Checklist

The checklist our crews carry.

Thirty-one things in four phases, written by Sioned from a thousand moves and the things that went wrong on the ones that did. Tick them off here and the page remembers on this device; print it and stick it on the fridge; we will have the same sheet on the dashboard.

A mover in a navy polo shirt wrapping plates in packing paper at a kitchen counter beside open boxes with coloured tape

Two weeks before 8 things

Book the move and pay the £100 deposit; confirm the date in writing
Do the video survey on your phone; walk every room, the loft, the garage and the shed
Tell the council, the DVLA, your bank, your employer, the GP and the dentist
Redirect post with Royal Mail (it takes five working days to start)
Order boxes, or book the packing service for the day before
Measure the big furniture and the new doorways; tell us about anything that will not go
Book a parking suspension if either street needs one (ten days' notice)
Use up the freezer

The week before 8 things

Pack everything you will not use this week; label every box with the ROOM, not the contents
Pictures off the walls, curtains down the night before, lampshades boxed
Drain the washing machine, defrost the freezer, fix the drum bolts in the washing machine
Take meter readings and photograph them
Book the lift at both ends if there is one
Arrange childcare and somewhere for the dog; a move is no place for either
Set aside the things that travel with you: passports, keys, medicines, chargers, the kettle, mugs, tea, loo roll, the first-night bag
Confirm the completion time with the solicitor and tell us

Moving day 8 things

Be up and dressed before the crew arrives; strip the beds
Walk the house with the crew lead; point out anything fragile or valuable and anything that stays
Keep the kettle and the travel bag in the car, not the van
Let the crew load; it goes faster if you are not carrying
Final check of every cupboard, the loft, the garden and behind doors; take the meter readings
Leave the keys where the solicitor said; lock up; photograph the empty rooms
At the new house: show the crew lead which room is which; put the kettle on
Check the boxes off against the room list before the crew leaves and sign the sheet

The week after 4 things

Unpack the kitchen and the beds first; everything else can wait
Register with a GP and the council; update the electoral roll
Flatten the boxes; we collect them free within four weeks if you ring
Tell us how it went; a review takes a minute and we read every one

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The four that matter most

If you only do four things.

Label boxes by room, not contents

"Kitchen" gets the box into the kitchen on the day; "pans, mugs, that jug" does not help anyone carrying it. Write the room on two sides and the top in big letters.

Keep a travel bag in the car

Passports, keys, medicines, chargers, the kettle, mugs, tea, loo roll, a change of clothes and the children's bedtime things. The one bag that never goes in the van.

Defrost the freezer two days before

A freezer that is still frozen on the day leaks across the van and into your mattress. Two days, towels, a bowl, and eat the contents in the week before.

Walk the house with the crew lead first

Five minutes at the start: what stays, what is fragile, what is valuable, where the parking is at the other end. It saves an hour and most of the questions.

Bedrooms in, a figure out. Then a video survey and a quote in writing.

The estimate page turns the number of bedrooms into a van, a crew and a price before you ring. The quote form takes two minutes; Dai or Sioned replies within the working day with a video survey slot the same week, and the quote after it is the figure on the invoice.

Get a quote Estimate by bedrooms