Five things people always forget when moving house

When you’re moving house, there’s an endless list of things to remember. Packing up your entire life into boxes and moving to a new home is a much bigger task than a lot of people realise. Believe me, I did it three times in three years…and I’m not even an army wife!  Proper planning and lists and lists was my key to our stress free moves…

Here’s a few things to add to your list!

Labelling boxes
Unpacking when you arrive at your new abode is as much of a pain as packing everything up in the first place, but if you label the boxes beforehand that will take one stress away. It also means that you can easily find the glasses to enjoy a celebratory fizz after all your hard work is done! Group boxes by room and write what’s inside, one of the things we quickly learnt to do was pack a few boxes with essentials that you’ll need as soon as you get there and put those in last so you can get them out easily when you arrive.
Our essentials were cleaning stuff, bin bags, kettle, teabags, two mugs and some snacks! 
Fragile items
Most of your stuff can go in cardboard boxes and it’ll be fine, but the fragile items need to be packed carefully. I usually save up all the free papers that drop through the door to wrap the glasses, plates and cups etc to keep them safe but ideally, if it’s within your budget, you could find a removals company that are experienced in moving fragile items. Let them know well in advance about any breakables that you’re taking with you, especially the more expensive things like furniture, and they’ll be able to make the necessary arrangements and supply proper packaging to protect your belongings.
Security
Moving into an unfamiliar house takes a while to get used to. Some people find that they don’t always sleep well and they don’t feel at ease in their new house. If the locks aren’t like what you’re used to or if there’s no CCTV, it’s likely that you’ll feel a bit unsafe. Find out these details ahead of your move so you can arrange for work to take place the day you move in…it may help you sleep better during your first night!
Collecting the keys
I’ts not likely you’re going to move in without collecting the front and back door keys on completion day, but you’d be surprised how many people forget some of the other keys. You might move in and find a locked cupboard in one of the rooms which you don’t have a key for, a back door, conservatory, garage or those tiny little window keys!
Redirecting Post
This is one that I forgot to do when I first moved and it’s so frustrating! You don’t have to redirect every single thing but you do need to let the important people know that you’ve moved; you can do this manually by calling but the easiest way I find is to redirect your post through the post office so anything that you’ve forgotten about will still make its way to you and you can choose this option for 3, 6 or 12 months which gives plenty of time to get ringing round in the meantime! 

What are your top tips to ensure a stressfree, smooth move? 

 
*This is a collaborative post.