Moving home is an exciting time. However once you start packing, you soon discover how time consuming and tiring the experience can be. Many of us live busy lifestyles and breaking routine can be quite stressful. Having a checklist in place will ensure your move is better structured. With structure, you’ll be more relaxed and efficient. You’ll be settled in your new home before you know it.
When moving home, it’s important to plan ahead. There is so much that needs to be done. It’s important to set out a checklist in advance.
Your moving home checklist
1. Establish a moving date
Firstly its time to establish a moving date. Once you have a set date, you can organise the appropriate transport such as a van or truck. You may also need to book a furniture removalist o help with those heavy awkward items. You may invite some friends and family too. There are many options available, but a date needs to be set first.
2. Remove and replace
Secondly, plan the big move. You have the opportunity to remove unwanted items or replace certain outdated appliances. As you are aware where you are going, you may have some new ideas in mind. Perhaps the dining room is bigger and you want to furnish it with a large table. Your washing machine may be outdated so you may want to replace it with something more modern. Your new bedroom will be bigger so you want to upgrade your bed suite. Logging these items down in advance will make sure you take advantage of moving home too.
3. Organise some packing items
Organising some packaging items is a fantastic solution to making the experience run smoother. Having boxes, labels, tape, scissors and other packaging tools will help you pack things in order from kitchen items, to bedware. Envisage your items in advance so that you use the right sized supplies. Not everything will fit in a medium sized box, while some items such as taper-ware are fragile an may require smaller boxes to transport.
One thing to know, you can never have enough boxes. Don’t be shy, load up! If you are transporting them or using a professional removalist, having them labelled will ensure each box is put in each room of your new home.
Note that boxes can be expensive. If you are planning to move, consider stocking up from others that may have access to them. Be that a fruit shop, supermarket etc, you can score freebies.
4. Map out the new home and how you plan to live in it
Once you’ve successfully found your new home, take some time to review the floor plan. The floor plan will also have the dimensions so you can see what will fit. If you map out how you plan to live, you’ll know where your current and/or new furniture will go. This is particularly important with the larger items that you will be moving. The floor plan may seem spacious for your couch, but will it overlay the doorway? Will the double bed fit in the spare room?
5. Arrange your change of address
Prior to moving home you should change your address for both residential and postal. Many now use emails to collect bills, but there is always something that will come in the post mail. Make sure its up to date so you do not lose or forget anything. There is nothing worse than forgetting to pay you credit card on time. The interest can be nasty!
Other third parties include telecommunications (internet), utilities (gas, electricity and water), insurance, banks etc. There are companies that can do this work for you at a competitive cost over the time of you doing it.
Mail redirection is also a step that you should take. This can be done in person or online. Updating your address will ensure that you don’t miss any important documents or bills in the post after moving home.
6. Organise a deep clean
Before moving anything into the home, spend some time thoroughly cleaning the property beforehand. It’s often the wet areas that need most of the attention, including the bathroom and kitchen. This will help you work out where to best store your contents, and reduce the additional mess that you’ll create when you wheel boxes and furniture through the house.
Find out when the council collects your waste. If you can empty those bins prior to moving in, it will help immensely when removing the unwanted rubbish from the move in.
7. Finalise your move
Don’t get flustered and stressed. This will only make the move more difficult. Set a day/time, establish a plan and stick to it. If you start to make short cuts and lose track of time, you’ll create unnecessary stress. Hopefully once the move is complete, you can sit down, have a glass of wine and admire your amazing accomplishment.
While we have taken care to ensure the information above is true and correct at the time of publication, changes in circumstances and legislation after the displayed date may impact the accuracy of this article. If you want to learn more please contact us. We welcome the opportunity to assist you.
December 2018
