Moving house-Flitting

In regular use during my childhood in Birmingham in the 50s . I still do a lot of flitting about now - meaning I'm very busy moving about from one thing to the other. I do remember the expression 'moonlight flit'. Nothing to do with debt here though.

Anyone remember the term 'flibbertygib' Possible not the correct spelling

In Liverpool, yes.

CrazyGrandma2

Flibbertygibbert, yes. A flighty talkative person.

Agree with many gransnetters that flitting was synonymous with moving house.
Also used here in Scotland as a term for household goods in transit by van new home.
My mother would refer to us being untidy or dishevelled as "looking like you fell aff the back of a flittin".

In Birmingham the off-license was often referred to as: "the offie".

My nephew was courting a girl who had moved to the West Midlands from Ayrshire in Scotland. We had come over from North Wales to spend the day with my MIL who lived with my SIL and her family and SIL asked me to 'come and look at the fruit trees in the garden' I was a bit puzzled as they had been there for years and she had never asked before! We went out into the garden and she said 'Ooh - I don't know what kind of family that girl has come from - she said they had flit from Scotland!' SIL was reassured when I explained that prospective DIL was not dodging debts and that 'Flit' just meant a house move. Did make me smile! I remember my Mum talking about a friend who had had to do a moonlight flit after being left in the lurch by an absent husband, odd thing was that they only moved two streets away! Mind you, that was in the days before the Internet!

GabriellaG Thanks. I knew it didn't sound right and that was my understanding of the word

I was from Clydebank now Scottish Borders, have always used flitting when moving house. Also a saying we still use is "Saturday flitting, short sitting" meaning if you move on a Saturday you won't live there long.

I grew up in London. Flitting was moving, moonlight flit was moving owing rent.

I grew up in Lancashire and Lincolnshire and "flitting" was the term generally used in Lincolnshire for a house move. It seemed less common in Lancashire although my Furness-born grandfather used it occasionally. Maybe it was a generational thing?

My family flitted to Essex in the late 60s and people there looked at us blankly if we used the term. More recently, I flitted back to Lincolnshire and, come to think of it, I haven't heard the word used at all. I like it so I shall try and re-introduce it into everyday chat!

Yes, it was used in Yorkshire. Also Moonlight flit.

Moonlight flit and flibbertygibbert were used in Fife where I was brought up.

We always heard, ‘Saturday flit, short sit’.
My granny and mother used to say a dishevelled person was like ‘ a hoor at a flittin’ ‘

We ‘flit’ in North East Scotland too. A ‘moonlight flit’ was, as others have said, a hasty move under the cover of darkness to avoid any debtors catching you!

I was born and raised in Yorkshire and we always referred to anyone who was moving house as flitting. Anyone who was moving stealthily who owed rent was doing a "moonlight flit".

As a Londoner "...doing a moonlight flit" was always part of everyday language, and something that happened frequently in our neighbourhood!

Yes, something I have done a few times!

The DH and I were watching 'Mrs Wilson' last night and saw the husband taking his wife away from a flat on which he had not paid the rent. 'Oh!' says the DH, 'Doing a flit!'

We called off-licences 'the offee'.

I was brought up in West London and we used the term 'Moonlight Flit' for anyone who suddenly left their house quickly and disppeared.

According to the Cambridge English Dictionary it means:
to leave secretly, especially to avoid paying money that you owe:

Aberdonians still use 'flitting'. As a child, moving house was the only meaning of flitting for me.

I was brought up in East Yorkshire and flitting was moving and a moonlight flit was hasty and without people knowing in advance, presumably to avoid debts.
We also used a 'flit gun' to spray flies. It was like a bicycle pump with a canister of fly spray on the end and was pumped by hand.

In Australia we say moving but then if you are flitting then you aren't moving you are running from something or someone....

I lived north of London growing up and ‘flitting...’doing a flit’ ....or indeed’ a moonlight flit’ was always used in the sense that the ‘flitter’ was avoiding debt or police!!

Flitting still in common useage here in North East of Scotland.