Tuesday 25 March 2014

Why Hiring a Removal Company in London is a Great Idea

Moving can be a stressful process. The planning, organization, and manpower required to pull off a successful move can often be too much for one person to handle on their own. While the paperwork and planning of uplifting your life or business can already be a logistical nightmare, the physical process of changing locations is the last thing that people want to deal with when they already have so many things on their plate. The solution to this problem is simple; hire a removal company, the fast, economical, and care-free way to uplift your life and put it back together in a new local. In London, this advice is paramount, as crowded quarters and narrow streets only exacerbate the problem at hand. A professional removal company can make you life much easier.    

Advantages of a Removal Company in London


There are many advantages of hiring a removals company to assist your family or business when moving. Whether you are moving to the beautiful city of London from another city in Europe, or you are moving to another town from London, a removal company is a fantastic asset to have. The following list outlines only a few of the many advantages of hiring professionals to assist in your move.

1. All-inclusive service leaves you time and energy to manage the logistics of settling into your new home or office.

2. Professionals have the experience and knowledge to provide a service that takes much less time than if you were to do it yourself - cutting transit time down substantially. 

3. Removals services can be scheduled for arrival and departure at your convenience, allowing you to plan your move around your work and social schedules.

4. Heavy and expensive furniture and household items can receive the specialty service and attention they require.

5. Professionally packed items are less likely to be damaged in transit.


Speed Removals - London's Premium Removals Company


Speed Removals is a family-run home removals company based in London that is at the top of their class when it comes to service and price. With years of experience in removals across Europe, Speed Removals provides the best quality service, whether you require you furniture removed for one day for renovations, or your entire collection of belongings moved to France, Italy, Spain, or The Netherlands. With services such as last minute man and van service, end of term tenancy removals, or simple waste removal, Speed Removals is your best choice!

For more information, visit Speed Removals' website at www.speed-removals.com.



Saturday 22 March 2014

Removal checklist for a European removal

If you are preparing to move to another European country, this handy removal checklist will help ensure you have taken all the crucial steps you need to make your European removal as stress-free as possible.

Preliminary checks for a European removal


1 – Make sure the country you are moving to will allow you to reside and work there. Most European countries (in accordance with Directive Directive 2004/38/EC) will allow you to move freely without a Visa. In most cases, you will not need one, but it is always best to check.



2 – If you have bought a house, you may be in the process of completion, so make as sure as possible that there are no issues that could prevent or delay this. Likewise, if you have arranged to rent a property, to keep in touch with the landlord to ensure you can still move in when you get there.




3 – Make sure that your passport is up to date (has three months or more remaining at your removal date) and is close to hand.




4 – Ensure you have informed your bank, utilities companies, council, and any other service providers of your intended move date and your new address.




5 – It may be helpful to learn and practice some essential foreign phrases to help you communicate in your new country.




6 – If you are bringing a pet(s), ensure you have an official EU Pet Passport for each pet.




Removal checklist for your move



1 – For any move, you will need to ensure that anything which needs to be taken is boxed up and is ready to go. Anything you use regularly, have boxes ready to put them in.



2 – You may have received final bills from your utility providers and other service providers. Ensure that these are paid up and not outstanding. Some services may be automatically disconnected on your move date, others e.g. gas may have to be turned off at the source.




3 – If you rent, arrange for your landlord a time to collect the keys, or if you are selling your existing property, the estate agent or buyers.




4 – The day of the move will be a very busy day. Have a bag(s) ready for anything you need to keep close at hand, everything else should be boxed or disassembled, ready to take, to make the job of loading the van/lorry as easy as possible.




5 – Ensure you have enough spare cash (Sterling and Euros) with you in case you need it, for example, food, charges or emergency accommodation.

The best service for your European removal


Speed Removals can offer you a competitive quote to help you get going wherever you need to go, with rates from £40 per hour for a Transit van, to £130 per hour for a 7.5 ton truck, depending on how much you need to move. Speed Removals help people and businesses move within the UK and Europe, effectively and efficiently. For a quote, call us on 0208 893 6102 (out of hours on 0203 589 6261), or simply click on the Online Quote button at the top of the page.


You may also find it useful to print off this removal checklist and keep this in a safe place.

Monday 17 March 2014

The Importance of Proper Packing when Moving House

In the run up to the day of moving house there a number of tasks that need to be completed to make sure it runs smoothly. An important job is packing your belongings and taking the time to do this properly is common sense.



Before Starting Packing


Before starting the job it is sensible to go through all your belongings. This provides the chance to clear out unwanted items and reduce the amount that needs to be packed. Once this is completed you should be able to make an estimate of the amount of moving material required to store all the items you will take to your new home. 

Removal Materials


There are a variety of materials required for packaging your belongings. This includes boxes and it is best to get these in a variety of sizes to suit smaller to larger sized items. Fragile items should be protected and this can be done by filling a box with foam beads or by wrapping them individually in bubble wrap. Furniture pads are useful to provide protection for larger items and other moving materials to consider include tape, self seal bags, and heavy duty plastic bags.

Where to get Removal Materials


It is possible to get the removal materials needed to pack belongings from a variety of places. There are companies that specialize in selling moving materials and you can also look in office supply retailers. It can also be worth asking your removal company as they may have moving materials available you can use. 

Benefits of Proper Packing


The obvious benefit of properly packaging your belongings for moving house is that is greatly reduces the risk of damage to items. If they are securely wrapped and boxed it makes it much less likely they will suffer breakages during loading and transportation. Properly packed belongings can also be separated into essential and non-essential items such that as soon as you move in to your new home it is easier to unpack the possessions you really need first.

Using a Removal Company


It is sensible to hire a removal company to carry out the job of transporting your belongings when moving house. They have staff with the experience to move furniture, heavy boxes, and other items with the care and precision needed to avoid damage to the items themselves, as well as the doors and walls of a property. They can also provide the vehicles and equipment to easily load and transport your possessions to minimise the chances of damage.

Moving house can be a stressful experience for anyone. However, packing your belongings in a professional manner should help to reduce this so that everything makes it safely to your new home.

Tuesday 11 March 2014

Furniture Removals on Time and on Budget

Are you moving into a new home? If so, you're going to be up for some stress and elbow grease as you:


  • Organise packing containers and materials
  • Physically pack up items that are going to move with you
  • Sell, give away or throw away items no longer required
  • Organise the removal and delivery of your possessions to the new address, and
  • Unpack and move your belongings into place after delivery.


Unless you've got a mate with a truck and a couple of physically strong friends, you're probably going to need some help moving your personal items, household goods and furniture to your new accommodation. And if your budget is restricted, then you'll also be looking for a cost-effective solution.


Planning the Furniture Removals Process


The first thing to do is set a date for moving day and then work backwards to set the key tasks you have to get done. You will need to:


  • Put together a list of large heavy furniture items that may require special care – e.g. pool tables, pianos, heavy sideboards and buffets
  • List valuable items for insurance purposes (e.g. jewellery and antique items)
  • Research and book a removalist in advance
  • Make sure your insurance is up to date and your possessions adequately covered, and
  • Make sure your furniture removals company is properly licensed and insured.


When you discuss these arrangements with your removalist you should get straight answers on any issues, costs and get the feeling they are knowledgeable and trustworthy.


Sorting and Decluttering


Smart people know that the art of packing goes hand in hand withthe art of decluttering. Be ruthless as you sort through articles. If you haven't used them in some time, or have forgotten they even existed, it's time to think about getting rid of them. Reducing the number of movables will not only save on packing and removing costs, you might even make a little money by selling some pieces.


Before the big move, you may want to pack some personal, intimate or sentimental items separately, and then leave the rest to your removalist. If you need boxes and packaging materials delivered to your home beforehand, a good removalist will do this for you.


Speed Removals – Professional Moving Service


If you're looking for a furniture removals operator with highly competitive pricing, a complete service range, and ability to respond at short notice for all your moving needs, than it's hard to go past a reliable family run business like Speed Removals. You get full pick-up and delivery service; furniture placed where you want; plus packing and unpacking of any items you want. Specialising in Man and a Van services at short notice, Speed Removals will get you moved on time and on budget.


Tuesday 4 March 2014

Managed Waste Disposal and Sustainable Removal

Managed Waste Disposal 




In this day and age we are slowly moving away from the throw away excesses of previous decades; which saw huge amounts of perfectly reusable materials being dumped into landfill sites, and instead, a more careful and considerate approach to the removal of our unwanted items by managed waste disposal. There is now a concerted effort in society to move towards sustainable waste management, whereby we look at what we no longer have a use for ourselves, and try to ensure that it has another life in a different environment. The principles of this practice of managed waste disposal are to ‘reduce, re-use and recycle.

We now no longer look at our World as a place full of riches, there for us to exploit, instead we are coming to the realization that our resources are limited and need to be managed carefully. Already there are certain rare elements that are used in our everyday technology, such as smart phones, that only have reserves of a few years left if we continue to use them up at our current rate. Rarity is pushing prices up to a level which is making the recovery of these elements from un-repairable equipment financially viable. 



Sustainable Waste Removal





One area of sustainable waste removal that is rapidly growing centres on house and office moves. These can generate a large amount of what we used to call waste, which would normally have gone into a skip, and then landfill. The most obvious are large pieces of furniture that are either tired or out of date, pieces of electrical equipment that are no longer used or not fully functional, and all the other bits and pieces that are simply not worth the effort of packing and un-wrapping at the other end. There are now removal companies that will take these off our hands and ensure that they end up where they will prove most useful in.

The possible recipients for your unwanted items are numerous; charities are very grateful for items we can no longer find a use for, domestic furniture can be given to young people setting up their first home after leaving foster care, industrial chairs and tables can find a second use in other projects. Small electrical equipment can either be repaired and shipped abroad to the third world or recycled for its component materials, clothing is either sold on or recycled for its fibres, and in a sustainable world almost everything has a re-use if we can find someone to get it from A to B.