Before anything is packed
Three destinations, decided in writing
Every assignment move divides three ways, and doing the dividing at the property rather than in a van is most of what makes the difference between a calm day and a long one. We do it with you at the survey, in writing, so nobody is making decisions with a crew standing in the hall.
The three piles
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On the van, or in the shipment
Comes with you
What you will actually need where you are going, packed to the standard that journey requires. If it is crossing a border that means export wrapping and a real inventory, and those cannot be retrofitted once a van is loaded.
We handle this
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Sealed here, under one inventory
Goes into store
Things you want but cannot take, or should not pay to move twice. Sealed once, listed once, and delivered when there is somewhere to deliver them to — not unpacked and repacked in between.
We handle this
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Sold, given away or cleared
Goes nowhere
The category everybody under-estimates. It is cheaper to decide about a thing than to move it, and far cheaper than to move it, store it and then decide about it anyway.
You decide this
Why at the survey
Because the alternative is deciding with a crew in the hall
The split is not difficult. It is just decision-heavy, and decisions are the one thing nobody has spare on a moving day — particularly at the end of an assignment, which is rarely a quiet week for anybody involved.
Done at the survey it takes an unhurried hour and produces a written list. Done on the day it takes longer, produces worse answers, and happens while people who are being paid to carry things stand and wait.
It also changes the quote, which is the honest reason we do it before rather than after: we would rather price the job you are actually having.
What comes with the split
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The three-way split done at survey
Going, storing and going nowhere, agreed in writing before anything is packed. It is the single most useful hour of an assignment move.
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One inventory across the whole term
So the return leg is a reconciliation rather than a rediscovery, and so nothing is quietly still in store two postings later.
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Export-standard packing where it is needed
For anything crossing a border, with a manifest you can actually use at the other end. Quoted explicitly rather than assumed.
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Condition photographs at both ends
Standard everywhere, and more useful than usual here because so much of the stock is let, inventoried and deposited against.
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Storage that stays sealed
Listed once and left alone. Held for as long as the next posting takes to become real.
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Handover-ready clearance
The property left clear and swept, with disposal paperwork, so the end of the assignment is not also the start of an argument.
The split is the first step of every Northwood removals job we take on, whether the house is on Frithwood Avenue or a flat above Green Lane. See moving house in Northwood for the access side.
Get a quote
Tell us how long you are here for
A short attachment, a full posting, indefinitely, or not at all any more. That one answer gets us further than a room count does, and it is the first thing we will ask.