05/06/2026
The hidden stress of moving — and what nobody tells you about it
Moving house is widely regarded as one of life's most stressful experiences. After twenty years in this industry, I can tell you that doesn't surprise me in the slightest.
But the stress people imagine — the boxes, the bubble wrap, the logistics — that's rarely the part that breaks people.
The real stress starts long before the van arrives.
Sometimes it starts because the move wasn't a choice. A relationship breakdown. Financial pressure. A landlord selling up. People who never wanted to move in the first place, forced into a process they're already grieving before it has begun. You can feel it when you walk into a home on move day. It's heavy.
For most people though, the stress has one name: the chain.
You've found your next home. Your offer has been accepted. But you're one of five people in a line, and it only takes one slow solicitor, one poor communicator, one person dragging their feet, and suddenly nobody can confirm a completion date.
Weeks go by.
You can't book time off work. You can't arrange childcare. You can't organise broadband. You can't even book your removal company because you have nothing concrete to give them.
The uncertainty is exhausting.
We always tell our customers to aim for at least three weeks between exchange and completion. In summer, longer if possible. Good removal companies book up quickly, and trying to organise everything at the last minute only adds another layer of stress to an already stressful process.
What worries me is the trend we've seen over the last couple of years.
More and more people are exchanging and completing within a week — sometimes on the very same day.
I understand why it happens. Nobody wants to commit until they're absolutely sure. Everyone in the chain is nervous. Then suddenly months of uncertainty are compressed into one frantic twenty-four-hour period.
And that's when things can go badly wrong.
We've loaded vans and had to bring everything back.
I want you to sit with that for a moment.
Everything you own is loaded into a truck. Your old home is empty behind you. You're ready to start the next chapter of your life.
And then it falls through.
The sale collapses. The money doesn't arrive. The keys aren't released.
So we unload everything again.
The cost. The chaos. The devastation on people's faces.
I've seen it more than once, and it never gets easier to watch.
The hardest day I can remember was standing outside a property with a family whose entire life was loaded across our vans, but they couldn't get through the front door.
There had been a problem with the money transfer.
The house was empty. It was ready for them. But they couldn't gain access.
I stood there listening as they called solicitors, estate agents, banks — desperately trying to find someone who could fix the situation before five o'clock, when the phones stopped being answered.
There was nothing I could do.
You can offer support. You can suggest solutions. I've even called estate agents myself and persuaded them to release keys to an empty property so a family at least has somewhere to put their belongings for the night.
Sometimes it works.
Sometimes it doesn't.
And at some point, you have to sit down with a family who are in pieces and explain what happens next.
Additional accommodation.
Additional costs they hadn't budgeted for.
Another day's work for my team that has to be paid for regardless.
I hate those days.
But then there are the other ones.
The days when everything lines up.
The chain completes smoothly. The keys are waiting. The move goes to plan.
You watch a family walk through the front door of their new home for the first time and the relief is written all over their faces.
Kids run off to claim bedrooms.
Someone puts the kettle on in a new kitchen.
A couple stand in an empty living room and realise they've finally made it.
After twenty years, I spend more time in the office than on the vans. But when I do get out on a move and it's one of those days, it still means something.
You share a little piece of their excitement.
This is a new chapter in their life, and somehow you get to play a small part in it.
The bottles of wine.
The flowers.
The handshakes.
The genuine thank you from someone whose day you've helped make manageable.
That's why I got into this job as a porter all those years ago.
And on the good days, it's still why I love it.
Moving house is stressful. There's no getting around that.
But a lot of that stress is avoidable with the right preparation, realistic timelines, and people around you who know what they're doing.
If you're planning a move and want to talk through how to make it as painless as possible, that's literally what we're here for.
— Jay Newton
Director, Painless Removals
