hit me with your house moving must haves

trailingspouse

Last job as you leave the old place - read the meter. First job when you get to the new place - read the meter.

If push comes to shove you can sleep on just a mattress - you don't have to have the whole bed built. But do keep an eye on where the bedding is.

At this time of the year the house will be cold, so get the heating on.

Don't even think about cooking on moving night - takeaway is the only sensible option.

As you leave the old house, take a moment to go back into every room, not just to check that everything has been taken, but to say goodbye. You lived part of your life here, and whatever your reason for moving it's important to acknowledge that this bit is over and the next bit is beginning. Otherwise it can all be a rush and a hurry, and before you know it you're in the car and off and there's no going back.

And most important - remember tomorrow is another day.

slimzoe

googler said:

Who to (possibly) tell that you're moving or have moved;

Accountant
Banks (High Street and Online)
Book or Music Club Subscriptions
Broadband Supplier
Building Society
Burglar Alarm Servicing or Monitoring
Car Insurer, Car Clubs (AA, RAC etc)
Catalogues/Freebies
Charities - for catalogues, as well as registered donor/member
Church/Religious Organisations
Cleaners, Ironing Service, etc.
Clubs – Rotary, Community, Sports, WWF, RSPB, etc.
Council (both old & new) - Council Tax Department
Council – cancel any Parking Permits
Credit Card(s) Provider
Dentist
Doctor
DWP (formerly known as DSS)
DVLA
Electricity, Gas & other Utility Suppliers
e-mail provider(s)
Employer(s)
Family & Friends
Gardener
Hire Purchase/Loan Companies
Hospital, if you attend regularly
Household Insurance Supplier – Building and Contents
Home Phone/Landline Supplier
Inland Revenue, or HMRC
Internet Service Provider (ISP)
Investments (Funds, etc.) - Administrator/Registrar
Library
Life Assurance Supplier
Loan or Credit Companies
Magazine Subscriptions
Medical insurance (BUPA or similar)
Memberships - maybe included in Clubs above
Milkman – cancel deliveries
Mobile Phone Supplier
Neighbours
Newsagent – cancel paper deliveries
NS&I - Premium Bonds
Online Retailers (Amazon, eBay, Paypal, etc)
Optician, Hairdresser, other Beauty/Health professionals
Pawnbroker - if you plan to later re-purchase what you've pawned
Pension Providers
Royal Mail – set up your re-direction service for 3/6/12 mths
Satellite or Cable TV Supplier
Servicing Contractors (Boiler, CH, other appliances)
Schools & Nurseries, Childminders, Babysitters
Shareholdings - Registrars (direct and online)
Stores or Chains with discount or club cards
Survey/Market Research websites
TV Licencing Office
Vet, Kennels, Cattery, Microchip Registrations
Window Cleaner

Just thought of;

Supermarket / Cash & Carry memberships, card or discount schemes

thats brilliant thank you! 

slimzoe

some brilliant advice here thank you so much! 
we have been debating the dogs - one is a 8 month old pup we only got in September so not sure on the pup hotel but, he does have a large crate so we were going to use that, will have a think. 
the saying goodbye thing is interesting, I did that when we moved from my house to here as I had lived there for 20 years - i almost did it without consciously thinking about it. 
the list of who to tell is so helpful! and putting the heating on in advance is also a good call, we have a good relationship with the site manager and deputy so i intend to smile sweetly! lol 

tealady

Sort out contents insurance asap.
Might be worth contacting your current provider to ensure it is in place from day 1.
I would also leave a large, prepaid envelope for your landlord and ask them to forward any mail that escapes the redirection service.

Brie

@googler
why contact an email provider of a change of address?  Must admit i've never done this.

I do get the bit about store card voucher mailings....after forwarding mail for 4 years after we moved into our new house i started getting fed up with the fact that we kept getting their Tesco clubcard vouchers.  So I started using them to buy stuff for the food bank.  This was before you needed to swipe your card before the vouchers would work and before Tesco started their "lost voucher" recovery thing they do now so I presume they never missed them.  Don't know if the new owners of that house 20 years later are still getting them....

slimzoe

tealady said:

Sort out contents insurance asap.
Might be worth contacting your current provider to ensure it is in place from day 1.
I would also leave a large, prepaid envelope for your landlord and ask them to forward any mail that escapes the redirection service.

i'm staying with my current provider so good call on that!
the landlord situation is slightly unusual in that he died earlier this year (he was managing the property himself) so we are now with an agent so we believe the property will stay empty as its going through probabte and will be going up for sale. as a result we will pay for royal mail redirection. 

Racky_Roo

Mine are probably a bit random from others suggestions but I think they're useful.

I bought some sticky carpet/flooring protector film from amazon and laid a line throughout the whole house before anyone else got in and started walking on it. I don't usually, but as everything was brand new I didn't want it getting dirty by removals etc. I actually left it down for a few days until all my new furniture had been delivered.

I also bought cupboard shelf liners from ikea on rolls in advance so when I started to unpack the kitchen I had it ready.
https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/variera-drawer-mat-transparent-80012853/ but you can buy it on amazon/ebay too

I had a plan of my kitchen layout so also used a bit of time to plan out where I thought i'd want stuff to go as previously i'd just put it in whatever cupboard and ended up moving it a few times as it didn't work later. This time I haven't moved anything so the planning must have worked.

Also check you are getting a cutlery tray in a drawer. Lots of kitchens don't come with them and nothing worse than cutlery rattling round until you source the right sized one. If you know in advance you can buy one.

I bought Ikea disposable paper black out blinds for the bedrooms as I had ordered shutters and they had a long lead time, but they're also great for the first few days as you won't have poles to hang curtains on day 1. You can hang multiples next to each other for wider windows.
https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/schottis-block-out-pleated-blind-dark-grey-90369507/

Bring a door mat with you in the car if you don't have one built in. You'll be having lots of deliveries and visitors so don't want your flooring getting wet and dirty

slimzoe

Racky_Roo said:

Mine are probably a bit random from others suggestions but I think they're useful.

I bought some sticky carpet/flooring protector film from amazon and laid a line throughout the whole house before anyone else got in and started walking on it. I don't usually, but as everything was brand new I didn't want it getting dirty by removals etc. I actually left it down for a few days until all my new furniture had been delivered.

I also bought cupboard shelf liners from ikea on rolls in advance so when I started to unpack the kitchen I had it ready.
https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/variera-drawer-mat-transparent-80012853/ but you can buy it on amazon/ebay too

I had a plan of my kitchen layout so also used a bit of time to plan out where I thought i'd want stuff to go as previously i'd just put it in whatever cupboard and ended up moving it a few times as it didn't work later. This time I haven't moved anything so the planning must have worked.

Also check you are getting a cutlery tray in a drawer. Lots of kitchens don't come with them and nothing worse than cutlery rattling round until you source the right sized one. If you know in advance you can buy one.

I bought Ikea disposable paper black out blinds for the bedrooms as I had ordered shutters and they had a long lead time, but they're also great for the first few days as you won't have poles to hang curtains on day 1. You can hang multiples next to each other for wider windows.
https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/schottis-block-out-pleated-blind-dark-grey-90369507/

Bring a door mat with you in the car if you don't have one built in. You'll be having lots of deliveries and visitors so don't want your flooring getting wet and dirty

this is brilliant! the floor lining is a great idea (i actually was wondering about that this morning, we have tiles in the hall and kitchen but nice carpet in the rest of the house!) kitchen cutlery trays there is a pile in our current garage for some random reason so we had already said we would take a couple lol. 
i am dreaming of my kitchen  and planning is well in place! i have a plan and a picture so going to sit and look! 
our shutters are being fitted on the Wednesday after we move in (already booked and deposit paid) so only have a few days.
also good call on the mats, we have some in our current kitchen so will put them down. 

Racky_Roo

I did order my shutters to be ready for the week I moved in but unfortunately there were import delays so I ended up with a 2 week gap and didn't want nothing on the windows for that long so the paper blinds were a great temp solution.

I put the floor covering on my wooden floors too as it wasn't just dirt I was worried about. Small stones/gravel in shoes can mark floors so I didn't want to risk the removal/delivery guys scratching/marking the floors

london21

Enjoy the process and try not to stress too much.
Get rid of what you do not need or want so can start afresh.
Don't forget the royal mail redirection.
broadband appointment in case engineer needs to come round.