Purchasing a new property is an exciting venture for first-time buyers and seasoned homeowners alike. Although in-between juggling moving boxes, organising removal vans and degutting your current living space, this thrilling, new venture can also become increasingly stressful for all parties involved. When moving house, we often undermine the more minor things and rely on recalling them later once we’ve settled in, which can add to our stress levels instead of easing them. We understand that your current workload must be extensive, so we’ve compiled a list of things to do before your big move to help you get one step closer to settling into your new home.
Do a Deep Clean and Walkthrough of the Property
Now all your boxes are packed and waiting to be moved into your new property, make sure to complete a thorough deep clean and walkthrough of the property before you start the chore of moving items back and forth. Although a deep clean might be one of the lowest priorities on your to-do list when preparing to move into your new home. We’re sure you’ll be thankful when you eventually come to put your feet up, and everything is clean, so you haven’t got the prospect of tidying looming in the back of your mind. Cleaning is especially worthwhile if the home has been vacant for a while, as dust and debris will have built-up and annoying jobs such as cleaning carpets and tiling can be a lot harder to tackle once you start placing furnishings.
Completing a walkthrough of the property is also recommended because this is an ideal opportunity to carry out essential checks, such as ensuring that everything included in the sale is present and that all fixtures, switches, and electrical outlets are in working order. If the walkthrough highlights any problems, we suggest contacting your estate agents as your first point of call; any other non-contractual issues you’ll have to deal with yourselves. For instance, if you experience problems with any electrical fixtures or outlets, leading you to question the property’s standard of wiring, you should consider enlisting the help of an electrical safety certificate specialist such as Trade Facilities Services. Specialists such as these should be able to advise you further and help check for any faults.
Redirect Your Post and Change/ Notify People of Your New Address
Not the most stimulating of tasks, but an important one nonetheless, is making sure you redirect all your mail and change or notify people of your new address before your big move. Primarily, make sure to inform friends, family members, employers, your bank, and anyone else who might send you regular correspondence via post of your new address so that they can continue to contact you. You may be one step ahead and have already updated your address details. However, some changes can take longer than others, and the last thing you want is for companies with slower databases to continue sending your post to your previous address. Putting a postal redirect in place enables mail that may have slipped through the cracks to be redirected to your new address for a small fee until everything is updated and all your mail is delivered as expected. You can do this via Royal Mail’s website to ensure that no vital pieces of post such as bank statements, wage slips, or notices from the DVLA get missed.
Consider Making Any Improvements Prior to Moving Day
In an ideal world, we’d all be able to move into our dream property with no repairs or improvements to be made. However, as this is highly unlikely, you’ll probably be tasked with a few home renovations during your first few months of new property ownership. We recommend surveying these before moving day and seeing what you can complete ahead of time, such as painting and redecorating, as these jobs will be much harder to achieve with furnishings or young children in the way. You can complete small fixings such as changing light bulbs, installing new locks, etc., before you move into the property, which will save you hassle and stress come the actual moving day.
Locate the Shut off Valves and Fuse Box/ Circuit Breaker
Another thing to familiarise yourself with before your big move is the location of essential items in your new house, such as shut-off valves and the fuse box or circuit breaker. You should locate shut-off valves in case of a water leak, or if repairs need to be carried out, these can typically be found underneath the sink, but the location may differ, so it’s worth checking before you move in. Depending on your property, you may have a fuse box or a circuit breaker, which you can identify using this useful guide. Make sure you locate these before you move, in case of an emergency, as if you have a power-cut, the last thing you want to be doing is searching for them in the dark!
