Sounds like you have your hands truly full. Bonne chance.


But I'd say, one thing, or one house at a time. Sort the Swiss one out, sell it- then face the music in the UK. Perhaps rent for a short while whilst your sort the house out- or it will never happen. 11 years is a long time- has it been empty since?

Most of the time. We use it when we go back a couple of times a year on holiday.

I am amazed- how do you manage to maintain it and garden, etc. We have a place in the UK we use as this- but it is a very modern apartment, so no maintenance (although we have a friend who pops in once a month to check it over carefully.).

Well until recently it didn't have many problems. We did have the water tank leak and bring down the kitchen ceiling a few years ago which necessitated a dash over just before Christmas to find out what the problem was (neighbours could hear a strange noise in the house and e-mailed us to let us know) and then another after Christmas to get it all tidied up again. Window frames seem to be the problem atm, had to repair a couple and looking into replacing the windows themselves; waiting for a quote on that. But we have a good guy who comes and does the garden for us regularly and also a building friend who's doing the necessary repairs.

I see the mother of all "Items-for-sale"-threads coming ;-)

No, you REALLY don't!

I can only echo the others re the Swiss house (and it's perfectly common to sell now and set an available date - the UK could learn a trick or two), but would add that the paperwork takes a while, so even if you put it on the market tomorrow, you'd probably be looking at March or April sale at the earliest. So I really wouldn't hang around and I would test the waters NOW as the others suggest.

But re the UK house - if stuff has been sitting in it unseen for 11 years, do you really need any of it? Couldn't you just get a house clearance company in there? Then at least you're moving into a blank canvas and already have space for the stuff from CH you want to keep.

I also echo the others re the emotional ties to "stuff" and the weight off your shoulders when it's gone. My mother was also a hoarder, she died in 2015 and I still have a couple of items to get rid of. Initially it was because it was *her* stuff and not mine to get rid of, and now it's a couple of things I've seen every day of my life and don't need but can't quite get rid of. I lost count of the times I asked my OH to just get rid of things, but he (understandably) refused to do it without my double-checking in case he ditched something it turned out I really wanted to keep.

Yes, we'll probably get a house clearance company in, but I want to check first for any outstanding paperwork and similar in the house that we might need/want to keep. I'd also prefer to be there when the house is cleared out just to be on the safe side that nothing goes by mistake so that might be something we look into doing on our next trip over.

If I were you- once I had sold here- I would try and rent something furnished nearby, for a couple of months, to give you time to clear UK house and maybe a bit of decorating before moving in proper.

Yeah, that could be a possible JackieH. When we had the kitchen ceiling disaster we stayed at a nearby Premier Inn.

I would do it differently.
Rather than wasting money on temporary rental costs and storage of belongings before moving into the house I would set aside a couple of weeks before selling up here to go over to the uk and sort through the house, maybe with the help of a house clearance company, and then arrange for any work/decorating etc that we wanted doing before we moved over there.

Yes, agree. A good alternative. Personally I would like to be nearby when work is being done. Plenty of RbnB type places you can rent for 1 month- much cheaper than Hôtel.