Owning it · practical guide
Moving checklist: the week-by-week version nobody follows but should
In one line: Every moving disaster is a decision postponed past its deadline. This is the timeline that keeps the decisions in front of you.
Every moving story has the same villain: not the movers, not the weather — the week that was supposed to be four weeks. Packing that compressed into two days, utilities that transferred five days late, the deep clean that never happened. The fix isn't more effort; it's the timeline, spread out where you can see it.
Weeks 6 to 4: the decisions window
Book the movers or van now — this is the deadline that gates everything else, and prices only climb. Declutter ruthlessly: every box you don't pack is a box you don't pay to move, store or unpack; sell and give away on a deadline, not a whim. Start the box discipline: labelled by room and contents-listed on the side (not the top — boxes stack), and read the cardboard guide before you source free boxes from anywhere questionable. Notify: utilities with move-out/move-in dates, and the address changes that have lead times — banks, GP, DVLA/licences, subscriptions, insurers (the buildings policy moves with the date — get that one exactly right; small print follows the house).
Weeks 3 to 1: the packing rotation
Pack in reverse order of use: storage rooms and books first, kitchen and daily kit last. One "open first" box per person: bedding, toiletries, chargers, kettle, mugs, a pan, toilet paper — the survival kit that makes night one civilised. Photograph the back of the TV and the meter readings at both ends of the move (meter photos are how deposits and final bills get settled without argument). Book any deep clean for the empty-house day — it takes a third of the time it would around furniture — and if you're renting, the deposit inventory is the fight you win with photographs (the written-record habit, applied to moving).
Moving day and week one
Day: walk the old place empty — loft, cupboards, garden, the dishwasher drawer where chargers go to die. At the new place: meters read and photographed, water in, boiler on, and run the day-one inspection before the boxes bury the house. Week one: locks changed (or permission asked), alarms checked and replaced as needed, the stopcock and consumer unit located, the boiler's service history chased, and the neighbours met. Week two: the cardboard leaves the house entirely (the pest-vehicle rule), and the picture hooks go up — because a house starts being home the moment the walls say so.
Reviewed September 2026 · general information.
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General information, not professional advice. Homes differ — if a job is beyond your confidence or the guide’s boundary, that is what tradespeople are for.