From West Sussex to Perthshire: 17 Days in Store, Then North
A house has to be emptied on the day that was agreed.
A house four hundred miles away is ready when it is ready. This move sat in the gap between those two facts for seventeen days, and then went north in one load with a second household added to it on the way.
What This Job Actually Was
Why the Load Went Into Store First
Our client was leaving Yapton, in West Sussex, for a cottage in Perthshire. The completion on the new place had not happened when the old one had to be cleared, which is an ordinary situation and a difficult one to solve over that distance.
Over a few miles you can absorb it. A lorry waits, or it comes back tomorrow. Four hundred miles from base, waiting is not a delay, it is a vehicle, three people, hotel rooms and driver hours all standing still. So the two ends of the move were separated deliberately: empty the house on the agreed day, put everything somewhere safe, and drive north later on a date chosen because it worked.
On 17 July a three-person crew emptied the house and the load went into our West Sussex store. It stayed there until 3 August. On this move the seventeen days in store were not charged — only the handling out of the lorry and back into it, which is the part that is genuinely work.
Delivery day. On a single-storey cottage with a gravel approach, where the lorry stops decides how far every item has to be carried.
Out of Store and Back Onto the Lorry
This was booked as a pre-packed job. Our client packed her own cartons, which is a sound way to do it on a move this size as long as the packing is genuinely finished before anyone arrives. It was.
What our crew did was everything that is not a carton: wrapping the furniture, and the protection people never picture until they see it going down — floor and carpet protection through the house, quilted covers over the sofas, mattress protection on the beds. Wardrobe cartons went in so hanging clothes travelled on the rail.
That mattered more here than on a local job. Because of the storage leg, every item was handled four times rather than two: into the lorry, into the store, back onto the lorry, into the house. Wrapping that only has to survive one lift is not the same as wrapping that has to survive four and several hundred miles of motorway.
Adding a Second Collection on the Way North
There was furniture to inherit from a family home in Worcestershire, and it was going to the same cottage. The lorry stopped there on 4 August, the day after it came out of store.
West Sussex to Perthshire,
by way of Worcestershire
One household, two collections, seventeen days in store between them — and a single load placed room by room at the far end.
17 July — 6 August
Itinerary
-
Yapton, West Sussex
17 July
Packed cartons collected, furniture wrapped, load into store.
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Our store, Ashington
17 days
The new house was not ready, so the load waited here.
Sussex to Worcestershire · 119 miles
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Worcestershire, en route
4 August
Second collection — inherited furniture joined the load.
Worcestershire to Perthshire · 300 miles
-
Perthshire
5–6 August
Delivered and placed, room by room.
Return leg, Perthshire back to Sussex · 408 miles
5
Working days
17
Days in store
2
Collections
827
Miles, straight line
0
Items damaged
Collecting it on the way sounds like the obvious answer and is the harder one. The lorry left Sussex already loaded and strapped for a long drive, with the weight placed deliberately. You cannot open the back at the halfway point and push more in. Space has to be left in the right part of the load before setting off, and the new items have to be wrapped and secured to the same standard as everything that has already travelled.
The alternative was a separate journey to Worcestershire on another day. On this geography that is an extra vehicle and two more days for the client. Designing it into the route instead is the reason the whole thing fitted into five working days.
The second collection going aboard. Anything joining a load mid-journey has to be stowed to the standard of the items already on it.
Placing It Room by Room
Unloading in Perthshire ran across two days, 5 and 6 August. Two days for one delivery sounds generous until you count what was aboard: a full house from West Sussex plus a second household of inherited furniture, and all of it being placed rather than put down.
Placing is the slow part and the whole point. It means the crew work from where things need to end up rather than from whatever comes off the lorry next, beds are built, and furniture is set where it is going to live. It costs time on the day and saves considerably more for the person who then has to live there.
The cottage shaped it too. Single storey, stone, with a gravel approach and lawn on three sides, so the lorry had to be set where the ramp landed on something hard, close enough to keep the carry short, and still able to get out afterwards.
Positioning is most of the work on a rural delivery. Get it wrong and every item gets carried further, all day.
The Outcome
Everything was delivered and placed. Nothing was damaged, at either end or in between, and our client was very happy with it.
The crew started for home after the last item was placed on 6 August and were back at base in West Sussex on the 7th.
Three of those five nights were spent in hotels — not a detail firms usually publish, but a real part of what a move of this shape involves. Wolves Removals
What This Job Cost
We do not normally publish figures, because a removals price means nothing detached from its scope. This one is worth showing because the scope is the interesting part.
Emptying a house in West Sussex, wrapping and protecting the furniture, seventeen days in our store, taking the load back out and reloading it, a second collection in Worcestershire, the drive to Perthshire, two days of delivering and placing, hotel nights for the crew and the run back to Sussex came to £8,090.40 including VAT.
That is what this job was, not a rate. A different house, a different distance or a different amount of time in store produces a different number, which is why our pricing page deals in scope rather than headline figures, and why anything like this starts with a quote.
Our containerised storage is what makes the waiting part possible, house removals covers the ordinary version of this, and moving a long way from Sussex explains what changes once a move stops being a day trip. At the Sussex end, our Barnham removals page covers the area this one started in, and about us covers who we are.
The Wolves Removals Team
Family-run removals · Ashington, West Sussex
We have moved families and businesses across West and East Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Kent since 2016, from our Ashington base. We are fully insured, Checkatrade-verified and a LAPADA Approved Service Provider for antiques and fine art. More about us, or read our reviews.
From West Sussex to Perthshire: 17 Days in Store, Then North — FAQs
The move is split in two. The old house is emptied on the agreed date and the load goes into store, then it travels on a date chosen because it suits both ends. On this job that gap ran to seventeen days.
Yes, and it is usually easier on both time and money than a separate journey, but it has to be planned before the lorry is loaded. Space is left in the right part of the load so the second collection can be stowed and strapped properly rather than pushed in on top.
We do. A pre-packed move means you have filled and sealed the boxes; it does not mean wrapping the furniture. Our crew fit the protection on site — floor and carpet protection through the house, quilted covers on sofas and mattress protection on beds.
Wherever the volume allows, yes. One vehicle means one set of driver hours and one crew, and it keeps the whole household together instead of splitting it across two journeys made weeks apart.
That the crew work from where things need to end up rather than from whatever comes off the lorry next. Beds are built and furniture is set down where it is going to live, so you are not shifting heavy items yourself once the lorry has gone.
Because the distance turns each stage into its own day. Day one was the reload at our store. Day two was the drive north with the second collection in Worcestershire on the way, finishing at a hotel. Day three reached Perthshire and started unloading. Day four finished the delivery and began the return. Day five was the run back to Sussex. Those five days sat either side of seventeen days in store, so the whole job ran from 17 July to 7 August.
