Once the dates are known · D
Decide where it waits
The decision people put off longest, because deciding it feels like admitting the dates will not line up. It is far cheaper to plan a hold that turns out to be unnecessary than to arrange one on the morning.
A planned hold is a load stacked to be stored. An unplanned one is a load stacked for a journey and left standing.
What a planned hold involves
Decide it early even if you hope not to need it
On a chain, the honest position is that nobody controls the completion date. Planning a hold costs a conversation; needing one that was never planned costs a day.
And it is genuinely cancellable. A hold that is not required is a line removed from a quotation, whereas a hold required at short notice is a vehicle standing still while somebody telephones a warehouse.
Where the gap nearly closes
If the two dates are a day or two apart, holding on the vehicle overnight may be better than storing at all, and we will say so. It keeps the count of handlings down and it avoids a document you do not need.
Where the gap is weeks, storing is plainly right. Where it is a day either side, it is worth pushing the solicitors, because closing that gap removes the whole question.
A stack for a hold is not a stack for a journey
A load built for a drive resists movement for a few hours. A load built for a hold has to carry its own weight for months without anything compressing, sagging or bowing. Soft items do not go under hard ones and upholstery is not stacked to the ceiling.
That is a different job at your house, and it is why the decision belongs before the day rather than on it.
Say what you might need back
Before collection rather than after. Almost everybody is out for longer than they expected, and the things left in store turn out to matter — documents, seasonal clothing, a child's things, work equipment.
Name them and they sit at the front. Do not, and they are behind everything else.
Decide where it waits
Questions about decide where it waits
01 When should we decide about storage?
As soon as both dates exist, even provisionally. It is cheaper to plan a hold you turn out not to need than to arrange one on the morning.
02 Can storage be added late?
Usually, and it is the expensive version. The load will have been stacked for a journey rather than for a month and nothing will be where you want it.
03 What if the gap is only a night or two?
Holding on the vehicle may be better than storing at all. We will say so — it avoids a separate agreement you do not need.
04 Is storage governed by the same terms as the move?
No. A separate storage agreement applies, with its own cover, periods and notice provisions. It is worth reading before you sign it.
05 Can we get at our things?
With reasonable notice, and far more easily if you named what you might want before collection. The load is then built with those items at the front.
06 Can you deliver somewhere else afterwards?
Yes, and it happens often — destinations change while goods are held. It is a delivery instruction rather than a new arrangement.
Which decision are you at?
Both addresses, roughly what is going, and how firm the dates are. Those three start the schedule and everything else follows from them.