Call us on freephone 0800 0266 525
“Very impressed with all guys – professional, friendly & helpful”
K.P. moved from West Hampstead to Highgate
“4 years in store and it’s as good as new.”
R.Z. storage items delivered to Hampstead
“Amber Moves – You’re just the best! You’ve made the refurb much easier.”
D.H. refurbishing house in Mill Hill
“You guys always do a great job for me.”
S.H. moved some items to store from Kensington
“Very helpful – as always.”
L.C. internal move in West Hampstead
“Thank you for a wonderful move! Martin was really switched on and made it all very easy.”
G.dK. moved from Brentford to Chiswick
“I am very grateful for the cheerful and practical help.”
D.H. moved from Highgate to Muswell Hill
“The wonderful men did such a great job.”
M.F. moved from Potters Bar to Staines
“Excellent”
T.S. moved from Regents Park to Kensington
“Professional job. Very good management.”
L.A. moved from Maida Vale to West Hampstead
“This is the second time we have used Amber Moves – the service is excellent. I would definitely recommend to others!”
H.M. moved out of store to Greenwich
“This is the second time we have moved with Amber Moves. We couldn’t recommend Andrew and his team more highly. They are polite, hard-working and totally dependable. Thank you so much!”
N.W. moved from Gerrards Cross to Launton
“5th time we have used Amber moves and we will again. Thank you”
J.T. moved within Hampstead
“A fantastic seamless move! So professional & helpful. Hardly knew they were there – would recommend again.”
A.G. moved from Archway to Bishops Stortford
“Great job, efficient, fast, helpful!”
G.F. moved from West Hampstead to Archway
Today is July 14th – Bastille Day!
So in support of great moments in the history of house clearances, here is a clip from ‘Allo ‘Allo.
Viva Le France!
These are some of the comments that have come from our customers this month.
“Friendly & helpful, exceleent service.”
P R, moving within Edgware
“Prompt and rapid. Will use again.”
J T, pack & move to Hampstead
“Fantastic service. very friendly and helpful in every aspect of the move. Many thanks!”
M L, pack & move to Ealing
Once again, Amber Moves have received the prestigious title of Remover of the Month. This award is only given to removal companies who receive ‘Excellent’ feedback on more than 98% of their Quality Questionnaires. The award is independently adjudicated by the National Guild of Removers and Storers and takes in to consideration all member removal companies across the country.
Andrew and ‘the ladies in the office’ would like to thank our men on the front line who make sure that we receive this fantastic award every month! Thanks guys!
From time to time we have customers ask us whether it is really necessary to dismantle certain pieces of furniture. This is understandable as one does not want to spend a lot of time unnecessarily dismantling a piece of furniture only to find that it doesn’t fit back together quite the same way. However, for many of us, our wardrobes, etc were built in situ and so we don’t have any real idea as to whether it can come out of the room or indeed down the stairs in full.
Our men have a lot of experience with these things and have developed a spatial awareness of how furniture can be moved through doorways and down stairs. They can generally see just by looking at it whether a piece of furniture will go through or not and they are right 99 times out a 100! Now we’ve had customers insist that the men try to take a piece down the stairs before dismantling it, despite being advised that it is best to separate the item into smaller parts first. This generally only wastes time by opting for a strategy that is simply not going to work. Dismantled furniture is also easier to protect, having fewer protrusions means that it’s easier to wrap in bubble wrap.
There are thousands of different kinds of furniture, with different ways of putting them together and some are more fragile than others. I am very proud of our men who are daily faced with a new piece of furniture and managing every time to dismantle it. Most of us remember when we bought that new piece of IKEA furniture and it took the whole day to put together, but our men manage to achieve the same in much less time. (And they do so without any screws going missing.)
Dismantling is a necessary part of a removal and helps to speed up the loading process and ensure that the customer’s possessions are kept safe. Always make sure whether dismantling and reassembly are included as part of the move when selecting a removal company.
Regular sized boxes are best for moving home.
Boxes are a fundamental part of moving home. You have to be able to pack all your small things into a container that will keep them safe and make it easy to stack up.
When potential customers are making enquiries regarding the costs involved in removals, we always ask whether or not they have boxes. Most people haven’t arranged their own boxes yet and so we offer our boxes, which are a reasonable
One of the most important issues to address when conducting a removal is the access to to the properties. When you have men loading up a whole van of your belongings, you want to reduce the distance from the entrance to the van as much as possible. You don’t want them to have to dodge passing pedestrians on a long walk down the block to the van. London, however, has some of the most finicky parking regulations you will ever find. Each council has different rules regarding pay & display bays, resident bays and yellow lines. For example, a yellow line dispensation in London is fairly easy to arrange and costs nothing. However, there are many rules that need to be stuck to while making use of the service. You have to give the council 24 hours notice, be specific about location, time and the vehicle to be used. Then once you’ve arrived, you have to ensure that someone is constantly at the van and that you are not causing any obstructions. This results in vans being driven round the block to ease congestion even though all steps have been taken to ensure that they are allowed to wait on the yellow line. This is just the nature of managing transport in a city that was not designed around the needs of tradesmen using vans. That was just one example of one of the easier parking situations to resolve in London. Most customers move from one borough to another – new parking situation, new regulations. This all needs to be taken into consideration when moving home or business in London and most customers don’t even realise that all these considerations are being dealt with while we are moving their property.
One of the many questions you will need to consider when moving home is ‘how many boxes do I need for my house removal’ ?’. There is no single figure, as every move is different and every item varies in its fragility, size and weight. However based on twenty – five year exp0erience as a london removals estimate/surveyor with Amber Moves, I am able to give these guidelines to the prospective mover.
A one bed property will need 50- 60 boxes, with perhaps four wardrobe boxes for clothes.
A two bed property will need 70-100 boxes with probably six wardrobe boxes for clothes
A three bed property will need 130-150 boxes with maybe ten wardrobe boxes for clothes
As the property gets bigger with the additions of bedrooms, garages, garden; the number of boxes required will dramatically increase. All the boxes used should be strong and 2 or 3 ply walled. It is recommended that all your homes items are boxed when one needs to use storage. Flimsey boxes will collapse and will not protect your valuables. The range of boxes awailable for a move is consderable, however, a box the size of a standard microwave is the best for stacking, carrying and protecting your possessions. A few larger boxes for bedding, lampshades, stereos, TV’s may be appropriate. It is best to pack books at the bottom to half the volume and put lighter items to the top. All boxes should be labelled clearly with contents and should be entered into a checklist inventory
LC3 Crates are used for transporting paperwork
When moving office, there are many things to consider, but one thing we could absolutely not do without is the good old crate. So here is the info you need to better understand the requirements for your office when relocating.
LC3 crates are used to transport paperwork and other miscellaneous items such as stationery and personal effects. They measure 600 x 415 x 330 mm which is equivalent to 3 cubic feet and they are lidded. They can also be provided with security seals and labels to ensure confidentiality of records during the relocation and clarity regarding their contents. These crates also have runners along the sides that allow suspension files to be transported in the same manner that they are housed in the filing cabinet.You can fit approximately 6 arch lever files or the contents of 1 suspension drawer into an LC3 crate.
IT Crates are used to transport computer systems, i.e. a computer box, screen, keyboard & mouse; as well as fax machines and desktop printers. They are larger than LC3 crates in order to accommodate a full computer system, keeping the components of each workstation together. They measure 590 x 550 x 600 mm which is equivalent to 7 cubic feet and are also lidded.
Most companies prefer to have their staff pack the files and personal effects into the LC3 crates as they know best which files should be kept together and if any particular order is relevant. It often falls to us to pack the IT crates as this requires greater skill and care. The computer systems must first be switched off and disconnected from the main power supply and the local area network. The various components are then disconnected from each other. The computer box and monitor are wrapped in bubble wrap and placed in the crate in such a way that these pieces will not move once they start to be transported. The mouse, keyboard and all associated cables are the last to be placed.
Our vans can hold up to 140 crates. Even though LC3 crates are about half the size of IT crates, they tend to weigh twice as much. We have to take this into consideration when loading the van. Crates are generally delivered about 2 working days before the move and collected about 2 working days after the move, to give staff time to pack and unpack their crates. More often than not there is also a weekend in there as well, meaning most companies need to hire crates for at least a week.
An archive is a box of information, generated by a business, that needs to be retained for record and statutory reasons. Archiving is the storage management and eventual secure destruction of these data boxes. There are typically three strategies employed by businesses. The first method is to store the boxes in the company office. This results (as the boxes mount up) in a cluttered unmanaged and ineffective use of expensive office space. Staff time is wasted on discovery and eventual secure disposal. As business grows, more staff are required and so an early office move is deemed necessary, which is great news for organisations like Amber Moves, a leading light in the London Based Office Removals industry.The second strategy is to store offsite using a self-store unit. This is a seemingly economical solution to clearing premium office space. However, who delivers and collects the boxes, who keeps track of the boxes, how is the security of your company records maintained? These problems are great news for Amber Moves, who provide secure data storage solutions to the London Based Office Removals Industry.The third and perhaps ideal programme for archiving is to use an off-site records storage system. The boxes are provided and managed using a bar code tracking system, which can be implemented to the individual file level as required. The archive and storage company provides a pick up and retrieval service. Information, invoicing and returns are managed. Disposal and destruction systems are put in place. Your office is not filled with excessive yet important files. Staff time is not wasted trying to locate long forgotten invoices, the security of the data is guaranteed. Business organisations will only need larger premises for the right reasons. Which is great news for Amber Moves who provide off-site Archiving, Storage and removals for London Based Offices.
The Amber Moves Difference
What makes one removal company differ from another? Essentially we all have removal men and vans and charge for our service to move your home.
The difference is in the level of service and the staff we employ. We pride ourselves on not using casual labour – all our staff have been with the company for an average of 5 years. They are highly skilled, personable gentlemen who understand family life and the stresses and strains of moving. Nothing is ever a problem, and they have a totally different work ethic to the average removal man.
A client recently found an article on a removal company and sent it to us, saying
We are currently working on a project with Save the Children to set up a stock collection system as part of the removal service. We are hoping to extend this to all reputable removal companies across the country via a new web service.
The Charity relies on stock for their shops. They estimate that one sack is worth
The moving market is surprisingly bouyant as home movers try to complete and be settled in time for Christmas. We have had a big upsurge in bookings for December and expect to be working right up to Xmas Eve. It is predominantly large family homes in the London area although we have seen a trend of people trading up by moving out of the London area.
The run up to the year end and xmas is always stressful and of course do you put up the decorations or pack them? Family life has to carry on and with the time between exchange and completion so short, it’s hard to know how to plan for your move.
Our advice is always to start clearing and sorting. Have an advance delivery of packing cartons, as you may as well box up those things that aren’t essential thus making the packing up of your house much easier once you get that phone call that says it’s all on.
How do you clear and sort and where should it all go? Good old Ebay is always the first place to start as the extra cash will come in handy. The alternative is to try the website Freecyle – post up your unwanted items, and give them away in return for having them collected.
The charities are always looking for stock as this is the lifeblood of their shops. Remember that they don’t want items they can’t sell – good quality clothing that you never wear, books, kids toys and bric a brac are always appreciated.
As a reputable removal company with strong ethics, we are happy to drop your donations off the local charity shop.
On the face of it, it did seem that our quote was double the other company. On closer inspection this is what we found buried in the small print, or not mentioned:
The quote only allowed for a “blanket wrap” meaning that every piece of furniture would only be loosely covered in a removal blanket during transit. Our service offers special, and in some cases, export wrapping for every piece of furniture. Sofas and mattress are put into special canvas covers, picture and mirrors are bubbled and carded, plasma screen tv’s get moved with a purpose-made protective cover.
Packing boxes were supplied on a deposit basis. There was no provision for white paper for wrapping crockery or bubblewrap for special pieces.
The dismantling and reassembly service was restricted to beds only, implying that the customer would have to dismantle and reassemble all the other pieces.
Storage was quoted per container however the small print suggested that there would be a requirement for 6 containers. Further down the quote was mention of a handling charge on each container however the amount was not specified.
Parking arrangements were clearly the responsibility of the customer. Wherever possible we try to make these arrangments for our moving clients.
There were a number of optional extras such as cancellation waiver, waititng time waiver and disposal. We have considered offering these charges but believe they are a bit like “extended warrantees” – not worth the paper they’re written on and really just another opportunity to make money.
At Amber Moves we pride ourselves on our transparant quoting and the fair calculation of the bill at the end of the job based on the actual work carried out. This way our clients have flexibility and can have extra or unexpected work done or perhaps, even do more preparation in advance of the move, to bring the final bill down.
I’ve just found some great videos on how to pack for your move on You Tube.
A removal company in Vancouver has produced videos on:
How to pack books
How to pack lampshades
How to pack clothing
How to pack glass
How to pack pictures and mirrors
Follow this link,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NBmUxX58_w
Post your feedback, we’d love to hear what you think of them. Even better, if you’d like to star in our videos, we’re always on the look out for budding stars!
I always tell our clients, “no matter how awful it seems, you will be settled in the new house in a few weeks, and all the stress will be a distant memory”.
The truth is that it is the run-up to the move that is stressful, not the actual removal day. The key, like everything else in life, is to surround yourself with good people. Make sure you have the best solicitors doing the conveyancing so there are no snags on the day with money going through and collecting the keys to your new property.
Ask and delegate. Your removal company can organise the parking suspensions for you so let them. You can have a packing service the day before your move – so treat yourself. You can book a cleaning company to clean both the old and new house – you will have more than enough to do without trying to do a full spring clean.
There are a number of websites now that offer a change of address service, such as Iammoving.com – use it, it’s free!
Have a good clear out and ask your removal company to drop these items off at the charity shop.
Book an online grocery delivery service to your new home for the first evening in your house.
Above all choose a reputable, preferably recommended, removal company and make sure you have a contract and fully agreed what is required on your move. Choose a company that offers a flexible service as moving is never straight forward and your requirements may change many times between the initial booking and the actual removal day.
Perhaps not the most organised move!
We work with a number of partners to offer additional services and benefits to both our home moving and office move clients. One of the most frequent requests is for a cleaning service.
We recommend Evaclean, a company who has the same values and high level of service we have. They have kindly provided their details to assist you in your choice of cleaning company.
Evaclean Ltd is a commercial company which provide excellent commercial industrial and domestic cleaning services for:
We also clean carpets and upholstery professionally either on a regular contract basis or as a one-off cleaning service.
We understand our clients’ needs, and can ensure you receive a high quality and reliable service. Our high standards are helping us to grow rapidly.
Evaclean believes that the services we provide for you ought to be of a high standard in cleaning and ironing with a friendly professional service by highly trained and motivated staff.
What Makes Evaclean Outstanding?
We have a strict vetting process when we employ new cleaners so that our clients can be confident in using Evaclean. We don’t take everyone who is looking for a job to work for us.
What Are the Benefits of Using Our Service?
To find more about our services please visit
www.evaclean.co.uk or call 02088290811.
Another happy moving customer…..
Hi Andrea
I just wanted to thank you and all your team for being so absolutely brilliant on Monday and in the build-up to my move. I was braced for the whole moving experience to be stressful and unpleasant, but Matthew, Robert and Levente made it incredibly easy. Special thanks for managing to get the piano down the stairs with a huge amount of difficulty and effort but without a single complaint.
I’ll certainly be recommending you to everyone I possibly can!
Thanks again
Best wishes
Alison
Our exciting project, a storybook about moving home to colour in, is really coming together. We have produced a beautiful, heart-warming story about moving home, for children to colour in. We’re hoping to publish the book and sell it through Amazon and the Save the Children shops amongst others.
All the profits will be donated to Save the Children, and it certainly is a first for a removal company. This is just one of our many exciting projects we have coming up. This is all part of our bid to change the face of the removals industry and raise the perceptions and profile.
Tradtionally the month of August, and especially the Bank Holiday weekend have alwasy been the busiest time of the year for people moving house. Moving in and around London can often prove difficult especially if the job is in the vicinity of the Nottinghill Carnival. Families and couples will take advantage of the long weekend to get moved and sorted before going back to work and school.
This weekend is proving to be particularly busy with Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday all fully booked and the last minute enquiries keep coming in.
Hi Andrea
I just wanted to thank you and all your team for being so absolutely brilliant on Monday and in the build-up to my move. I was braced for the whole moving experience to be stressful and unpleasant, but Matthew, Robert and Levente made it incredibly easy. Special thanks for managing to get the piano down the stairs with a huge amount of difficulty and effort but without a single complaint.
I’ll certainly be recommending you to everyone I possibly can!
Thanks again
Best wishes
Alison
This is a copy of an email I received today from a lady we moved within London. High praise indeed!
Another side of our business that we don’t often boast about. On my most removals, there is always items to get rid of as the family moving home, takes the opportunity to have a good clear out.
Andrew collects everything up and once a month does a charity boot fair. Mainly because it’s his hobby and he actually enjoys car boot sales but also because it’s a crying shame to take these items to the tip. These days its all about recyling and not land fill.
Our boot fairs are a great success and the Amber Moves van is eagerly awaited for by the regulars! On average we manage to raise between
Andrew and are I are both members of BNI – The business referral organisation. It has been a been a valuable tool for our business as we have been able to recommend subsidiary services to our client, such as cleaning, computer support and insurance and in return, we have been very fortunate to receive referrals for our removals work.
One of the referrrals wrote us this lovely testimonial….
“I’d have no hesitation in recommending anyone to use Amber Moves – they’re simply the best removal company I’ve ever used. They made a stressful experience as painless and easy as possible. The moving team were pleasant, courteous and careful with our belongings – nothing was too much trouble. The whole process went smoothly and quickly and before they left, they were particularly keen to ensure that everything was placed exactly where we wanted it in every room. Full marks – I will certainy be using them again for my next move.”
There is nothing nicer than unsolicited positive feedback and the card below sums it up. No matter the size of the removal we always offer a high level of service, great flexibility and absolute peace of mind.
The build up to moving home can be so fraught that most people are actually surprised when the removal day goes so smoothly. It is our aim in life to raise client’s expectations of a move and they should be absolutely sure, that having chosen the right removal company, of course the day should run like clockwork.
Every time we conduct a removal, we ask our clients to fill in a feedback questionnaire. These are then sent directly to the National Guild of Removers and Storers. If at least 98% have rated our service excellent, we then receive an Excellence Award.
We’ve done it again and are proud to show off our award for the period January to June 2009. This award recognised the hard work put in by our removal crews and hopefully is raising expectations of how a good removal should be conducted.
We aim to make our site appealable to a wider audience and more fun and with this in mind, we’re asking for guest bloggers. If you or your company offer a service that may be relevant to anyone moving house or organising a London office move, we’d be delighted to hear from you.
Drop us a line at enquiries@ambermoves.com
When last did you come across a removal company running a regular competition with a fab prize? As part of our strategy to give back to our clients, we hope every newsletter reader will enter our simple competition, with a chance of winning of course!
Don’t forget to enter our on-line competition. The prize is
The headlines in The Times, 31 July say “Unthinkable, but true, house prices rise yet again”.
How quickly the tide turns only 4-5 months ago, they were saying the market would take at least a year to recover. This was the worst recession in history, negative equity would exceed the peeks reached in the early 90′s and so on.
Let’s focus on the positive though, and enjoy the upsurge. This is mainly because there will alwasy be a shortage of properties which will drive prices up. We will soon be approaching Autumn which is a quieter time for home sales but equally there is such a backlog of people who put their moves on hold over the last 18 months, hopefully one will counteract the other.
The bonus of course, is that we are a London-based removal company, so are best place to enjoy any economic upsurge. Further North demand is less robust.
As part of our plan to revolutionise the moving industry we are putting together a survey, asking anyone who has moved, or is planning a move, their thoughts and experiences on the moving process.
Use this area of the blog to post your suggestions for our survey.
Use our simple online quoting form or freephone 0800 0266 525 for your free quote or for moving advice. Read how Amber Moves provides an stress free and cost-effective removal service.
You'll never believe some of the things that happen on moving day...
