Moving to Holland, Belgium, anywhere abroad really, can be completely thrilling, especially when a nice removals team turns up and does all the grunt work! But for those moving to France or any other exquisite European locale, here are a few expert expat tips for packing, moving and getting sorted on the other side of the Channel.

•             Not everything needs to make the move; long-term storage can be great for things like currently unneeded furniture and other superfluous large items.

•             Make a list of the things that will be needed straight away in each room of the new house. For example, the bedroom will need fresh bedding, the bathroom will need toilet paper, towels and toiletries, the kitchen will need a kettle, teabags, cups etc. The finished list will make up the “Survival” box (essentially a box of goodies to survive on whilst everything else is being carefully unpacked)

•             Start packing early and organise by room. For example, tackle the loft first, then the spare bedroom, then the dining room etc. This can help prevent the spread of total chaos throughout the house!

•             Use numbers to label boxes, e.g. Box 1 = Kitchen utensils, Box 2 = DVDs etc. Keep a printed record of each box in list form. Try to find the native words for each box’s contents and what room they’re headed for so removals teams at the destination end will understand easily. For example, “clothes” in Dutch is “kleren”, “kitchen” is “keuken”