Before you box anything up, work out what you can live without. If your garage, attic or storage cupboards are full of things you haven’t needed in a long time, then organise them into things you can throw away, items you could recycle, and others that may be donated to charity.

Repeat the process throughout the property, and you’ll be left with only the items you know you need to take with you when you move. In your spare time, double, triple check that all your passports are up to date, travel arrangements are sorted, and apply for a European Health Insurance Card.

Redirect your life to pastures new

Check through your telephone contacts, emails, standing orders and direct debits and spend some time contacting everyone who needs to know you’re moving. The sooner you do this, the less likely you are to be left with unexpected ‘final’ bills from the likes of your utilities and broadband providers.

However, back in the property, decide which appliances need to be moved with you. If you already have a well-furnished kitchen or living room in your European property, you could advertise certain items in your house for sale – and subsequently cut down on your removal costs at the same time.

Pack like you’re going on holiday

For the first leg of your journey, pack the essentials that you’d need were you spending just a short time at your new European destination. Naturally, this will include cash, paperwork and passports, but also toiletries for a few days, and as many changes of clothes as you need.

Once you’ve done this, you’ll only be left to pack the wardrobe items that will be moved by your European removal company. These can all be packed in boxes and clearly labelled – even before your removers arrive at your property.

Finally, before you leave, check every cupboard, nook and cranny for anything that’s in danger of being left behind. MVL can take care of international shipping to a location of your choice, leaving you with the simple task of greeting your property in Europe when it arrives.

Let’s face it, even the most minimalist, open-plan office in the whole of Silicon Valley would be a challenge to move. With networks of wires, and individual workstation setups aplenty in any office environment, the amount of planning that goes into each and every move is absolutely crucial. Here are some simple tips, from us to you, to take a little stress out of your next office move.

Get the right packing supplies

If office moves were as simple as boxing everything up and moving them on, we wouldn’t be writing this post! In the unlikely event you’ve kept every box and packing material that every item you own arrived with, you’ll need a host of robust boxes, bubble wrap, soft removal blankets, packing tape, clear zip-locked bags – and a whole lot of pens!

Label literally everything, either by department, person, or whatever criteria will make sense to you when you move in elsewhere. A number system can also be useful for prioritising items, so maybe assign the staff member with the best project management portfolio the task of sorting your essentials.

Be careful with computers and cables

To reduce the chance of damage to your electrical equipment, pack cables and computers separately (labelling everything, as above). Also be sure to check warning labels and instructions on the safe removal of equipment, as you could be at risk of invalidating the warranty on certain products, including large printers and computers.

Ensure that you know which cables will be needed for specific computers and workstations later, and always ensure that computers and monitors are secure in transit. Avoid placing them in boxes, where they will be susceptible to moving freely around, and apply protective blankets and bubble wrap wherever possible.

Be prepared for the worst scenario

Before you unplug any computer or laptop for the move, be sure to back up the data and information that makes your business tick. While cloud storage allows you consistent access to any files you hold online, everything else needs to be saved on an external device before you do anything else.

This way, in the unfortunate event that a computer is damaged during the removal, you won’t lose any essential data or files you need to carry on running your office later. And the reason we strongly advise this last point is because we can’t help you recover your data – for every other aspect of your removal, however, MVL have got you covered.