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. Wolves Removals held this move in the gap between those two facts for seventeen days, then took it north in one load with a second household added 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
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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
Wolves Removals does not normally publish figures, because a 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. This is one job’s figure, not a price list: what it costs depends on the volume moved, the distance travelled, access at both ends, how much needs packing, and any dismantling or reassembly involved.
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
Wolves Removals splits the move into two stages: the old house is emptied and cleared on the date already agreed, and the load goes into storage until the new property is ready to receive it. On a house move from Yapton in West Sussex to a cottage in Perthshire, the West Sussex house was emptied on 17 July and the load went into Wolves Removals’ own store at Ashington. It stayed there for seventeen days while completion on the Perthshire cottage was finalised, then came back out of store on 3 August for the drive north. Only the handling out of the lorry and back into it was charged for the storage period, not the seventeen days themselves. This approach avoids the alternative, which is a lorry, driver and crew standing idle hundreds of miles from base while a house sale or purchase settles. The load was later delivered and placed room by room in Perthshire on 5 and 6 August, with nothing damaged.
Yes. On a house move from West Sussex to Perthshire, Wolves Removals collected a second household of inherited furniture from Worcestershire on 4 August, the day after the main load came out of storage, and carried it the rest of the way north on the same lorry. Doing this well means planning it before the first load is even strapped down: space has to be left in the right part of the lorry so the second collection can be added without disturbing what is already secured, and the new items have to be wrapped and stowed to the same standard as everything already on board. The alternative on this geography would have been a separate return journey to Worcestershire on another day, which meant an extra vehicle and two more days added to the schedule. Building the second collection into the route instead is what kept the whole move, storage and both collections included, inside five working days.
Wolves Removals’ crew wrap the furniture, even on a pre-packed move where the client has filled and sealed their own cartons. Packing your own boxes covers only the cartons; it does not cover protecting the furniture itself, which is a separate job done on site by the crew. On a house move from West Sussex to Perthshire that included seventeen days in storage, this meant floor and carpet protection was laid through the house, quilted covers were fitted over the sofas, and mattress protection went onto the beds, with wardrobe cartons used so hanging clothes could travel on the rail rather than being folded into boxes. The storage leg made this matter more than it would on a straightforward local move: because the load went into the lorry, into the store, back onto the lorry and then into the new house, every item was handled four times rather than two. Protection built to survive one lift is not the same as protection built to survive four.
Wherever the volume allows, yes, and on a house move from West Sussex to Perthshire it did. Wolves Removals used a single Mercedes Atego lorry for the entire job: the West Sussex house was loaded into it, taken into storage in the same lorry, brought back out again, then driven north with a second collection of inherited furniture picked up in Worcestershire along the way, before everything was delivered together to the Perthshire cottage. The straight-line distance covered, from the West Sussex collection through the Worcestershire stop to the Perthshire delivery, came to 827 miles. Using one vehicle throughout means one set of driver hours, one crew who already know how the load is packed and where everything sits, and a household that stays together rather than being split across two or more separate journeys made weeks apart. It also means space has to be planned before departure, since a second collection has to fit into room left deliberately rather than forcing a separate trip.
It means the crew work from where each item needs to end up rather than from whatever comes off the lorry next. On the delivery to a cottage in Perthshire, which Wolves Removals carried out across two days, 5 and 6 August, beds were built and furniture was carried straight to the room it was going to live in, not left in a hallway to be moved later. Positioning the lorry mattered as much as the carrying: the cottage was single storey and stone-built, with a gravel approach and lawn on three sides, so the crew had to set the lorry where the ramp landed on solid ground, close enough to keep each carry short while leaving room to get the vehicle out afterwards. Placing everything this way takes longer on delivery day than simply unloading boxes and furniture at the door and leaving, but it means the person moving in is not left shifting wardrobes, beds and sofas around the house once the crew has gone.
On a house move from West Sussex to Perthshire, five working days were needed because the distance turns each stage of the return leg into its own day, separate from the seventeen days the load spent in storage beforehand. The house in Yapton, West Sussex, was emptied and put into Wolves Removals’ store at Ashington on 17 July, but these five working days began later, once the load came back out of store on 3 August. Day one was reloading the lorry at the store. Day two was the drive north, with a second collection of inherited furniture picked up in Worcestershire along the way, finishing that night at a hotel. Day three reached the Perthshire cottage and started the delivery. Day four finished the delivery, placing everything room by room, and the crew began the journey home. Day five was the drive back to Sussex, with the crew arriving back at base on 7 August. Three of those five nights were spent in hotels.
