Great 'things to do before you move house' Hunt

slbhill · 6 July 2011 at 12:46PM

Set up a Royal Mail redirection - and do it in advance! You can set it up a month beforehand, to kick in on the day you move. It's well worth the little extra cost to pay for a full year, to catch those "only once a year" things which are bound to fall through the cracks - membership remembers, Christmas cards, whatever.

Pack all your important paperwork in one folder and keep it with you at all times. Phone numbers, account numbers, etc. Don't under any circumstances let the movers take it :eek:

Don't forget to read the gas & electric meters as soon as you're into the new house, unless you're happy to pay the previous owner or tenant's last week or 2 of bills

As others have said - pack a "moving day box" with whatever's crucial for the day. Kettle, tea, coffee, milk, mugs, spoon/s. Biscuits or other snacks. Toilet roll, soap and a hand towel!

Before you move make a plan for dinner - probably by finding the phone number of a takeaway that delivers to your new house

Charge your mobile phone the night before you move - a flat battery doesn't help with last-minute arrangements!

carantec · 6 July 2011 at 1:02PM

your solicitor has land registry details. You may find as we did that there are covenants attached which may change your mind. Pay for a survey when you're happy about what your letting yourself in for.

crazycaro · 6 July 2011 at 1:15PM

write on the boxes what they contain as you pack them, even if it is only kitchen, bedroom etc. that way boxes are teken to the room required. also if you include needed or some other comment, a lot of the boxes can be stored for later opening.

I hate to have to say it, but the dreaded list comes in to play, ensuring that you do all the neccesary thing like redirecting mail, meter radings and so on.
:A

devotee · 6 July 2011 at 1:21PM

So much to do, thanks for all the suggestions! I'm absolutely dreading my moving day!

harryhound · 6 July 2011 at 2:03PM

carantec wrote: »

your solicitor has land registry details. You may find as we did that there are covenants attached which may change your mind. Pay for a survey when you're happy about what your letting yourself in for.

Before you think about viewing, we all check Street View and the high resolution aerial photos from the 4 points of the compass, don't we?

The basic Land Registry document plus the plan of the land costs about 10 quid on line.
Mind you beware of the need to chase a series of covenants "filed with entry XXXX".
You might be tempted to check the neighbours too
If you find something like: "The land at xxxx is subject to a valuation and 50% fee if planning permission is obtained within 10 years".

That rather creates a different attitude to the Spring time picture of the orchard at the end of the garden, when 10 years is now 18 months away and the land seems to be owned by "Intergalactic Developments".
Don't assume that your solicitor's clerk will burrow into adjoining titles to find such gems of information.

[Similarly you might want to check the development plan and local planning applications on the web]

Then pay out 75 quid to fill your tank and go and look at the place.

When you arrive you might know more about the neighbourhood than the seller (husband? wife? family trust? Divorce/Death/Debt?).
That HIP had its uses - shame that nobody bothered to use it.

dizziblonde · 6 July 2011 at 2:08PM

Don't decide to self-move three doors down the street (so no nice burly removal men) in the middle of the worst snowfalls the country's had for years. Carrying a sofa along on sheet ice was NOT the happiest moment of my life - or the safest (for either me or the sofa). Also do not let your husband get man flu so badly you have to move 30 boxes of books that the aforementioned man has refused to even CONTEMPLATE decluttering on your own while he lies in bed phoning you on your mobile to tell you he's been sick and can you come help clean it up.... grrrr!

Before the weather and husband conspired to make our move chaos - I had it really well under control - had been boxing stuff up for a good couple of months, storing boxes with their contents labelled and destination rooms written on in the spare room. Furniture got dismantled (ok so our entire house seems sponsored by Ikea sometimes) with the screws sealed in envelopes and masking taped onto the furniture in question, family on standby to help with the shifting of the big heavy stuff... nope - my lot vanished off on holiday and hubby vanished to bed leaving muggins to resort to using a wheelie office chair as an impromptu wheelie trolley to move 3 boxes at a time balanced on the top of it along the road!

Oh and if you've got a cat - check the house for hideyholes before letting them out - ours once vanished under the kitchen cupboards for a week and a half when we moved!

Best tip - from a previous house move.... hire van, recruit helpers, vanish off to work and tell them you expect the bulk of it done when you get home

(I came home to find the cat under the kitchen cupboards - see previous paragraph).

dizziblonde · 6 July 2011 at 2:10PM

Oh and for 3-4 months before we moved I noted down everything that came in the mail in a notebook, googled up customer services numbers and wrote it down, along with any customer reference numbers I needed to have to hand where appropriate - meaning that I had a nice list to just sit down and work through with a cuppa when it came to change of address time... allegedly - in reality I'm still changing stuff over now but that was just pure laziness (and Royal Mail redirects) taking over!

Lazy_Liz · 6 July 2011 at 3:06PM

People have mentioned loo roll in the moving day box, make sure you have some on hand at both ends. My dozy removal men packed the rolls on the holders in the bathrooms, then one had to come and sheepisly ask if I had any more loo roll!

Check all over the house beforeyou leave, all the cupboards and furniture that is staying etc. I once left a whole collection of leather gloves and silk scarves in Milan, and I was moving to the UK:eek:, luckly a firend still had a key and found them for me and sent them on.

papertiger · 6 July 2011 at 3:12PM

In a fresh notepad make a list using one line per item - of all your outgoing direct debits - these will include your council tax, services to home etc ; bank, cards, (i.e. including M & S); national trust, clubs etc; shares, isa's, premium bonds; magazines; inland revenue and tax office; local health/doctors and pre-arranged hospital appointments (which may need cancelling if moving out of area).
If you have a partner do two pages or more, mark them off with a tic and date when you inform the company.
Arrange to have your post redirected - then as things appear you can do the odd ones that may be forgotten.

geoffky · 6 July 2011 at 3:51PM

Do a walk around the minute you get the keys,because the seller of our place had took things like the front door bell,sky dish.and some garden plants. we moved into this house and took from our old house. a lawnmower,a flatscreentv,some clothes and coats and my daughters bike..it was a 1 trip in a hired transit van..best thing ever if you can afford to buy all new again..I got some great gadgets like my chainsaw and garden blower and sneaked a playstation 3 onto the list...

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Great 'things to do before you move house' Hunt

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