Moving House Checklist
When you’re moving into a new home, then having a detailed plan for the entire process is going to save you a load of headaches, stress, and anxiety. But the planning itself is something many people underestimate.
Through our experience with helping thousands of people move home, we have created a moving house checklist that can make sure you avoid some of the most common mistakes.
Not only will you avoid scrambling to make last-minute decisions, but you could also save yourself a load of time and money.
Initial Preparations
The last thing you want to do is just blindly jump into packing random things. Yes, moving home might be exciting and daunting at the same time, but if you put in some effort to make some preparations, you’ll find it all considerably easier.
Unfortunately, things could go wrong, which might impact the actual sale.
Also, keep in mind that if both buyers and sellers have a chain of transactions to go through, this process could take quite a few months [1].
But once you get a rough idea from your solicitor that everything is going to plan, then you should start going through this moving house checklist.
A property chain describes a line of buyers and sellers linked together because each is selling and buying a property from one of the others, apart from the people at the beginning and the end of the chain.
Reena Sewraz, writer at which.co.uk
2-Month Priorities
You should generally work on the basis that moving house will likely take 2 or more months. Everything shorter than this might result in a lot of stress.
So, let’s start with one of the most important things.
Set A Date
This should be done by either working through your solicitor, estate agent or directly with the seller. In most cases, solicitors will work out among themselves when they would expect to target completion day.
Keep in mind that completion day has to be a working day when banks are open. And you may want to add one day to that in case there are some delays with handing over keys.
Confirm The Date With A Removal Company
If you’ve already picked a company to help you with the move, then contact them immediately and give them the expected date. They will need at least 2 months advance notice, so make this a priority.
Book A Few Days Off Work
Depending on how large your house is, you’ll likely need a few days off work. Even if you’ve got friends and family helping, there is a lot involved. Talk to your employer and ask for a few days off before and after the move.
Start Working On A Packing Plan
Moving home is predominantly about getting all your things from one house to another. We have a dedicated page to help you with the planning. The more methodical your plan is, the more stress you could avoid.
6-Week Priorities
You’re 2 weeks closer, and legal processes should be well underway. Assuming your solicitor hasn’t informed you of issues, it’s time to step things up a bit.
Buy Essential Packing Supplies
This doesn’t involve much, but make sure to buy boxes that are all the same size. This makes it easier to stack them in the moving van and may reduce the risk of damaging items.
Also, start holding on to old newspapers and buy some bubble wrap. You’ll need these to protect breakable and valuable items.
Vigilantly Declutter
As hard as it might be, moving is the best time to declutter your home. Ask yourself if you really still need a lot of the things that are gathering dust. If you didn’t even know that you had certain things, then it might be time to bring them to a charity shop.
Prepare Your Change Of Address List
We have an entire page based on creating a detailed address change checklist, which includes everything from home insurance to doctors, and subscriptions to banks. Don’t skip this step, as it could result in problems down the line.
Confirm All The Removal Company Services Needed
Once you have your packing plan in place, reach out to the moving company and let them know what kind of services you’ll need. You should highlight things like bulky or particularly valuable items.
4-Week Priorities
This is where you should be starting to pack things, but don’t get too carried away.
Collect All Your Important And Legal Documentation
One of the first things you may want to make sure you pack up is all your important documents. Think of birth and marriage certs, as well as passports, medical, and insurance documents. Keep these safe and separate to everything else you’re packing.
Confirm Moving Dates With Utility Companies
Assuming there are no anticipated delays, contact your electricity, water, and gas service companies. This gives them enough time to start switching over your accounts.
Start Packing Stuff You Won’t Need
We all have things that we only use once in a blue moon. Start filling boxes with everything that you won’t need for the next 4 to 5 weeks.
Start Cooking Out Of Your Freezer
Before moving house, aim to reduce how much food you have in your freezer. Not only will this reduce the weight, but you won’t have to worry about items defrosting and going bad.
2-Week Priorities
You’re getting closer to your new home, and now the real packing starts
Start Methodical Packing
Work from room to room and stick to your packing plan. The more you can get in boxes during this week, the less stress you’ll have in the final days.
Cancel Or Switch Subscriptions And Household Services
If you have any newspaper or magazine subscriptions, go to the websites and update the services with your new address details. You’ll want to start doing this for your landline, mobile phone, Internet and TV companies as well.
Set Up Postal Forwarding
Make sure you set up postal forwarding with the Royal Mail. This ensures that anything that still goes to your old address will be forwarded to the new one [2].
Confirm Day And Time With Removal Company
Call the moving company and find out what time you should expect the van to arrive at your old home. Keep in mind that you may want to avoid certain rush hour times.
1-Week Priorities
At this stage, the majority of boxes should be packed, and you need to move onto some other important items.
Set Aside 2 Hours To Go Through Your Address Change List
Any company and organisation that sends out anything to you need to be informed of your new address information. If you’ve followed our separate address change checklist, then you know how many companies to contact.
Ideally, give yourself 30 minutes a day for this task.
Gather Your Important Documents And Valuables
In an earlier step, you gathered important and legal documents. You should also be keeping valuable items separate and maybe even store them with close family before you move to the new home.
Defrost The Freezer
Make sure that your freezer is now empty and start to defrost it. Unless you know for sure that the move will be very short, it’s not worth chancing food poisoning from partially defrosted food.
Check The Weather Forecast
You need to prepare for rain, hail, and snow. Don’t let bad weather catch you out by surprise on the day of the move.
Start Cleaning
Either hire a cleaning company to do this or gradually do this as you complete packing up rooms. You don’t want to face this job after all your boxes and furniture are at your new home.
1-Day Priorities
Disconnect Any Appliances You’re Moving
This just makes things a lot faster to load up on the day you’re moving home. The more appliances that are ready to go, the better.
Make Sure All Boxes Are Labeled Properly
Ideally, all boxes should be placed in the right rooms at the new house. But you can only do that if you have labeled things in a clearly visible way.
Try And Park Your Cars Directly Outside Your Home
To avoid wasting time on carrying boxes and furniture down the road to a parked van, try to take up one or two parking spaces directly outside your old home. As soon as the van arrives, you can just move your cars to have easier access.
Moving Day
It’s time to get up early to not waste any time.
Pack Up Any Last Items That Were Still Used
The first thing to do on moving day is to pack up the last couple of things you still needed the night before. These are likely to be items that you’ll need at the new house immediately as well, so pack them conveniently.
Take A Final Metre Reading
Do this as soon as possible and ideally call the gas, electricity, and water companies with the readings straight away. This ensures that the final bills are accurate.
Meet The Removal Company
Keep an eye out for the moving company van, and get them to park outside your door. You don’t want to spend more time and effort on carrying things during moving day than you absolutely have to.
Do A Final Check Of Your Home
Before you lock up and permanently head to your new house, just do one last check that nothing was left behind. It may also be a good idea to have someone double-check as well.
Put Your Own Plan In Place
As you can see, it’s all about planning. Once you have a plan and a detailed moving house checklist, then getting everything and everyone to your new home should be a lot more hassle-free. And if you can have friends and family help with the move, as well as minding kids and pets, then you might have all the support needed to get off to a great start in your new home.
And, for your moving needs, you can check out our man in a van service.
References:
- https://medium.com/@Viewmychain/what-exactly-is-a-property-chain-and-how-does-it-work-b7d5dbc3de7a
- https://www.royalmail.com/personal/receiving-mail/redirection
