675 DIY Moving

Start packing early.

Make a list of everything you are taking for customs.

Shop around for vans/ferry crossing. Prices vary greatly.

Give yourself time its stressful but can made easier with lots of planning and time.

Did it a couple of years ago, list of DON'TS.
Don't hire the van from a company that will use your card details five months later to make clothing purchases.
Don't drive through Switzerland, too many complications at the borders (It is a beautiful drive though.)
Don't travel with an incontinent puppy (long story, how do you get the stains out!!??)
If you stay overnight in the Holiday Inn just outside Modena, don't park right under the canopy where they tell you to, it's an inch lower than the roof of your van.
Don't expect your partner to drive for more than a five minute stretch in every couple of hours...(don't even GO there).
DO
Rent a van 50% greater than you think you'll need (There's probably an equation somewhere to explain this)
Enlist the help of someone else to chuck out the stuff "we won't need.."
Ask three times as many people as you need to help you load up the van.
Pack EVERYTHING at least two days prior to your departure date
Buy a BIG roll of bubble wrap
Buy another roll of bubble wrap ( you can use it to insulate your Cantina door window things in winter over here)
Allow an extra day to load the van, sleep on inflatable matresses in the old house, they're usefull at this end too when you arrive.
Remember, if you are returning the hire van, allow enough time to drive back, AND, get a route map for your return journey to the ferry port, some areas of Rotterdam are quite beautiful, but, not when you are trying to find the Hook..
Remember you'll have to unload the thing over here...
DO, enjoy the experience, you'll laugh about it for ages, especially the bit where your wife yelled "Aaarghhh, and deposited a pooing puppy on your lap while you were merrily driving down the Autobahn...

Husband John did the trip with his friend (I'd be useless driving a 7.5 tonne truck). John takes up the story -All in all a pretty uneventful trip across the channel and down through France, until that was, we reached the approach to the Mont Blanc tunnel, which would've taken us across the alps and into Italy. It's something like two-thirty in the morning and we've just encountered French officialdom at the compulsory truck check area. You can't go through the Mont Blanc tunnel because the truck's more than ten years old, we're told upon inspection of our papers, and this is where the real adventure began... We're directed on a course that will take us through Chamonix, Martigny in
Switzerland and eventually through the Grand St. Bernard tunnel into Italy. But, I protest, trucks aren't allowed on Swiss roads over the weekend. No problem comes the reply, I've got papers that say it's O.K. We didn't have much choice, the alternative route south that keeps you out of Switzerland looked far too far on the map so reluctantly we went for the Swiss option.The first exit off the main road signed Chamonix immediately put us on B Class roads, narrow and unlit, driving the wagon immediately became more of a challenge. Next problem encountered was a low bridge, at this point Bruce almost fell out of the cab as he disembarked to check our headroom, but yes we could get through, but now we're through we're unsure whether we've taken a wrong turn. Stop and check map. At this point Bruce is wondering where our passports are, we had them at the truck-check but where are they now. After hunting high and low his is on the floor and mine's nowhere. "Maybe they were on my lap when I fell out of the cab" Bruce says as he hops out again armed with a cigarette lighter to look for mine in the road. And that's where he finds it. This is the point where the shakes start, is it the cold or the close call? Imagine the scenario at the border crossing with no passport. Onward, and into Chamonix by night, we're still going up and now there are signs of snow. The roads narrow and twist even more, but are clear to the Swiss border. 4am at the border crossing and not a bod to be seen, there's no way of knowing if we're allowed on the roads in our 7 1/2 ton truck or not, but hey, we're here now so keep on moovin'. And eventually we reach an alpine pass, all switchbacks, ploughed snow, fir trees and twinkly lights a thousand feet below. We're on top of the world, but now the trucks overheating, the temperature gauge has gone doolally and is off the scale. Ooops. We stop to allow the truck to cool, only thing in our favour now is we can coast, if necessary, it's downhill all the way back to civilisation. And that's pretty much what we do, to the first service station forecourt we can find. There's smoke pouring off the truck but the water level and temperature are fine, it's only the gauge that was playing up. The smoke's coming off the wheels, or more accurately the brakes, which have just been given their toughest test. Smiles all round as we crack on but all the while the cool composure is slipping. More outrageous roads, the sort that are part flyover, part tunnel and mostly it's a long way down and very very scary, especially when we hit the contraflow cones. By this point I'm chainsmoking and I don't even smoke. Unnerved is a very good word. Well at last we arrive at the Italian border, it's a set straight out of a Bond movie, in a tunnel, hostile guards on duty. Strange thing is the Italian finance police didn't have a problem with us once they realised we weren't commercial traffic and therefore not liable to any tax, but there's always one isn't there? We were through but for this jobsworth who knew we shouldn't have been on Swiss roads in our truck, you'll have to wait for Swiss customs to arrive before you can proceed, like the previous border crossing the staff were absent. When are they due? I asked. The response, "It's a public holiday today so maybe seven thirty, maybe tomorrow"(!), 1 hour or 25, what was it to be? When he did turn up, in just the one hour, (relief) he didn't know what to do about us, there wasn't anything in any of his books, on the computer or even at the other end of the telephone, the offence we had committed didn't exist. Delay. Next we were police escorted through the tunnel to another office at the Italian end, more meetings, more delay, but finally the fine, 19 Swiss francs,14 euros or less than a tenner. Utter madness really as not one official bothered to look inside the truck and check for drugs, high explosives or other illicitness. We'll just have 9 quid please so we can keep the paperwork in order. As we emerged from the tunnel into the Val d'Aosta and Italy by bright sunlight, we had clear roads for the next 400 miles...