MOVING house is well-known to be one of the most stressful life events, but now new research has quantified the amount of effort involved.
The average house move day will see 32 boxes carried, 9,440 steps walked, a total of 466kg of weight lifted – and five cups of tea drunk.
According to a poll of 1,000 adults who have moved house in the past ten years, 34% think the official day of moving is the toughest, because of the the amount of lifting and steps that are required.
As many as 19 flights of stairs will be climbed, with five caffeine breaks, and four items dropped on that day alone.
On average it takes eight days to recover from a house move.
The research was commissioned by Domino’s, which is trialling a home removal service on Friday, August 30 – the most popular day for moving house in the UK.
The study also found that takeaway pizza is a common first meal to eat after having just moved house.
A spokesperson for Domino’s said: “August is the month for home movers and the effort which goes into moving house can be underestimated.
“It’s no surprise pizza has been voted the go-to meal option after a day of physical activity.
“We know a thing or two about deliveries, which is why we’re taking the stress out of moving.”
Out of those polled, nearly four in ten, or 38%, said they would struggle to move house if they needed to do it solo.
Meanwhile, 62% preferred to use a removal company, and looked out for a good price, professionalism and friendly service.
For 33% of people, the first meal eaten after the moving process is typically eaten on the floor, surrounded by boxes.
The research carried out via OnePoll, found that 30% actively dread the moving process.
And average movers will lock themselves out of their old – or new – place five times during the process.
Additionally, as many as four items of furniture brought from the old home will frustratingly be found not to fit in the new one.
But there are ways to make the whole process a little less taxing, as well as saving money.
For example, don’t bin used cardboard packing boxes.
Flat-pack them, make up a bundle and put this on an auction site or online market-place. You could make £15 or more, depending on number of boxes.
If you’re about to move, these are also good places to buy boxes, as kits are around £25 on Amazon.
Connecting utilities is a priority when moving but it can be easily forgotten about.
Use quidco.com or topcashback.co.uk if switching phone, broadband or energy suppliers, and get great cashback deals.
If you use Quidco’s energy price comparison tool, you will make up to £40 just for comparison.
You’ll need to clean up your home before you leave, so try poundshop.com or easho.com for great bulk buys.
If you have to use your car to move your clobber, work out how much petrol it will cost going back and forth, at rac.co.uk/route-planner/mileage-calculator and use petrolprices.com so you fill up cheaply.
A useful site for van hire is comparethemanandvan.co.uk — and there is the option to add extra help.
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