The faster you start with your checklist, the smoother your overall moving experience will be
Moving to your newly purchased or rented home has a few stages. It is always exciting and in the same time scary when you have to move to a new home especially if you are moving in together with a partner. Every change in life could be a bit intimidating, but moving to a new house should not be because there are ways to organize every phase of the moving. No matter how much time you have to organize the finding and moving to the new home, this new home moving checklist will help you stay on track.
You can download the complete printable Moving to a new home checklist here in PDF file format (4 pages). You can see most of the moving checklist items below:
Finding Before Moving to A New Home
Moving to new apartment checklist and House moving checklist
Hunting for a new place and for movers is not an easy task. The whole process depends on many factors. Finding a new home takes time so you should start as early as possible. Get a notepad in which to start your moving to the new home checklist, mark down every question, and task. Organizing tasks and time in a list would be the best way to deal with all you have to do when moving to a new home. If you have to sell your current home and thinking of buying a new house, then it is a longer and more complex procedure. This means you will be on the market for selling and buying simultaneously, which may get overwhelming at times. You will have to be on the look for your new house or apartment once you have settled with a moving period. Selling your current place is not like waiting for a lease to expire when renting an apartment or a house. In today’s real estate market, you never know how much time it may take you to sell your house. So, in short, when selling and buying concurrently be ready to:
- Get your financial picture as soon as possible
- Set your budget for down payment and moving to the new home
- Prepare your house for the sale – repainting, cleaning, rearranging, repairing, moving out and storing things, selling things etc.
- Be on the phone with real estate agents and family every day
- Have people over often for showing any time of the day
- Deal with attorneys and their lingo and documents
- Visit showings and open houses looking for the new house
- Have your credit report with you and money in the bank for down payment
- Arrange for a home inspection of your current and future home
- Ask as many question as needed when wondering about a real estate term
- Negotiate, Negotiate and Negotiate the best deal and then move on the closing
- Do a final walk through your old and new houses; sit and read the closing deal
- Once you settle on a final closing deal, turn to your moving to the new house checklist
Moving To The New Home Checklist
Ask the professionals about the packing costs in advance. Decide whether you are doing it all by yourself or you will let them pack.
When you get to the phase of thinking about the moving itself, you will need to make quite a few decisions. Moving to a new home checklist then is necessary. Don’t think that you are done when you find the new home. Moving to the new house or apartment requires just as much attention as buying or selling. There are things many people will advise you to list and get done months or weeks before the moving. Yet you should be aware that, especially when you are selling or buying a house, or renting an apartment, many of the tasks you may have to accomplish in matters weeks or days.
If you were only moving to a new rental apartment, things would be slightly easier. It may still take you some time until you find the desired new apartment, but we all know it is much easier to wait for a lease to expire than to have to sell a home. Whatever you have had to go through, buying or renting, moving to the new home after you have found it is similar. Follow the moving to a new house checklist below to stay on track:
- Store documents from the closing deal or renting agreements someplace safe
- Check all rooms and separate items you don’t need to move to the new home
- Get some moving boxes to start packing items yourself; label all boxes
- Make an inventory of your household and then call some moving companies
- Make a list of items and furniture that needs special wrapping and packing
- Get a few free moving estimates and compare prices and moving services
- Research the moving companies by reading moving reviews and requesting references
- Set your moving budget and choose the moving company that will accommodate
- Do not hire a moving company based only on low price; look for value
- Start gathering moving supplies as most moving companies charge extra for that
- Reserve an elevator if moving out or in to an apartment building
- Pick a place in the house to use for storing what you’ve packed
- Check with the moving company for any items they can’t move or transport
- If you have pets arrange for their transportation if moving cross country
- Do not buy too much food, use up all you have instead of transporting it
- Arrange for accounts cancel and address change with all institutions
- Have a box of cleaning supplies for finishing clean up of the old home
- Withdraw cash before moving day to tip your movers according to the tipping etiquette
- Have drinks and water bottles for you and your movers at moving day
- Review the bill of lading prior to start of the moving, before signing, and ask questions if you don’t understand something.
- Compile all your copies of the paperwork and keep them safe for references
- Make sure you have drivers and movers phone number to keep track of delivery
- Prepare personal essentials you will need for the first day of moving to the new home
- Do the final walk in the old home and make sure you haven’t forgotten anything
Start your moving to the new home checklist by following all these practical tips, but keep adding along the way. Moving to a new apartment or house could get overwhelming so begin organizing your checklist as early as possible in order to have a successful moving experience. You can download your printable moving to a new house checklist above.
Let us know how you expanded your moving to a new apartment checklist and how the moving went below in the comments.
I can use the checklist, it will help. This is an excellent reply for someone asking moving advice, excellent.
Only thing is I was looking for something far more simple, I am only moving to the next apt. Three steps away. I want to get rid of absolutely everything I can. It is a smaller but nicer place with a nicer view and nicer orientation (for me). So, I want to purge, by selling some things, pitching some things, reducing and improving in my way of storing important papers, not-so-important, and getting totally rid of whatever is not important at all (I will shred, yesiree I will)!
It could be that very few people are in my boat, thus a lack of everything put in exceedingly simple steps for me. But is OK and totally understandable.
Thanks.
Hi Abbe,
I am glad you can use the moving checklist, even though it’s more than you need. We all have different moving needs and that’s totally understandable considering that the size of our homes, and quantity of things we own varies greatly. You are in the right direction though – getting rid of all you don’t need; that’s is the first and most important step when moving. Today, some of us (may be most) own way too many things.
Please, let us know how your relocation went.
best,
Vasilka
i used a similar checklist when i moved into anaheim