Moving house checklist
Are you planning to move to a new house? Then this moving house checklist is for you. Any homeowner who has relocated to a new home can attest that moving houses is not a favourite thing to do. Whether you are a first-timer or move houses frequently, the process entails packing boxes, booking moving vans, and sorting final bills.
Unfortunately, these actions can be overwhelming even to a person who is moving for the better. Be that as it may, homeowners should use a moving house checklist to help them plan adequately before relocating to their new home.
A moving house checklist eases all your procedures by helping you keep track of the progress you’re making toward your relocation date. In this guide, we have put together
- A moving house checklist
- 11 things you need to do before relocating into a new house.
- Importance of creating a moving house moving checklist
- Things you need to ease your moving house process
Lack of the proper plan when relocating to a new house can result in a stressful moment. That is why we have designed a simple home-moving checklist to help you move out with ease.
Two months before moving house
Prior planning enables you to smoothly transit through when you are relocating into a new house. The following are the activities you should do two months into your date of moving.
- Create a moving binder and checklist
Using Google Docs, you can create a moving binder. Ensure you separate your task into eight segments. The job should begin eight weeks before the date of moving in and ends two weeks after you relocate into your new house. You can print it to have a moving checklist.
- Know what else should be in the binder
After adding the checklist, come up with sections for items such as documentation, contact info, and receipts.
- Organise your document
Keep track of every final bill or moving estimate.
- Measure your furniture
It can be very stressful to relocate and find out that your couch won’t fit through your door. That’s why it is advisable to take measurements of all your big-sized stuff to ensure they will fit in your new door to avoid last-minute problems.
- Book time off and pack your first box
Moving house is a tasking job that you won’t like to prepare at the last minute. If your work entails a tight schedule, you must book a day or two off to do the preparation. Start by identifying and packing essential items that you don’t need on daily use.
- Create a backfile
If you have your photos on your computers, create a backfile using your external hard drive or through the cloud.
- Research your moving company
Use customer reviews to find out the best moving company near you. Then, request three quotes.
- Dispose of any of your belonging you don’t want
Identify any items that you don’t use, and get rid of them by either selling them off or donating them to charity.
45 days before the move
The first two weeks are ideal for organising your house move. However, the second phase entails narrowing down to the actual work.
- Collect free boxes
You can start by calling your grocery or local store to check if you can get free boxes.
- Label your boxes
Labelling helps you to identify with ease the commodity inside each box when closed.
- Sort up your utilities
Moving your power is much straightforward; it requires some clicks. However, remember your phone and internet too.
- Check out your new location.
If you are moving miles away from your current home, arrange your kids’ school, doctors, or childcare.
30 days to moving house day
When you have thirty days to sleep in your home, you should book your movers in advance.
- Make travel arrangement
It is essential to have the actual travel route if you’re driving your goods yourself.
- Buy packing bags
Suppose you did not get enough free packing boxes in your local store. It is time to buy any extra moving boxes you will need to hold your supplies.
- Decide on the moving company.
Get several quotes from moving companies and finalise your budget. Remember to keep all the receipts if you pay in advance.
- Contact your utility providers.
Arrange with your utility providers about installing their services on your new home.
- Continue packing
Continue packing as planned earlier. Also, make sure you clearly label all your fragile items in the boxes.
- Notify people in your inner circle
It is essential to let people in your inner circle know about your decision. Use the best means of communication to let them know about your decision to relocate to a new home.
15 days before you move
When you are 15 days away from your new home, the main objective should be updating your contact information and finalising your moving day.
- Change your address
Contact all the people you do business with and arrange how you will forward your new mail to them.
- Share your new address.
Friends and family should know where you are moving to. It is also important to invite them to assist you in unpacking your valuables.
- Cancel your subscription
If you have a local gym membership, moving a mile away makes it less effective.
- Confirm your moving date
Verify with your moving binder if everything is still on schedule.
- Complete packing
Ensure your inventory are complete, your boxes well labelled, and all your valuables identified before you start packing.
7 days before you move
During this time, your main objective should be to make everything prepared for the moving day.
- Disassemble any oversized furniture item
- Ensure you collect all garage door openers
You may be required to handle this item to the property owner or next tenants.
- Ensure you pack your suitcase
It is essential to make sure each family member gets their suitcase to pack their essential items like socks or pyjamas.
- Clean all empty
It is courteous to leave each room clean and attractive.
- Do a final visit to your new house.
During this visit, ensure that your water heaters are working, water shut off valve and circuit breakers.
- Get cash
It is vital to have enough cash to deal with an unexpected need during the move day.
- Pay all county taxes if applicable.
- Ensure you change your address with your bank, HMRC, TV Licensing, DVLA, and credit cards
- Defrost your freezer
- If it’s a rental premise, take detailed photos of each room covering any damage that might cause issues on your deposit.
During the move day
- Take note of your final meter reading in your old home.
- Ensure your pets and children are taken care of during the process.
- Ensure you carry the keys for accessing your new residence
- If you are moving to a rental house, inspect the new premises and report any damages to your landlord.
- Also, take the meter reading for the new home.
- Leave the contact address of your old house with the letting agents.
After you move
- Let your employer know that you have relocated to a new house
- Ensure you update DVLA for both your car registration and driving license
- Inform your TV licensing company
- Ensure your bank is up to date
- Update your credit commitment
- Update your insurers
11 things you need to do before moving house
First, when planning to move your items to a new home, take stock of your belongings and cut back on what you don’t need. Here are the 11 things you need to do before moving house to help ease the process.
#1. Confirm your date
First, it is crucial to have your move date officially confirmed by conveyancers and house sellers. However, if you are renting, you have an opportunity to spread your moving day in several days. This action helps you to complete any task like painting or cleaning the carpet before you move in.
#2. Best time to start packing
When you identify the date and month you are moving to your new home. The earlier you start packing the non-essential items in your home, the better. The action should take a couple of weeks to the moving date. Also, it helps you dispose of any item that you don’t need.
#3. Check out the removals service.
When you are relocating to your new house, you generally have two choices to make- move your belonging yourself or choose to hire the services of a professional removal company. Most professional removal providers are effective in their services and are just a phone call away from your house.
When selecting the best removalist company, you can check out online reviews and recommendations from your friends and past clients. To avoid last-minute rush and confusion, you should engage your removalist and agree on the price before the moving day.
#4. Check your insurance.
Relocation entails heavy lifting that may break and damage your valuables. That is why a homeowner must consult a local insurer to check out if their property has a cover when undertaking the moving procedures. Also, getting a piece of personal advice on liability when such an event happens is paramount. Besides, such consultation helps you push for a better deal or change your insurer if their contracts are not favourable.
#5. Let people know you are relocating.
When you are moving home, it is essential to let everyone who relies on your current address know about your plans. Communicate to the organisation that sends you posts before your relocation and share your new address. The following are some of the people you should let know about your moving out.
- Notify utility provider
It is essential to be proactive when you are moving out. Before you relocate to your new homes, ensure you get your final meter reading for your water, electricity, and gas. This action is essential as you can settle any dispute related to water, gas or electricity bills that may arise between you and the new owner of your house. Nonetheless, ensure you do the same in your new residence.
Furthermore, inform all your utility bills providers about your intention before you close your door. As a result, you will avoid any distress call about missing bills that are payable.
- Notify property owner
Where applicable, it is crucial to notify your landlord, through official writing, of your intention to vacate their premises. Such letters protect you from any dispute that may arise.
- Remember to change your tv Licence.
When you change your location, your tv license does not change automatically. That is why you are required to notify such companies of your intention. Failure to do so, you risk paying a fine of up to £ 1000.
- Redirect your mail in advance at the post office
Communicating with those companies that provide you with your utilities is not enough. If you have lived in your house for a longer duration, you must use redirect service if you wish to receive posts from people who aren’t aware you relocated. This procedure takes ten days to effect. You can choose to use it for a couple of months or a year to avoid any vital post going astray.
Besides, if you change your phone number, you need to arrange with your telephone provider. As a result, the telephone company automatically provides your new number to all you callers for several weeks after the switchover date.
- Fill your prescription
As part of your preparation, if you are relocating to a home that is miles away from your current home, you don’t want to get stuck with medicine. Make sure you set up an appointment with your doctor or pharmacies for refills. Then go ahead and find a new doctor in the area you moving in.
- Re-register as a voter
Although voting may not be your top priority, it is advisable you re-register to vote in the new address by amending your registered voting address online using the government website.
#6. Organise for your child and pet care
The moving day is hectic and full of endless activities. It would be best to organise how your children and pet are cared for during the moving day. When your children are left to run and play, they complicate your work.
That is why it is essential to arrange for a registered childminder or ask a family member to look after your young ones. However, if you have some pets, all you need to do is take advantage of the pet shipping service around you, and it will transport your pet safely to their new home.
#7. Prepare your home for the next owner.
Be courteous and prepare a brief sheet on the next person who will occupy your home. The brief should illustrate how to use the alarm and boiler. Also, it should show the location of the stopcock, fuse box and where the meters are.
Further, it is essential to label each key and leave them on its lock. Also, don’t forget to mark your /garage keys or any key used to lock windows. Nonetheless, you should also include the contact of a trusted plumber, builder, or locksmith just in case the new owner need any of these tradespersons.
#8. Clean your new house
It is advisable to do a thorough cleaning of your new house before the relocation day. Ensure you steam the carpet and wall before your relocation. Cleaning your new home in advance will help you settle quickly on the day of the move.
#9. Have a big clear-out
When you are doing your preparation to relocate into a new house, it is time you decide what is not worth keeping. Before you start boxing your belongings, ensure you go through your clothes, furniture, and electronics. Decide on the items you don’t need. Clear them of by donating them to the local charity shop or by reselling them.
#10. Pack every item and label the boxes
Before you put your belonging into boxes, ensure that you label all the boxes in order. Then make a list that will help you identify which items are in a particular package. This action eases your work, as you do not have to root around whenever you are looking out for a specific item.
#11. Keep all the essentials in order
You will need to have all the essential items the first night you move to the new place. That is why you should place them on particular boxes. Essential are things like;
- Phone and laptop chargers
- Television and radio
- Kettle, mug, tea, milk sugar
- Beddings for the first night
- Temporary furniture
Ensure you keep all your documents like mortgage papers and passports in a safe place where they can be easy to find.
The importance of having a moving house checklist
The process of relocating into a new house is often complicated and comes with a lot of stress. That’s why it is essential to plan before the moving day to help make the transition smoother. A moving checklist can guide you through the process of moving. It takes the hassle out of the moving day, help in better organisation and ensures you don’t forget any of your items when moving time finally comes. Here are some of the benefits of having a moving checklist while transferring homes
#1. Keeps you organised
Moving house involves a lot of activities which can be stressful and overwhelming without a point of reference. However, a moving house checklist can help you to stay organised during the whole process of moving.
When you have a moving house checklist, it will help you better organise your belongings before the moving day. Furthermore, it enables you to sort your items more quickly, making the unpacking process simpler.
Consider creating a moving checklist so you can organise your stuff better and know where every item is supposed to be. Just ensure you follow the guidelines you have written to help track your items and ensure you can account for all of them. Also, ensure you notify anyone helping you to organise your things about your checklist.
#2. Speed and efficiency
A moving house checklist will help in making the moving process smoother and more efficient. It provides you with a schedule of things you need to do. That enables you to focus better and deal with the job much better.
During the packaging process, the checklist will guide you to go through one item after the other while avoiding back and forth, and this makes the whole process faster. Also, it prevents time wastage from forgetting packaging some things in the process. So, when you’re transferring homes, a checklist is a great idea to help the task at hand be done faster and much better.
#3. Prevent forgetting items
While moving homes, it is possible to leave behind some of your essential items, especially when you have so many things to do within a limited time. That’s why it is vital to have a moving house checklist to help you through the process. The list will ensure you pack each item you have in the house.
#4. Keep track of all your important documents.
During movement, you can easily misplace your essential documents. But with a checklist, you can list all these items down and prioritise them during packaging to ensure you don’t lose them during moving. First, you can gather all the vital paperwork and put them away in a safe and secure place.
#5. Reduce stress
Moving is an overwhelming process that comes with a lot of stress. The process can be incredibly stressful if you have a large family or possess many household items and personal belongings. The stress associated with the entire process is one of the main reasons why many people avoid moving. However, having a checklist to help with the move can ease you from the associated stress.
A moving checklist provides you with a schedule of the tasks you have to accomplish without overlooking anything. When you plan your move ahead of time, you will complete the job correctly and in time. That is because you will outline what you need to do and how to execute each task. So, a moving checklist can go a long way in reducing the stress associated with moving.
#6. Keep track of your belongings.
One of the most overwhelming and time-consuming activities while relocating is organising and packing items. That is where a checklist comes in handy. A moving list will help keep track of your belongings. However, when creating it, ensure you include everything.
Furthermore, to make your packing and relocation process smoother, it is advisable to have a detailed packing guide on every page of your checklist. Such a guide will enable you to know where every item goes and how you will move them. That way, your unpacking process will be easy and painless since you will know exactly where everything is.
Things you need to ease your moving house process
For your relocation process to be smooth and successful, you will need to have proper materials for moving. Below are some of the essential things you will need while moving
- Moving boxes
One of the most necessary materials you need for your relocation process is moving boxes. These boxes are useful in packing your belongings, and they carry almost everything. However, when purchasing the moving boxes, you should ensure you go for good quality boxes.
A good moving box should be hard and strong. That ensures the boxes can firmly hold and carry your items safely without pouring or tearing.
- Moving wrappers
You will also need moving wrappers when relocating. The wrappers help wrap your items, including the moving boxes, kitchenware, furniture and, electronics.
The moving wrappers prevent your items from damages. They inhibit water penetration into your items in case spillage occurs. Also, it reduces the chances of scratches and breakages on your valuables. In addition, wrapping up your stuff prevents them from coming into contact with fine dust, and fingerprint touches are typical during the moving process.
- Sellotapes
Sellotapes are other essential materials that you will require during the moving process. It helps in binding the moving boxes plus any other packed items. When you tightly tape your boxes, it reduces the chances of tearing and pouring your packed items.
- Mark pens
Mark pens are for labelling wrapped materials and moving boxes. That way, you can quickly identify the packed items, which makes the unpacking process more manageable. Also, it enables you to know the best way of handling the boxes depending on the level of the delicateness of the items packed. Therefore, it is imperative to appropriately mark the moving boxes to ensure easy and safe movement.
- Moving tools
You will also require some moving tools such as pliers, spanners and other dismantling tools. These tools make it easier to dismantle fixed items such as curtains, beds, seats, and other pieces of furniture. You should get the right tools based on the demands of your house.
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