Man and Van in Blean

The weeks either side of term are the ones that fill first, and they fill months ahead rather than weeks. If your move falls in late June or September, treat the date as the scarce thing rather than the price, because by the time the cheap slot appears the day you needed has usually gone.

Midweek in those periods is far easier to get than a Saturday, and often cheaper for the same work. If you have any flexibility at all, that is where to spend it. Outside the changeover weeks the diary here looks like anywhere else and a week's notice is usually plenty.

A room in a shared let is not a small house move, it is its own thing: one flight of stairs, a shared front door, other people's belongings in the hallway and a landlord's inventory to leave the place fit for. We size the van for the load rather than sending a Luton for a bed and four boxes.

It also tends to be time-critical in a way household moves are not, because the tenancy ends whether or not the van turned up. Those go in the diary as fixed appointments, not as a slot we might shuffle.

Away from the students, Blean is a village of family houses strung along a ridge with ancient woodland at its back, and several of the lanes running off the main road are narrow with limited turning room. The main road itself is fine; it is the last hundred yards that needs the thought.

We work out the nearest sensible stopping point in advance and size the crew to the carry. A larger family home set back down a lane will want more hands than the room count alone suggests.