Every moving house checklist is a packing list with a few utilities bolted on the end. Packing is the visible half and genuinely the easier one — it is obvious, it is physical, and you can see when it is done. The half that goes wrong is the admin, because it has lead times you do not control and consequences that surface weeks later, when somebody else is living in your old house and reading your meter. The New Home OS is laid out around that six-week run-up.
Moving this autumn? The New Home OS holds the countdown, the who-to-tell list, meter readings and your new-home budget in one Google Sheet — so the boring half is already written down.
Shop Important Documents Organizer →Six Weeks Out: The Things With Lead Times
Start here, because these are the items that cannot be rushed later however organised you are.
- Book removals — or the van. Fridays and month-ends go first, and they go early.
- Broadband at the new address — this is a new installation as often as a transfer, and installation dates are quoted in weeks.
- Book time off — the day itself and ideally the day after.
- Start the who-to-tell list — not the telling, just the list. It grows as you remember things.
- Order boxes — always more than you think, and always sooner.
Broadband is the one people underestimate
Everything else on that list can be solved with money or effort at short notice. Broadband cannot: if the new property needs an engineer visit, you are on their calendar, and working from a phone hotspot for a fortnight is a genuinely miserable way to start in a new house.
The Admin That Costs Money If You Forget It
This is the section that separates a smooth move from one with a six-month tail of correspondence.
| Item | When | Why it bites |
|---|---|---|
| Meter readings | Moving day, both properties | Without them you pay for somebody else's usage and cannot prove otherwise |
| Council tax | Tell both councils | Closing one account and opening another are two separate jobs |
| Post redirection | 2 weeks before | Takes days to activate; the safety net, not the plan |
| Buildings insurance | From completion, not moving day | If you are buying, cover starts before you sleep there |
| Contents insurance | Check the moving day itself | Many policies do not cover goods in transit by default |
| Driving licence | Within the legal window | A fixed-penalty offence to leave out of date |
The contents insurance row surprises people. A policy covering your possessions at home frequently does not cover them in the back of a van, and the day they are all in one vehicle is the day they are most exposed. Check before, not after.
Photograph the meters
Not write down — photograph, with the date visible. A written figure is a claim; a timestamped photograph of the dial is evidence, and it costs you thirty seconds at each property. Do the same for the condition of the place you are leaving, especially if a deposit is involved.
Two Weeks Out: Packing With A System
The rule that saves the most time is labelling by room at the new house, not the old one. It feels wrong while packing and it is transformative on the day, because the person carrying the box can put it where it belongs without asking you.
Number the boxes and keep a one-line list of what is in each. It sounds fussy for about a day and then becomes the only way you find the phone charger. Pack a box you will not need for a month first — books, out-of-season clothes — to build momentum on things you cannot get wrong.
The first-night box
One box, carried in the car rather than the van, labelled so obviously that nobody stacks anything on it: kettle, mugs, tea, chargers, toilet roll, soap, a towel each, medication, bedding, and a knife to open everything else.
The alternative is unpacking twelve boxes at eleven at night looking for the kettle, in a house where you do not yet know which switch does what. It is the single highest-return twenty minutes in the whole move.
Shop Household Binder →Renting? Two extra jobs
If you are leaving a rented property, the check-out inventory is the difference between getting your deposit back and arguing about it. Photograph every room empty, in daylight, including inside cupboards and the oven — the two places deductions most often come from. Compare against the check-in inventory before you hand the keys over, not after.
And if the deposit was protected, the scheme has its own dispute process with a deadline. Know what it is before you need it, because that clock starts whether or not you are paying attention to it.
Moving Day Itself
Keep the day deliberately thin. The jobs that matter are few and they all happen at the edges.
At the old property: final meter readings photographed, everything emptied and checked including the loft and the shed, keys handed over with a note of when and to whom. At the new one: meter readings again, photograph anything already damaged, and find the stopcock and the fusebox before you need them in the dark.
Then stop. The instinct to unpack everything on day one is strong and it is worth resisting — put the beds together, find the kettle, and leave the rest. A house half-unpacked on Sunday is normal; a household that has been awake for nineteen hours is not.
In the first fortnight
Register with a GP and dentist, update the electoral roll, and put the new documents somewhere permanent rather than in the pile by the door. That last one is how a move quietly becomes a year of not being able to find the warranty. Our guide to the first-home admin checklist covers the buying-specific side, and the Household Binder or the Important Documents Organiser are where the paperwork should end up.
Moving House FAQs
When should I start planning a house move?
Six weeks out for the admin, two weeks out for the packing. The admin has the longer lead times — removals get booked up, post redirection takes days to start, and broadband transfers are quoted in weeks rather than days.
Who do I need to tell when I move?
Council for both addresses, utilities, water, broadband, bank, insurers, DVLA, GP and dentist, employer, and anywhere holding a subscription. Post redirection is a safety net for what you forget, not a substitute for telling people.
What should I photograph on moving day?
Every meter reading at both properties with the date visible, the condition of the property you are leaving, and anything already damaged at the new one. Five minutes of photographs settles disputes that otherwise become your word against theirs.
What goes in the first-night box?
Kettle, mugs, tea, phone chargers, toilet roll, hand soap, a towel each, medication, bedding, and a knife to open the other boxes. Carry it in the car, not the van, and label it so obviously that nobody stacks anything on top.
How do I handle council tax when moving?
Tell both councils your moving date — closing the old account and opening the new one are separate jobs. If you are moving between council areas, the amounts often differ, so do not assume the direct debit carries across unchanged.
What do people most often forget?
Meter readings, the broadband transfer date, and returning keys with a record of it. All three are free to get right on the day and expensive to reconstruct afterwards, because by then somebody else lives there.
Shop New Home OS — Google Sheets First-Home Spreadsheet: Moving Budget, Room-by-Room Setup, Home Maintenance Schedule & Renewal Tracker →Write the boring half down first. Open the New Home OS, fill in the six-week countdown and the who-to-tell list, and let the packing look after itself — or browse the full Google Sheets collection.