Moving checklist

How to use this moving list

It works for any move — a house, an apartment, your first place — and it runs in order of time, like a timeline. If your move is two weeks away rather than two months, that’s fine: start at the top and go faster. What comes first is what takes longest to sort out.

The list is free. Print it, or save it as a PDF from your browser’s print menu, and use it as a template to create your own: cross out what doesn’t apply, add what’s yours. Preparing to move is mostly remembering things at the right time — the checklist does the remembering.

One to two months before: plan the move

• Set the moving date.
• Decide how you’ll move: on your own, with friends, or with a moving company — and get quotes if you need them.
• Give notice to your landlord, or arrange the handover if you’re selling.
• Visit the new home with a tape measure: doors, stairs, elevator, and where the big furniture will go.
• Start sorting out what you won’t take — sell it, give it away or throw it out.

Three to four weeks before: prepare

• Get boxes, tape, packing paper and markers.
• Pack what you don’t use: storage, books, decorations, out-of-season clothes.
• Number every box and write down what goes in it.
• Book the move of your internet service. It’s the thing that takes longest to set up, and an installation slot can be weeks away.
• Sort out school, daycare or your doctor, if they’re changing.
• Ask for the day off work, if you need it.

Two weeks before: utilities and mail

• Set up electricity, gas and water at the new home so they’re on when you arrive, and schedule the old ones to stop.
• Ask your postal service to forward your mail to the new address, if it offers that.
• Let the building manager know at both addresses: elevator, parking, moving hours.

Who to notify and where to change your address — the post office, your driver’s license, your bank, the electoral roll — is in the guide on changing your address when you move.

The last week

• Pack the kitchen and bathroom, keeping only the bare minimum out.
• Use up what’s in the fridge and the freezer.
• Pack a first-night box: sheets, towels, toiletries, chargers, medicines.
• Put documents, keys and valuables in a bag that travels with you.
• Take apart the furniture that needs it, with the screws in a bag taped to each piece.
• Confirm the time with whoever is moving you and whoever is helping.

What to do on moving day

• Count the boxes as they leave.
• Read the electricity, gas and water meters, and take photos of them.
• Do a final walk-through: closets, drawers, balcony, storage, mailbox.
• Close the windows, switch off what needs switching off, and hand over the keys.
• In the new home: a sheet of paper on each door with the name of the room.
• Count the boxes as they arrive.
• Set up the beds and open the first-night box.

What to do once you’re in your new home

• Read the meters as you move in, and photograph them.
• Check what arrived broken or missing while it’s still fresh.
• Unpack in order of use: kitchen and bathroom, then bedrooms, then the rest.
• Change your address where it matters — with the authorities, if your country asks you to register it (often within a deadline), and on your identity card if it shows your address; your driver’s license and car registration; the tax office; and the electoral roll if you have to register yourself. Your country’s official portal has the deadlines, and the change of address guide goes through them in order.
• Tell your bank, your insurers and your employer.
• Check that mail is arriving at the new address.
• Get rid of the boxes — or keep them for whoever moves next.