If you are moving your business, office or home, there are many things you need to think about before your moving date. If you can get yourself organised early and ensure you’ve thought about everything, you can make your move as seamless as possible. If you are moving into a newly built house, there are a few extra things you should also keep in mind.
Plan ahead
Even before you have a moving date locked in, you should start your planning and researching as there can be a lot to remember. This can be especially difficult if you are moving to a newly built office or home.
One of the first things you should organize is the date for any removalist services or truck hire. Certain times of the week are particularly popular for moving in capital cities, so book ahead as soon as possible. If you are hiring a moving van to drive yourself, then bookings are a lot more flexible.
Research online for tips and advice from others. There’s a lot of moving checklists out there that will prompt you to think about all the little things you might not have thought about. These will help you plan ahead.
If you are moving into a brand new home, organize to have your fences built before you move in. This will make you sleep more soundly at night once you move in without the opportunity for burgers to stroll right into your backyard. Your local council’s website will have a process for distributing contact details for neighbors in regards to fences. You will need to do this well in advance as it will generally involve starting your communication via mail.
Start taking notes
Make a list of everything that relates to your current address and keep a note of it. This way you won’t forget anything. In residential cases, this could include all types of bills, driver’s license, various types of health and insurance details, deliveries and more.
In commercial cases, this will also include anything that includes your address such as your website, social media profiles, corporate letterheads, personalised stationery and any equipment hire such as water cooler delivery or coffee machine hire.
If you plan these things in advance you can take measures to get everything changed over at the appropriate times.
Packing tips
Boxes are an important part of moving. If you want to get boxes for free, many supermarkets, alcohol and hardware retailers give away empty boxes. Start collecting these weeks in advance so that you can hoard enough. If you are doing a commercial move, plastic moving boxes can be hired so your staff can pack all their things themselves.
Pack everything in the days or weeks before the move. You don’t want to hold up the removalists or waste time during your rental truck hours with extra packing. If you have a garage, this can be a good place to store everything in the lead up to moving day.
Utility check
Be sure to get all your utility bills and rates paid up before you leave. You don’t want to lose any paperwork and forget, as you will then need to pay late fees. This includes gas, electricity, internet, water and some of these will require someone to come to the property to physically set it up for you. This means you might need to be available to let the tradespeople in to do this.
Get the old place cleaned
Whether you are selling your home or moving from a rental property renting or commercial lease, you will need to get the place cleaned before the next people move in. Some people may think they can do all of this themselves, but you really should hire a professional. The service you need to look up is called “end of lease cleaning”. This will help you get the place looking as fresh and new as it did when you first moved in. It is also necessary to help you get your bond back if you are renting.
On moving day
Get up early and make sure everything is ready for moving. Everything should go to plan if everything is well thought out and organised correctly. Just hope that it doesn’t rain and that no transport issues arise.
After the move
Go back to the list of services that need to know about your change of address and update any that you’ve not notified yet. You’ll also need to set up insurance for the new property.
If you’ve done everything right and you haven’t hit any unexpected clerical issues, you should have your water, electricity, gas and all your belongings ready to go at once. Of course, the internet will probably be late, but you can plan for that.
If it’s a newly built property you will need to contact your local council to arrange for your rubbish bins to be delivered. You’ll also need to sort out anything that might not have been part of your house and land package, such as letterboxes and clotheslines.
You may also want to organize any mail forwarding with the post office to ensure your mail gets redirected for any straggling services that are not aware of your move yet. Good luck!
