It takes almost a year to settle into a home in the UK, survey finds

Most Britons take almost a year to fully settle into a new home with unfinished packing and decorating delaying the process, new research shows.

Over half, some 51%, still have unpacking to 304 days after moving and three quarters of slow unpackers admit to being stressed about unfinished unpacking and half of those saying it has caused arguments.
 
One in four have at least one mystery box that remained packed since their last move and non-essential kitchen equipment such as sandwich toasters and cocktail shakers are most likely remain boxed. Kettles, phone and tablet chargers and bathroom essentials are first to be unboxed, according to the research from London removals and storage firm Kiwi Movers.
 
Waiting to decorate is the most common excuse for not unpacking fully and people aged between 30 and 35 most likely to take the task somewhat slowly.

The research also found that 75% of those who hadn’t fully unpacked after 10 months of later said that they found having belongings still in boxes stressful, while half of those said the boxes had started to cause arguments.
 
Some 18% of movers said it took them between 12 and 18 months to get things fully organised, while a small minority of seven percent said they still had things in boxes after two years of living somewhere.
 
At the other end of the spectrum, a super organised and motivated 3% claimed to have fully unpacked within a day of moving in, while seven percent said they’d got the job done within a week.
 
The biggest cause for failing to unpack was the need to decorate, with 44% of respondents saying they’d planned to unpack once they’d completed decorating tasks while 31% said the delay in unpacking was due to having insufficient storage, while 12% said they couldn’t agree with their significant other on where to put things.
 
Some 13% blamed themselves, with 7% saying they were too busy to fully unpack and 6% admitting to being too lazy to finish the job and men living on their own are the most likely to have full boxes lying around, with 79% saying they still had unpacking to do by month ten in their new pad.

Single women were far less likely to let their belongings gather dust, with just 21% with unpacking after 10 months. Single women were also most likely to get the job done inside week one, with 20% claiming to have successfully found a home for all of their belongings.
 
Regan McMillan, director of Kiwi Movers believes a lot of movers are making their lives unnecessarily hard by packing items they don’t actually need. ‘If a quarter of people are saying they’ve got boxes they never unpacked since their last move, you’ve got to wonder if they really need what’s inside,’ he said.

‘We recommend having a thorough de-clutter prior to moving house so you don’t end up paying to move, then storing or living among items they don’t actually need. In most cases, if you haven’t used it in the last six months, you can most likely do without it,’ he added.
 

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Source: Property News Spain