How to plan a house move in 30 days: a week-by-week checklist

A move is not one big job, it is about forty small ones, and almost all of the panic comes from discovering half of them on the morning the truck arrives. Spread over four weeks it is genuinely manageable. Here is the order we recommend to customers, based on where things usually go wrong.

Four weeks out: decide, do not pack

Nothing goes in a carton this week. Instead, walk every room and decide what is not coming with you. Furniture you have outgrown, appliances that will not fit the new kitchen, the exercise bike. Every item you get rid of now is volume you do not pay to move, and volume is the single biggest line in your quote.

This is also the week to book. Get a survey done and a written quotation in hand. If your date is month-end or anywhere between April and June, booking now is the difference between choosing your slot and taking what is left.

Three weeks out: paperwork and notifications

Paperwork takes longer than packing and cannot be rushed at the end. Start the school transfer certificate. Tell your bank, insurer and employer. Book the society NOC for both buildings and check the lift booking rules and the hours goods movement is allowed — plenty of societies forbid it on Sundays, which is exactly when people plan to move.

Sort out utilities: final meter readings, gas connection transfer, broadband cancellation or relocation. Broadband in particular can take two weeks, so an early call is the difference between working from your new home on day one and not.

Two weeks out: use things up and start the rooms you do not live in

Stop buying groceries you will not finish. Run down the freezer. Use up cleaning supplies rather than transporting half-empty bottles, most of which cannot legally travel anyway.

Now the packing starts, and it starts with the storeroom, the loft, the guest bedroom and the books — the rooms whose contents you will not miss for a fortnight. Label every carton with the room it is going to, not the room it came from. Your future self, standing in an empty flat surrounded by eighty boxes, will thank you.

One week out: the essentials box and the do-not-pack pile

Pack one carton you keep with you and mark it clearly: kettle, mugs, tea, phone chargers, toilet paper, soap, a towel each, basic tools, bedsheets, and any medication. The first night in a new home is much better with those to hand.

Separately, make a do-not-pack pile: documents, jewellery, cash, laptops, passports. These travel with you, not in the truck, and a good mover will insist on it.

The day before

Defrost the fridge — it needs at least eight hours and it will leak if you skip it. Charge your phone. Withdraw some cash. Confirm the arrival window with your coordinator, and confirm the lift is booked at both ends.

Moving day

Be there at the start to point out anything fragile, and at the end to check the inventory before you sign it. Count the cartons against the list at both ends. That signature is the document a claim rests on, so read it rather than signing it while carrying a lamp.