5 Smart Things to Do Before You Move

By David Green

Updated: Feb 19, 2020

5 min read

Fact-checked by Martin Panayotov

Reviewer & editor

The process of moving house is often a rather chaotic time when you can expect (unpleasant) surprises from literally everywhere. To make things even more complicated, a residential move often includes more than a hundred pre-move tasks that are screaming to be taken care of one by one, or sometimes even two at a time.

Luckily, of all the things to do before moving into a new home, some jobs are clearly labelled URGENT and have a much higher to-do priority than the rest. And that can be very helpful while you’re trying to figure out where to begin the moving preparations. The smart thing under the circumstances is to complete the absolute fundamental relocation tasks first, and then, all of a sudden, you will have a much better idea of what you need to do to have the successful relocation you hoped for.

Take a closer look at our moving checklist of 5 smart things to do before moving out. These 5 fundamental tasks contain numerous sub-tasks, so in the end, you get a list of 18 essentially smart things to do before you move house.

1. Find an affordable removal company

Our list of smart things to do before you move house starts with arguably the most important prerequisite for a truly successful move – hiring the services of a reputable and affordable removal company.

Research top rated removal companies

The hunt for a top rated removal company that will fit your budget and meet your expectations and requirements always starts with a preliminary research on your part. Don’t make the rookie moving mistake of contacting just the first removals you come across but do your homework to stay on the safe side. Ask friends and colleagues if they have recently used the services of a dependable removal company and can recommend it for you as well. If not, browse through moving reviews, ratings and testimonials left by real customers of local or long distance removals that support your route.

Request quotes

Recommendations and reviews must have surely narrowed down your choice of a professional partner but now it’s time to act prudently and see what prices and conditions the candidates for your moving job will offer you. Contact 4-5 pre-selected removal companies and ask them to come over to your home and issue you an accurate price estimate. Think twice before agreeing on a moving estimate done over the phone as it could never be as precise as an in-home one. Alternatively, you can fill out our quick moving cost estimator and get contacted by licensed and insured removals to sort out the details further.

Compare received offers

One of the golden rules of hiring the best removal company for you is that you shouldn’t accept the first offer that comes your way – instead, do a comparative analysis of all the received estimates. Rates and conditions vary with each different local or cross country removal so it’s important that you analyze the data carefully before deciding to go with one professional relocation firm or another. Pay special attention to the additional services you have requested or are required for completing the job – anything from packing and unpacking through disassembling and reassembling your furniture, up to using temporary storage of your household items.

Book your move early

Once you select your experienced professional partner, don’t forget to also book your move as early in your preparations as humanly possible. By now, you should be well aware of the exact date of your upcoming relocation, so go ahead and reserve that date with your chosen removal company. The great thing about having your moving day reserved is that you will know exactly how many days you will have at your disposal for organizing the move the right way.

2. Keep tabs on your finances

Another very smart thing to do before you move out is to keep a close watch over your finances. After all, your money is the fuel that will keep the house move running until the finishing line. And you surely wouldn’t want to run out of fuel during your relocation project, would you?

Create a moving budget

That’s right – you need to make a moving budget because having a detailed list of how your money is supposed to be distributed among the numerous tasks will give you an invaluable overview of the entire financial aspect of your relocation. In reality, your newly-created moving budget will not only inform you about how much money you will roughly spend for the entire “adventure”, but it can also give you valuable information about the task-by-task distribution of your allocated finances. Which, in turn, will give you a much higher level of supervision and control over how greedy each moving job turns out to be and what you can do to respond to a case of exceeding the budgetary limits.

While creating your relocation budget, make sure you include both the obvious expenses and the not-so-obvious costs. The obvious moving costs usually cover the removal company expenses (the estimate your removal firm give you), possible additional insurance and all the extra fees you may get charged in the course of the move. Hidden costs usually apply when you’ve decided to move on your own and include but are not limited to renting a moving vehicle, purchasing extra insurance, buying packing supplies, renting moving equipment, paying for food and lodging along the way, and a score of other expected and unexpected DIY costs.

Look for ways to lower your expenses

Clearly, it’s possible that your moving budget gives you bad news about the way your moving scenario will play out. If that is the unfortunate situation you happen to find yourself in, then don’t get discouraged by the limitations of your finances but look for proven ways to pay less money in the end. Take a look at our 7 good ways to move on a budget and try to implement at least a few of the cost saving ideas mentioned there.

3. Organize your pre-move time

Of all the things to do before moving house, organizing your time can easily be classified as the smartest move on your part. You may know from personal experience that it hurts to lose precious time in disorganized tasks, stopping and resuming them without rhyme or reason.

Create a moving calendar

Organize your time when moving — While getting ready to move out, every single grain of time matters.

The only true solution to wasting valuable pre-time hours and hours is to create a personal moving calendar and follow it diligently like an A+ student. To make the most out of your time, you are strongly recommended to first personalize your moving to-do list /include only the tasks that are relevant to your individual residential move/ and then to prioritize its entries /schedule to complete the most important tasks first/.

At first, you may not fully realize the importance of such a moving calendar but the more moving day is drawing nearer, the less stressed out you will feel thanks to the organized way of taking care of what needs to be done. As if by magic, each relocation job which you mark as completed will give you more inner confidence and belief that you’re on the right track, as well as added peace of mind that you are in full control of the moving situation.

Take care of all organization tasks

Without a doubt, your own moving calendar will be full of all types of tasks waiting to be finished by nobody else but you. Still, to help you optimize your time better, here’s a concise checklist of the major organization jobs ahead of you.

Notify close friends and important institutions of your soon-to-change postal address.

If you have children, arrange for the transfer of their school records to their new educational facility.

Visit your family physician and request the medical records of all family members. Also, ask for good recommendations for a new health care provider in your new city.

If you have pets, take them to your vet for a complete medical checkup and obtain the necessary paperwork to register your animal friend with a new veterinarian at the destination city.

Make sure your new home has the principal municipal utilities /electricity, water, gas/ up and running.

Don’t forget to cancel any current subscriptions to newspapers, magazines or specific services, and discontinue your membership plans in all clubs or organizations.

If you plan to drive to your new home with your own vehicle, have the car checked out at an authorized car service to ensure a problem-free road trip.

4. Optimize the number of your items

Our checklist of what to do before moving out continues with a very important task which you must do at all costs (unless you’re willing to waste much of your time and waste your hard-earned money, that is). This essential job is all about registering how many items you have in your home, and then figuring out what to do with each one. In other words, one of the smartest things to do before you move is to inventory your home.

Inventory your home

Organize a car boot sale — Moving house is a great opportunity to get rid of unwanted stuff and earn some money at the same time.

By inventorying your home, you will be able to see, once more, all your belongings, including the ones that you have forgotten about. Whether you choose to inventory your items with the help of a pen and a sheet of paper, or you do it in a modern computer-assisted way doesn’t really make a difference. In fact, the important thing here is that the detailed inventory list of your household items will help you:

determine the exact number of items you have accumulated through the years;

see what possessions you haven’t used in a long time and consequently, do something about it;

take advantage of the ready inventory checklist and use it as a helpful packing list when the right time comes.

Time for tough decisions

While inventorying your house or flat, you need to keep in mind one of the most important rules of moving house – the overall moving cost is directly linked to the number and weight of the goods for transportation. What this actually means is that if you’re willing to pay less for your residential move, you should definitely optimize the number of stuff you’re planning to move to your new home. However, although this is one proven cost-saving method that works every time, the optimization process is often easier said than done.

So, be ready for some difficult decisions when figuring out that to take with you and what to leave behind. Moving experts advise to get rid of anything you haven’t used in over a year, but things are never that black and white, so weigh your options well before you reach your ultimate decision.

Pocket some extra cash

In addition to lowering the moving costs, the great thing about optimizing the number of your household possessions is that you can practically earn some money in the process to boost your moving budget. How? You can attempt to sell all the items you’re not taking with you for one reason or another at a car boot sale or online. Alternatively, you can choose to do the right thing and give away to friends or to charity some of your possessions in order to gift some joy to another person in need.

5. Pack whatever you can yourself

Speaking of lowering the relocation costs, another smart thing to do before moving out is to pack whatever you can yourself in case you decide to use professional packing services. Yes, experienced packers should do a great job packing fragile, breakable, antique, valuable, and bulky household items, but there are many personal possessions you can place in boxes and protect on your own, such as clothes and books, for example.

Packing supplies

In order to be able to initiate the packing process, you will need packing materials of the right type and the right quantity.

Believe it or not, packing up a home for a move can even be a bonding experience for the entire family.

Cardboard boxes. You’re going to need plenty of strong cardboard boxes of assorted sizes. Before rushing to purchase all of them though, ask friends or colleagues if they can spare some containers in decent condition. Also, see if your local supermarkets will be willing to give you some strong and clean boxes for free.

Packing paper. Although newsprint can be good substitution in some cases (cushioning, padding, etc.), clean white packing paper remains a must-do packing material for your packing marathon.

Bubble wrap. Bubble wrap is the best protection for extra fragile, delicate and breakable items, such as glassware and chinaware.

Packing tape. Get a few rolls of quality packing tape.

Color markers are optional but a black one is required to properly label all of your packed boxes. This way, no valuable time will be lost just before initiating the unpacking process after the move is over.

Where to start packing

Our checklist of smart things to do before you move to a new home ends with a basic packing concept which often confuses home movers – where to start packing for a move. Disorganized packing can lead to plenty of wasted time, so here are the 3 principal guidelines to help you speed up the packing process:

Start packing the premises that are harder to pack /storage areas – garages, attics, basements, and the kitchen/, and continue towards the rooms that are usually no-brainers for packing up /bathrooms, bedrooms, living rooms/.

Start packing from the rooms you use least frequently /storage areas, guest rooms/ and finish the marathon with the premises you occupy on a daily basis /bathrooms, bedrooms, living rooms/.

First, pack up the large and bulky items you own in the house and then move on to boxing up all your smaller possessions.

Have we missed any essential smart thing to do before moving house? Tell us in the comments below.

5 Smart Things to Do Before You Move