Man and Van in Herne Bay

When you are moving into something smaller, the hard part is rarely the carrying. It is that a three-bedroom house of furniture does not fit into a two-bedroom bungalow, and decisions get made in a hallway on the day when everyone is tired and the van is waiting.

It goes better when the sorting is done first and the van is booked for what is actually going. If some of it is heading to family, a charity shop or a storage unit, tell us at the quote stage. A single trip with two drop-offs planned in is far cheaper than a second booking made in a hurry the following week.

The Victorian houses along and behind the front often run to three or four storeys on a narrow footprint, which means a lot of stairs and turns for every item. Those are hours, not minutes, and a quote that ignores the staircase is a quote that will not hold.

The front is also exposed. On a windy day, and there are plenty here, a wrapped mattress behaves like a sail between the door and the tailgate. We plan the loading order so the awkward, catchable items are not the ones crossing open ground when the weather turns.

Much of the town is single-storey with off-street parking, and those are genuinely quick jobs. No stairs, the van close to the door, and a full move done comfortably inside a morning if the packing is finished.

Where a bungalow street is narrower or has no drive we plan the stop in advance, but this is the easier half of Herne Bay by some distance. If you are in one of these and the packing is done, expect the day to be shorter than you have been told to fear.