Moving Checklist

2 Months Until Moving Day

1. Define Your Moving Budget

   You’ve likely already spent a fair bit of money on your new home, but there’s a lot of other costs you’ve got to cover yet. Define how much all the other aspects of your move are going to cost – plumbers, electricians, locksmiths, etc. - and then decide how much you can spend on your moving company.

2. Research Moving Companies

   Decide what you want from your moving company and then find the perfect movers for you. Are you looking for movers who will handle the whole process, with packing and unpacking, furniture assembly, etc.? Or do you just need a couple of guys and a truck?Decide what kind of moving company you’re looking for, then use Movers Run to find the right one for you.

3. Research Niche Movers

   If you need any additional moving services for items such as fine art, pool tables, antique furniture or pianos, then look into these, too. We have a great selection of specialist moving companies here on Movers Run.

4. Ask Questions

   When you have a list of companies you’ve researched, get in touch and ask them any questions you might have about their levels of experience, services offered, insurance and anything else that may influence your decision on which company to go with.
   Check out our list of things to look out for when choosing your moving company if you aren’t sure what to ask!

5. Keep Your Kids Informed

   Moving to a new area can be a big transition for a kid, especially if it’s the first time they’ve done it or need to move schools, so make sure you keep your family in the loop. Have a conversation with your kids about your plans way ahead of moving day and give them time to ask questions and get used to the idea.

6. Give In Your Notice

   If you’re living in a rented property, you need to make sure that you give your landlord plenty of time to find a new family to move in. Check your rental agreement to see how much notice you need to give, but give it as soon as you can.

6 Weeks Until Moving Day

1. Compare Quotes

   When you’ve got a shortlist of moving companies, contact them via their website or phone number to ask for a quote on how much it will cost you. Be sure you have all the details of your move with you – how far away you are moving, how many trucks you will need, how many movers will need to be there, etc.
   Keep a list of each quote to help you make your decision. Remember, don’t simply look for the lowest price – keep in mind levels of experience and value for money.

2. Ask For Help

   If you need family and friends to help you with your move, then make sure that you ask weeks in advance, giving them plenty of notice in case they need to keep the day free to do it.

3. Finalize Your Decision

   Look at all the comparisons you’ve made between your shortlist of the different moving companies that you found on Movers Run, weigh up the positives and negatives of each one and make a final decision on which company to go with!

4. Schedule Your Moving Day

   Get in contact with your chosen moving company and schedule a date and time that you need them to show up on your moving day.

5. Order Packing Supplies

   Make sure you’ve ordered all your packing supplies ahead of time. Packing tape, cardboard boxes, packing peanuts, bubble wrap and anything else you might need. Don’t get caught short – make sure you’ve ordered enough to pack up all of your belongings.

6. Get Your Kids Into School

   If you’ve got children moving with you and will need to enrol them into a new school, do that as soon as you can. The school enrolment process can be pretty long, so you want to make sure you’ve got plenty of time to get them into their new schools before you move.

7. Contact Your Insurance Providers

   You may need to change your insurance providers for home, auto and health insurance depending on where you are moving to. Contact your insurance providers and double check whether or not they cover the area that you are moving to.

5 Weeks Until Moving Day

1. ‘Marie Kondo’ Your Belongings

   We’re all guilty of taking belongings with us from one home to another that we don’t really need and sometimes we never even unpack them! Don’t make the same mistake again. Clear out any belongings that you don’t need and split them into categories depending on what you are going to do with them – sell, donate and throw away.
   It can take some time to go through everything, but getting rid of all the things you don’t use or need will make the moving process much easier further down the line.

2. Host A Yard Sale

   For the smaller items that you aren’t taking with you, you can sell them as long as they are in good condition. Why not host a yard sale for things such an ornaments, toys and other items that you aren’t planning on bringing to your new house? Every extra dollar will help towards your moving costs!

3. Donate Your Pre-Loved Possessions

   It’s worth donating anything that you can’t sell at your yard sale to Goodwill or a similar shop, as long as the items are in good enough condition. Why throw something away if it could go to someone who would use it and make some money for charity?

4. Sell Surplus Furniture

   If you have large pieces of furniture that you don’t want to bring with you to your new place, then see if you can sell them on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace. Your old couch could be exactly what someone out there is looking to add to their own living room!

5. Schedule Appliance Services

   If you are planning on taking any of your appliances with you to the new home, then you should organize for someone from an appliance service company to come and prepare them for the move ahead of time.

6. Cancel Local Memberships

   Some gyms and clubs require a notice period of thirty days to cancel a membership, so do that sooner rather than later. Why not also use the opportunity to check out the gyms and clubs in your new neighbourhood, too?

4 Weeks Until Moving Day

1. Have Your Car Serviced

   If your car has got to transport you a pretty long distance to your new place, you want to make sure that it’s up to the task! Have your car serviced ahead of the move, then you’ve got plenty of time to fix any issues before the big day.

2. Start Packing

   Start packing items which you can do without for the next few weeks, such as ornaments, photographs and other decorative items – anything which doesn’t really serve a purpose other than to look nice. Your current home might feel a little less cozy and a little more empty, but you’ll thank yourself when you don’t have to do it further down the line.

3. Confirm Moving Date

   Ring up your moving company to confirm the time and date of your move once again, and use the opportunity to ask any other final questions you might want answered before the day.

3 Weeks Until Moving Day

1. Contact Service Providers

   If you use any local cleaning, gardening or pool maintenance companies on a regular basis, you should take the opportunity to contact them and let them know that you will be moving.

2. Find New Service Providers

   Take the opportunity to look into replacing these services for your new home. It’s good to do this ahead of time, as it gives you time to look up the most highly recommended companies in your new neighbourhood and compare costs in order to help you choose the best one for you.

3. Schedule Your Mail To Forward

   Go to USPS.com and request that your mail is forwarded to your new place – this can start within three days of your request, but can take up to a fortnight depending on the time of year, so it’s best to do this a few weeks before your move.

4. Move Your Utilities

   Call up the companies who provide your utilities – water, gas, electricity, phone, internet, etc. - and let them know that you are moving. If you are only moving locally, you may just need to let them know of your new address and have them come to do some checks/installations once you move, but if you’re moving a little further afield, you may need to switch to another company entirely.
   The process of finding and switching to a new utility company can take a few weeks, so it’s best to allow plenty of time to make the change.

5. Change Address For Ongoing Subscriptions/Benefits

   If you use any subscription services or receive any regular government maintenance, you need to make sure that you change your address for these a few weeks in advance.

2 Weeks Until Moving Day

1. Pre-Order and Transfer Prescriptions

   If you receive any regular medical prescriptions, make sure you pre-order enough to carry you through the first few weeks after your move and transfer your prescriptions to a pharmacy in your new local area.
   This also goes for any non-pharmaceutical prescriptions, such as repeat deliveries of contact lenses. Make sure you have enough to carry you through a few weeks and transfer your lens deliveries to an optometrist in your new neighbourhood.

2. Forward Medical Records

   Select a new doctor and dentist in your new neighbourhood, then contact your current doctor’s office to have your medical records forwarded. You should also let your current dentist know that you are moving away from the area and will not be returning to the clinic.

3. Plan New Furniture Arrangement

   It will make your moving day a lot quicker and allow you to waste no time settling in if you already know where all your furniture is being placed in your new home, and needless to say, your movers will thank you for it, too!If you have the blueprint or any photographs of the rooms of your new home, plan out what the layout of each room will be ahead of time.

4. Order New Furniture and Furnishings

   Order any new furniture and furnishings that you will need in your new house, so that you can get straight on with turning it into a home. Of course, don’t over-do it too much, as you will have to bring these new items with you on your move, but certainly order items that you will need as soon as you move in.

5. Schedule Decorators

   If you are going to require the services of decorators or builders once you’ve moved into your new home, schedule these ahead of time – otherwise, you might find yourself waiting a long time to get your new property looking how you want it to.

6. Update Billing Addresses

   Get online and change your billing address with your bank, PayPal, etc. to change your billing address for any future online purchases. This will only take you a few minutes, but it’s very important, so make sure you do it when you have the chance.

7. Get Important Information For New Homeowners Together

   If you have the warranties, guarantees or manuals for any appliances in your current home, such as the boiler, air conditioning or kitchen appliances that will not be moving with you, then you should get these together and leave them in an easy-to-find place for the new occupants. This isn’t compulsory, but it’s certainly considerate.

1 Week Until Moving Day

1. Find A New Vet

   If you have a pet and will be moving to an area far away from your current veterinary practice, then it’s best to find a new one before you go. The last thing anyone ever wants is to be caught short finding someone to help if their beloved pet gets sick, so make sure you’re prepared by knowing exactly where to take them if that ever happens.

2. Leave It As You Found It

   Take a few days to clean your current home top to bottom, leaving it lovely and clean for the people who will be living there next. Take the time to clean the oven, bathroom, scrub the floors, clean and vacuum the carpets – leave your current home as clean and tidy as you hope to find your new one.

3. Run Final Errands

   Still holding on to the dinner set you that you borrowed off of one of your friends? Got a P.O box you need to close? Make sure you get all these little errands finished in the week before you move, as the following week will most likely be so busy that things like this are difficult to remember to do.

4. Schedule Final Inspection

   If you rent your current home, then ask your landlord to come over before you leave to conduct a final inspection. This will allow them to talk through any issues with you before you move, which will prevent any issues with the return of your security deposit after you leave the property.

5. Take Out The Trash

   Make sure you aren’t leaving any of your trash behind in the bins of your current home, as the people who move in are likely to need them right away. If you need to take a trip to your local recycling center for any reason, it’s best to do that the week before you move, too.

6. Begin Packing Frequently Used Items

   In the week before you move, start packing up the more frequently used items in your home, leaving out just your furniture and the things that you absolutely need. For example, pack away all your cutlery, just leaving out enough for your last few meals before the move, and pack away items from your bathroom cupboards that you don’t use every day. There’s a pretty simple rule to follow here: ‘unless you use it every day, pack it away’! You’ll thank yourself for it on the day of the move.

1 Day Until Moving Day

1. Pack Essential Clothing and Items

   Pack your everyday items and any clothing that you’ll need as soon as you move that you hadn’t been able to pack away yet, such as work uniforms, bathroom essentials and certain kitchen items. The days after moving are likely to be pretty busy, so you might not get round to unpacking all of your clothes right away – put together a suitcase with a few days worth of clothes just in case, and keep things such as make-up and toothbrushes that you’ll need the next day in there, too.

2. Get Tips Together

   If you plan on tipping any of the movers or other workers who are helping you with your move, get some cash out the day before so that you aren’t rushing around trying to find the nearest ATM in your new area the next day, especially when you’ll have much more important things to be doing!

3. Say Your Goodbyes

   Tomorrow morning, you’re going to be way too busy to be knocking on your neighbour’s doors to say goodbye, so find some time for that the day before the big move.

4. Prepare Refreshments

   If you need to pack lunch for the day of the move or were thinking of providing some water or snacks to the movers or family and friends who are helping you move, then prepare those the night before. If you’ve got a cooler box, wrap them up and pack them away, so that they can be thrown in the boot of your car first thing in the morning.

Moving Day

1. Take Stock

   Make sure you know exactly what items are going on the truck. Keep a list so that you can check them all off before the movers leave your new home at the end of the day.

2. Final Checks

   Take a final look over your current home before you leave and check any easy-to-miss spots for items you could have left behind. Cupboards, wardrobes and garages may all contain items we might not notice we’re missing until it’s too late!

3. Hand Over The Keys

   Finally, hand over your keys to your landlord or to the new homeowner – now you’re ready to go!

1^st Week Post-Move

1. Clean Your New Home

   Once all your furniture is in place, take some time to clean your new home so that it’s ready for any decorators to come in and for all your soft furnishings to be added to the rooms.

2. Unpack Smaller Items

   Start unpacking all your smaller items – the ones that you most likely started to pack away weeks ago!

3. Meet The Neighbours

   Don’t be a stranger! Take some time out of your first week to greet your new neighbours. They might even be able to give you some tips to help you familiarize yourself with the area.

4. Check Security and Safety Features

   If your home has smoke alarms, burglar alarms or carbon monoxide alarms, make sure you test all these out to check if they work.

5. Change The Locks

   You don’t know who may have been given a key to your house under the ownership of the last people who lived there, so change the locks as soon as you move in.

6. Call An Electrician

   Just to be on the safe side, it’s a good idea to get an electrician to look at all your outlets and wiring when you first move in so that they can identify any problems there might be.

7. Register Your Pet

   Some states require that you register any pets you have in your home when you move into the area. Check online to see whether or not you need to do this.

8. Check On Your Security Deposit

   Have you received your security deposit back from your landlord yet? If you haven’t had it back by the end of your first week in your new home, it could be worth following up on this.

9. Enjoy Your New Home!

   We’re sure you don’t need any help with this one! Kick back, relax and enjoy settling in to your new place.