There are any number of reasons why you might need to move house in a hurry. Perhaps you’ve finally found a buyer for your home but they want to move in quickly or they’ll look elsewhere. Maybe you need to move to another (better) school catchment area but have to do so before a deadline so that your child will be offered a place at that school. Or it could be that, as a tenant, you’ve been at the mercy of a landlord who has given you precious little notice to quit (42 days is the legal minimum).

Whatever the reason, if you need to move out of your home in a hurry, you’ll need to pack and organise yourself in a slightly different way than if you were moving at a more leisurely pace.
 

Don’t throw too much away

At first, when you look around your home, the amount of packing to be done can seem daunting. As well as major pieces of furniture, you’ll need to pack all of your clothes, soft furnishings, books, ornaments, children’s toys … the list is endless, and that’s before you’ve even looked in the loft or shed. 

It may seem counterintuitive if you only have a short amount of time to pack, but if you’re moving in a hurry you should take as much stuff with you as you can. Getting rid of items in haste now could lead to greater stress, expense and regret later on, when you’re settled.
 

What will you need?

There’s a good chance that you haven’t had time to work out exactly what you’ll need in your new home - what will fit, what won’t. You might need to move into temporary accommodation, which may be part- or fully-furnished, in which case many of your household items will be duplicated and temporarily unnecessary.

If you had plenty of time to pack, you might well sort through it all and decide what you want to keep, what could be given to charity and what you could throw away. But rather than follow the usual pre-move litany of keep, give or throw away, you should aim to get rid of very little in a hurried house move. You just don’t know what you’ll need a little further down the line.
 

What to do with excess belongings

Instead of getting rid of potentially useful items, be very organised in how you pack up.

Separate your belongings into categories: 
a. things you’ll definitely need to take with you, wherever you end up living (in-season clothing, bedding, pans, crockery and cutlery, basic furniture such as beds, settee and wardrobes if you’re moving somewhere unfurnished); 

b. things you’ll probably need long-term but not in the next few weeks.

Take the former with you; pack the latter into clearly-labelled boxes (you won’t remember what’s in them in a few weeks’ time…) and store them securely with family and friends, or in a self storage unit that you can access at any time. That way, your new home won’t feel overcrowded and you won’t be faced with having to pack everything up again once you’ve found a more permanent home.

Moving house is stressful at the best of times, and having to do it in a rush will be difficult, emotionally and practically. Keeping the bulk of your possessions will give you some peace of mind and help you to feel more at home in your new house. Ultimately, by storing everything that you don’t need in the short- to medium-term, you can be sure that it will all be kept clean, safe and dry until you need it again, and you won’t have permanently deprived yourself of useful belongings.

One final tip: before you leave your old home, be sure to take photographs not only to preserve your memories but also to protect yourself against potential disputes with your landlord or buyers.