Important Little Things to Remember to do When Moving House

It’s easy to get overwhelmed when moving house, but there are small things that you’ll have to remember to do amidst the chaos. Some of these details may be considered obvious and basic, but something the obvious things are the ones that get overlooked. If you’re moving house, be sure to tackle these small details as soon as you move into your new home or right before doing so.

Double Check Each Room

After you’ve packed up your old home you should walk through every room and make sure that you haven’t missed anything. Check closets, cabinets, crawl spaces, and all other places that might get overlooked during the packing process. Usually, the kitchen is the most overlooked space because things get pushed back into cabinets or under the sink. Be sure to open every door and search for left behind items; use a flashlight for darker cabinets. If you are leaving behind your appliances, be sure to clean them out as well. If you store pans or baking trays in your oven, don’t forget them. You’ll also want to clean out your refrigerator, freezer and washing machine so the new owners aren’t left with any unpleasant odours from spoilt food and a faulty washing machine. You can clean your washing machine and fridge yourself or you can get companies like Service Force to do it for you. Either way, it’s an important step in the house move.

Update Your Address

 

This is something that might seem obvious, but a lot of people tend to forget to update their address in some form. First, you should go by your old post office before you move and specifically ask what you should do to avoid any issues with the post. You should also contact any magazines or charities that send you mail in order to update your information. Contact your bank(s) and creditors, too, so you don’t miss out on any bills or account statements. Even if you set up a forwarding address, you have to contact places individually to update your address. You may also want to send change of address announcements to friends and family. In similar fashion you should update your personal documents like your driver’s license, voting information, car registration, and any other identification cards or documents where your address is displayed.

Contact Utility Companies

You should contact all necessary utility companies like the gas and electric companies to cancel your service at your old home and to start service on your new home. If it is the same utility company this should be fairly easy to do as they’ll just be updating their records for your new home, but if you need to contact a new utility company in a different town this might entail a little more work. Most of the time, you’ll need to transfer the utilities to your name prior to moving in.

Locate Utility Boxes

When in your new home make sure that you locate all of the utility boxes before you settle in. Know where the circuit breaker is and figure out what each circuit is linked to. If the circuits aren’t labelled, you may want to label them. Also figure out where your shutoff for the water is located. Look for the outside water shutoff as well as the main water shutoff. This is important if you have to shut your water off when connecting appliances.

Address Emergency Kits and Exits

One of the first things that you should do is unpack your emergency kit or make a new one for your new home. This will come in handy if any small injuries happen during the moving process. Similarly, you’ll also want to find out the emergency numbers for your new town if you don’t already know them. You should also check to see that any smoke detectors in the new home are working or install some if you want to. During this time you should also move in fire extinguishers.

Since an emergency can come up suddenly, everyone should also be aware of where the emergency exits of the home are located. This is usually straightforward but should be addressed especially if you have children who might not be as aware of these things.