Moving home brings with it many different tasks that need to be completed and as it gets nearer to your removal date it is easy to lose momentum, even for the most organised of people. Finding a professional, experienced removal company can help to ease the stress at this time, as you can be confident they are on top of your removals needs, and your moving day will go to plan.
Take a look at these ten tasks that you should be doing before your moving day to ensure the run up to your move and the first few days in your new home is less demanding.
1. Notify utility companies and insurance providers
Inform your utility company and insurance providers of the date of your move so they can discontinue your service at your current address. You will also have to let them know your new address for them to post you a final bill.
Don’t forget to take a meter reading before you leave on your moving day, you will need to pass this on to your suppliers for them to send you your final bill. Keep a note of the reading for yourself so you can confirm this when you receive your bill. If it's easier you can just take a photo on your phone.
Our Change of Address Checklist lists all the people to inform when moving house and can help you keep track of who you have already given your new details to.
2. Forward post
Although you will have notified the relevant companies of your house move, it is important to inform Royal Mail and organise a mail redirection service to forward mail to your new home. This can be done online or through your local Post Office branch.
You may also wish to discuss with your buyers a way of forwarding any post to your new address or arranging a time for you to visit your old house to pick up any post.
3. Plan your journey
Getting lost on your moving day is not the best start to your new life in your new home, so plan your journey for the day beforehand. Not only will it help you feel confident that you know the route, it will also allow you to work out how long the journey will take. You may also wish to check the traffic at certain times of the day to see if there are any traffic hotspots or roads that may be best avoided.
It is important to consider the journey for both you and your removals company, who will be using a large lorry that won’t appreciate a route with many sharp corners or low bridges. Also it's a good idea to have a couple of back-up routes, in case of bad traffic or road accidents.
4. Check if your removal company will disassemble furniture
This is a service that most removal companies offer, but make sure they do before they turn up on the day. If this is something that you require be sure to tell them and to state which items you would like to be disassembled during your pre-move survey, so they can include it in your quote and will arrive with sufficient time and equipment on your moving day.
5. Have appliances professionally disconnected
This is another service which is important to organise in advance of your moving day. Your removal company may not be able to provide this service, so make sure that you have booked in a professional company that will be able to do this for you.
6. Clean your home
Despite feeling like every second you spend in your house is devoted to packing boxes, it is worth taking some time out to do a thorough clean of your house. With much of your time spent moving possessions into boxes and boxes into different rooms, dust and dirt will accumulate – especially in less used rooms and behind items of furniture that aren’t often moved.
Make sure you have cleaning supplies handy; don’t pack these away into a box ready to be moved. This is a great opportunity to use up your half empty cleaning products to save moving them to your new home, and as your removal cost will be calculated on the volume of items to be move, you may also save some money.
Cleaning your home in advance of your move will make the quick clean you do on your moving day much less strenuous. You do not want to be stressed about doing a deep clean of your home when your removal company is there, moving in and out of rooms.
7. Pack an overnight bag
An overnight bag for each member of your family will help you to settle into your new home on the night of your move without having to search through a seemingly endless collection of boxes for towels and toothbrushes. Pack your overnight bag with everything you think you will need before you have chance to begin your unpacking, including pyjamas, a hairbrush and any medication needed over the moving period.
This bag should be kept separate from your other moving boxes to make sure your removal company doesn’t take it away with them in the lorry. It may be worth putting this bag straight into your car first thing on your moving day to be certain that you have it readily available.
Our Moving Day Survival Kit will give you a complete list of what to include in your overnight luggage.
8. Find garage keys
This is something that is easily forgotten, and on the busy, demanding removals day the keys to infrequently used doors will not be something at the top of your list of concerns. Making sure you collect all keys for garages and outbuildings. Placing them somewhere safe in advance of your move will ensure that an easily forgotten job gets completed. And your buyers won't want you hanging on to keys to their new home!
9. Gather records together
Many of the most important documents in a household are only occasionally retrieved throughout the year, so during the moving process it is easy to forget about them until a sudden panic sets in that you haven’t seen your passports, counterpart diving licenses and wills since you started packing. Gather together all important records and documentation in advance of your move, and keep them in a safe, recognisable place so you know where they are.
10. Organise boxes for loading
There are different methods to organising your boxes, but it would be a good idea to arrange boxes by which room they will be going to in your new home rather than the room they are coming from, as you may not have the same rooms in your new home. Colour coordinating and cross-referencing the boxes to the destination room is an effective way to keep all associated boxes together and ensure they arrive in the correct place. If you choose to number your boxes, a good tip would be to include the total number of boxes, e.g. box number 5 of 20 for kitchen, so you can be aware when all boxes have arrived in their corresponding room.
Organising your boxes before your removals team arrives will allow them to begin loading promptly and will make them aware of the correct rooms to unload your boxes into.
Remember, the first boxes going into the truck at your old address will be last out at your new home, so make sure the ones containing things you need urgently are not in the back of the removals lorry. Be conscious of boxes and items that will be going with you in your car, such as your overnight bag and Survival Kit, and ensure these will not be mistakenly taken by your removals team in the lorry.
We have a wide variety of guides and moving advice articles that will help you with your move, including a Complete Moving Checklist that will give you a comprehensive guide on which tasks you will need to accomplish during your moving process. For advice on how to prepare for a stress free moving day, take a look at our ten top tips.
Updated August 2020