How to Prepare for the Day of Your Move

Moving day is an exciting milestone, but it is also usually pretty stressful if you’re not fully prepared. To be honest you can never be fully prepared for moving to a new place, but we can at least try. Whether you’re transitioning to a new rental or moving into a property you’ve just purchased, having a clear plan for the day can make all the difference. The process is actually longer then just a day as it involves the complexity of navigating the end of your previous tenancy and moving out of your previous place of residence to a new one, finding and then coordinating with removals company, cleaners, etc. an overwhelming ordeal for sure. This guide is designed to help London renters at the end of their tenancy to ensure a smooth and hassle-free move or at least smooth the process out a tad bit.

Moving day is an exciting milestone, but it is also usually pretty stressful if you’re not fully prepared. Whether you’re transitioning to a new rental or moving into a property you’ve just purchased, having a clear plan for the day can make all the difference. This guide is designed to help London renters at the end of their tenancy ensure a smooth and hassle-free move or at least ease the process.

Preparing for Moving Day

Preparing for the day of the move is the last thing you will need to do generally speaking, but that's the most stressful day as it involves navigating logistical challenges, coordinating key pickup and drop-offs and other whatnots. In this example we're assuming you have already signed your new tenancy agreement and some of your belongings are already at the new place as well as a few other assumptions. So here it is, here's what you need to do ideally a day in advance so this day is a bit more streamlined and follows a process.

Create a Moving Day Checklist

Having a detailed checklist can help you stay on track and avoid last-minute chaos. Your checklist should include:

• Confirming the moving company’s arrival time or the van rental pickup. Check with the movers at the beginning of the day to ensure everything is on track so the whole day doesn't end in disaster. London is a hectic city and everything can happen any time, be it a lorry breaking down or a mover getting sick. Check with your movers early in the day to see if you're all on the same page and on schedule.
Pro Tip:
Have a secondary company prepared in case you are left dry in the water by your original choice. A reduncance
• Packing any last-minute items, such as toiletries and essential documents or any other leftover personal belongings in your current place of residence.
• Ensuring utilities like electricity, gas and water are turned off.
• Perform a final inspection before you hand over the keys to your landlord or letting agency for the final checkout inspection. Hopefully you have sorted out your end of tenancy cleaning by this point.
• Double-checking all rooms, cupboards, and storage spaces for forgotten items.

Pack an Essentials Box

On moving day, you’ll need quick access to some key items without digging through boxes, ideally something that will fit on the passenger seat next to you. We recommend that you pack a small essentials box with the followint items:

• Toiletries such as toothbrush, toothpaste, and shower items. The reasoning behind these items here is that in case your stuff gets missing or get delayed for a day you have something to get you through the first night at your new place.
• A change of clothes and basic kitchen supplies such as utensils. A change of clothes is a great recommendation to keep in your car regardless of the situation, but it's even more important when you are moving to a new place. The logic is the same here as in the previous point.
• Chargers for phones and electronics. We are lost without our phone and that's going to be even more severely pronounced if you move to your new home and don't have a charger for it, especially if you've moved to a more rural area and there aren't any shops open to buy a new charger from. A USB type-C charger should suffice for most newer electronics and a lightning connector for your iPhone with a standard charging adapter with a USB-A is ideal.
• Snacks and bottled water to stay energized. With this we're getting into a bit of a castaway type situation, but having water during the day at your disposal at any time is not a bad idea at all. You don't know how hectic your day is gonna be and a water bottle or a Stanley Cup filled with some liquid to hydrate yourself is always a great idea.

Arrange Moving Logistics

If you’re hiring a professional moving company:

• Confirm the date, time, and any access requirements for your current and new property. Double check with them the addresses and crosscheck the postal code at the very least. Having your postal code right cuts the chance of a delay or the movers going to a far away wrong address is going to become basically zero that way..
• Inform them of any items requiring extra care, such as fragile items or furniture. Most professional moving companies would ask questions about that, but you know your personal belongings best and something that doesn't strike the movers as fragile could be, so make sure to let them know.
• Ensure they know about parking restrictions in London to avoid fines. If you are moving from London and are using a local company that should come as a given, but if you are moving TO London from a city like Manchester or Brighton, the local lads might not know about London's infamous restrictions, fees, ULEZ and others.

If you’re moving on your own:

• Reserve a van or ask friends for help ahead of time, that could be your second step of redundancy instead of looking for a backup company. .
• Plan your route to avoid traffic congestion or road closures and save money if possible by going round the ULEZ or simply book an EV van.

Secure Keys for the New Property

Make arrangements with your letting agent, landlord, or seller to collect the keys for your new property in advance. Double-check the following for the new property:

• The address and any security codes needed for access in case it's a gated community or the home itself has a security system in place.
• Whether you’ll need to meet someone in person or pick up the keys from an office.

Coordinate Utility Transfers

If you’re moving into a rental, confirm with your landlord or agent that utilities like electricity and water are set up and they're on. You'll need to switch them to your name afterwards, but at the very beginning you simply want to ensure they are on. If you are a new homeowner (Hooray for you) do this:

• Set up accounts with utility providers for your new property once you have settled in there. You are required to give the utility company at least a 48 hours notice before you move to the new place, but if you are one that plans ahead, you could do it up to 28 days in advance.
• Take final meter readings at your current property and provide them to your provider to close the account. Send the photo to the landlord or letting agent with metadata about the date the photo was taken to avoid any potential conflicts and wrongdoings.

Finalizing Your Move-Out

Inspect the Cleaned Property once and for all

After the end of tenancy cleaning, perform a walkthrough to ensure everything meets the landlord’s or letting agent’s cleaning standards. We have a very thorough interactive end of tenancy cleaning checklist which you can go through during your inspection, but here's the gist of it at a glance:

• High-traffic areas like kitchens and bathrooms, ensure that there are no visible marks on the ground
• Windows, carpets, and appliances to ensure they’ve been cleaned thoroughly, kitchens and bathrooms are the rooms that go under most scrutiny.
• Cupboards, drawers, and storage areas to confirm nothing has been left behind. Any of your personal belongings be it dishes or cutlery will have to be on the lorry on their way to your new place by now