Start three weekends out, not three days
- Weekend one: the honest sort. Three zones on the floor: coming with us, going to someone, going to the tip. Be ruthless with the third pile, every kilo you don't move is time you don't pay for. Council cleanup bookings and the tip run happen this weekend, while there's slack to spare.
- Weekend two: the fiddly middle. Hand tools boxed and labelled by wall, so the new shed hangs the same way. Fasteners and small hardware into sealed tubs, not loose boxes that rain screws. Anything with a cord coiled and taped to its machine.
- Weekend three: the specials. Machinery prepped (below), timber bundled and strapped, the trailer packed with what the trailer's taking. By move week the shed should be a room of labelled, liftable objects, that's the whole goal.
What the truck can't carry
This is the part people wish they'd known earlier. Dangerous goods, fuel, gas cylinders, and flammable or corrosive chemicals, don't belong in an enclosed removals truck with your furniture, and carriers aren't permitted to take them. Practically, that means:
| Item | What to do instead |
|---|---|
| Mower, whipper snipper, chainsaw fuel | Run tanks dry over the last mows, or drain into a jerry can that travels in your own vehicle |
| Jerry cans of petrol or diesel | Use them up, give them to a neighbour, or carry them yourself, sensibly secured and ventilated |
| BBQ and camping gas bottles | Swap them at any bottle-swap the week before, and take the fresh one with you after the move, or move empties with valves open-checked |
| Paint, thinners, pool chemicals, garden chemicals | Free household chemical drop-off events run across NSW, see the reference below, or ask your council about its next collection |
| Gas fridges, kero heaters | Fine to move once drained and purged, tell us in advance so they're handled last-on, first-off |
None of this is us being precious, a sealed truck box in summer is no place for petrol vapour, and one leaked drum of pool chlorine can write off a whole load. Sort the chemical shelf early and the rest of the shed is just lifting.
Machinery, benches and the heavy wall
Workshop machines move well when they're prepped: beds lowered, chucks and vices snugged, loose tables and fences removed and boxed, oil reservoirs drained or sealed. Benches travel best empty with drawers taped or removed. If something is bolted down, unbolt it before the day or ask us to, finding out at lift time costs clock. For the genuinely heavy pieces, that's our heavy items service inside the same move.
Or point at it and we'll pack it
Everything above also describes what our packing crews do, minus your weekends. Plenty of downsizers split it: you make the keep-or-throw calls, we do the boxing, wrapping and labelling. The sort is the part only you can do, the rest is just hands.
References
NSW Environment Protection Authority: runs the Household Chemical CleanOut program, free drop-off events across Sydney and NSW for paints, fuels, gas bottles and household chemicals. Check dates before your final shed weekend, the events fill a trailer's worth of problem in one trip.
Northern Beaches Council: bulky goods cleanup bookings and current chemical collection dates for this LGA, book the cleanup the same week you start the sort.