[Mels]

I'm just trying to distract myself from the waiting, still, and again, and was wondering -

when the packers arrive do they take the bed last. Ours said they would take a couple of days so could we stay overnight till the last moment the container is packed?

What do you do with food in the cupboard. I guess I will give it to friends and neighbours and some sealed processed food we may see if we can take.

The logistics are phaseing me out slightly especially as we don't even know if we are selling or renting yet or where we will stay 'till we fly out. eeeekkkk

Ohhh I need to win the lottery and pay to have 'people that do this stuff' for me :roll

Mels

[nippa&pippa]

It is down to you to tell them that you want bed to be last thing to pack after all you pay for shipping. We chose beds to packed but leave mattress on thr floor for us to sleep overnight before we sleep on campbeds borrow from family for few days before move into mum's. I packed sealed foods into boxes and opened foods to mum and friends.

[mgbridges]

Fortunately for me DS was with Grandparents and OH was already in NZ when packers came. The first night I stayed in the house (in our bed) surrounded by boxes but I then spent two nights in a hotel coming back to the house in the morning to open up for the packers!

The packers were more than happy to leave the bed until last but to be honest being in the hotel was bliss! I could have stayed with friends but I actually found it was wonderful to have some quiet private time by myself not to mention a huge bubble bath. I went out for dinner with friends so I didn't have to dine alone in the hotel.

Tips - if you are leaving stuff in the house that is going with you on the plane make sure ALL the packers know not to touch it or but HUGE labels on it all. In the kitchen I put labels on the cupboards with food in them saying 'Do NOT Pack' then gave all of it away to family.

Good luck with the logistics.
Anneliese

[Familyofmonkeys]

Our packers took 2 days and we spent the middle night all crammed into our mattress on floor (all 5 of us) as rest of house was piled high with boxes and not safe for unsupervised kids. We then spent 3 nights camping at friends house (as relatives wouldn't put us up :()...in the end they even kipped on their sofas so me and 2 kids got their bed and OH and middle child got to share tiny sofa bed in spare room. Was probably more comfortable to nap on the plane than crammed into beds with so many wriggly children :laugh

[marcia]

They will leave your mattress till the last day if you ask them. :)

Good idea to put the stuff you don't want them to pack into one small room and simply shut the door and stick a do not enter sign on it.

I sorted out our kitchen cupboards and left one cupboard with the stuf we weren't taking and again just stuck a sign on it.

Make sure any food stuff or alchol you are taking goes into one box and is labelled with food stuff so MAf can inspect it, I had to get the packers to reopen the boxes as they had just labelled them all 'kitchenware', would have cost a fortune for MAF to inspect every box to find the one they wanted!

Good luck.