Moving into a new house checklist: 21 essential steps

What you'll learn ✅

• How to prepare for moving day weeks in advance to reduce stress
• Which items to pack first and what to save for last-minute packing
• Essential tasks for moving week including utility transfers and address changes
• Critical items to check in your new home before and after moving in

Moving may never be your idea of a great time, but planning ahead for moving day can lower your stress and make the move less hectic.

Whether you're renting or buying a new home, this moving-into-a-new-home checklist can help.

7 things to do before relocating to a new house

It's never too early to get started moving, even if the big day is weeks, or even a couple months, away.

Here are some early-in-the-process moving checklist jobs to do. You can do some of these while still shopping for a new house.

Get rid of stuff you don't need

Why spend time and money moving stuff you don't need? It's better to give away or sell your extra stuff, including clothes, books, old DVDs you haven't watched in 10 years, and so on, before moving it to a new home.

Old pillows, towels, and blankets may go straight into trash bags, but other items may still be useful to others. You could donate the extra items to thrift stores, schools, or libraries. Or you could have a yard sale to make a little money while creating a lighter lift on moving day.

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Start collecting moving supplies

Hardware stores and moving companies sell moving supplies and boxes. You could also check with friends or family who've moved recently. They may have an attic full of empty boxes waiting for you to claim. A lot of new homeowners do some of both: buying and borrowing boxes.

Along with boxes, pick up packing tape, bubble wrap, and a few bold-writing markers. If you can afford to, pick up a few plastic crates for especially heavy or delicate items.

DIY or pro? Pick a moving strategy

Many first-time homebuyers DIY their move. This can save thousands, even on a local move. DIY works best for people who can call on a few strong-backed friends who are willing to help get everything moved into their new home. Having a few friends with a truck or trailers helps a lot, too.

Related: How to save money as a first-time homebuyer

Other movers like to call in the pros. If you're moving across town or a couple counties over, look into local as well as regional or national moving companies. If you're moving across the country, you'll probably need to hire one of the big nationally known companies.

Moving companies can handle a lot of the details for you. Some even pack and organize boxes. But the more stuff you pack yourself, the faster the move will go, and this can lower the cost, depending on the moving company's price structure.

Start packing stuff you aren't using

Even if it's still weeks, or a month, before moving day, you can start packing stuff you don't use everyday. Books, clothes, holiday decorations, small appliances you use only occasionally, extra dishes, wall art — all of this can be packed into boxes, saving time later.

Get out the boxes, bubble wrap, markers, and packing tape you collected earlier to good use. Some highly organized people use color coded tape, or even different color markers, to label their boxes at this stage.

If that's not you, it's still important to label your boxes. Write "fragile" on boxes with breakable items inside. Also, label where the box should go in your new house: "bathroom," "kitchen," "primary bedroom closet," etc.

Contact utility companies

Your natural gas, electricity, water, cable TV, and internet service providers need to know your moving schedule. You can schedule to have these services turned off or transferred to your new home.

Be sure to ask how to get your security deposits back, especially if you're closing an account and moving out of a provider's service area.

Change your address

It's easy enough to get the USPS to forward your mail to your new address. This costs only $1.10 online and is free if you stop by the post office in person.

But mail forwarding isn't enough. Notify your bank, credit card companies, and employer. Ask them to update address data in their files. Also, schedule an appointment with the DMV to get a new driver's license or state-issued ID. Some states offer this online.

Contact health care providers, insurance companies, cell phone providers, and close friends and family to let them know about your change of address. And don't forget to update services like PayPal and DoorDash which may send a delivery to your default address without giving you a chance to update it first.

Eventually you'll need to update voter registration — or register for the first time.

Schedule to be off work

Once you've set the moving day, go ahead and clear your schedule for that day or even for a couple days in advance. Depending on the size and distance of the move, you may need to take some time off work.

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Checklist for moving week: 7 more to-dos

All the planning and organizing you did will make moving week a lot easier, but make no mistake: Moving week will still be hectic. Here are some ways to make the week easier and the move more successful:

Close the kitchen early

A week or so before moving day, it's time to stop cooking and shut down the kitchen. Start eating whatever leftovers you may have in the refrigerator. Keep only the kitchen essentials unpacked.

Try not to get takeout that will accumulate a lot of new leftovers. Switch to paper dishes and plastic utensils. Biodegradable or compostable dishes work too! The emptier the fridge, the easier the move.

Keep ready access to what matters most

Think of the important things you'll need to access readily, like toiletries, a couple changes of clothes, phone chargers, and essential medicines. Pack these items in a way that you can access them quickly when needed, whether you're at the new place, the old place, or in between.

Some super-prepared movers even include hand soap, a roll of toilet paper, basic tools such as pliers and screwdrivers, and flashlights and batteries in their bag.

Set aside valuables

Make a plan for valuables you don't want tossed around on a moving truck or handled by several strangers from the moving company. Musical instruments, antiques, sensitive electronics, collectibles, and vital records fall into this category for many homeowners. Be sure to take photos of valuables for insurance, if you don't already have those on file.

Crunch-time packing

It's time to start boxing everything, en masse, room by room. Even when you're fast-packing, be sure to label boxes. Disassemble furniture such as tables, desks, and TV stands. Unhook and unplug electronics. Use sandwich baggies to organize and label furniture hardware. Find a way to keep track of electronics cords, too. You may want to save the bed frame and mattress disassembly until moving day.

If you're not sure how to put furniture or electronics back together in the new place, take a picture of how they look before taking them apart.

Prepare major appliances for the move

If you're moving existing appliances to your new home, it's time to get them ready for the move. Empty the refrigerator and freezer a day or two before the move, if possible. Disconnect and drain the washing machine, too. Drain or syphon any gas that's left in the lawnmower. And so on.

Check back with utility companies about shutoff

Confirm the cut off schedule for water, electricity, internet, and any other utilities you use. Be sure you're still scheduled to have services disconnected or transferred to your new home.

Stay flexible

The best moving plans leave room for dealing with changes and new challenges along the way. It's OK to add a new miscellaneous box or two when you come across items that don't fit anywhere else, for instance. It's OK to change your mind and decide not to take a certain piece of furniture that you don't have room for.

Checklist for moving day: 4 essentials

Moving day is here, and all the advance work you've done is already paying off, whether you know it or not. There's still, of course, lots to do.

Look for loose ends

Still got loose items around the house? Find a place for them. Be sure to check on top of large pieces of furniture like tall shelves and armoires. You may have items to pack hiding up there out of sight. Check the basement, attic, and storage buildings for stuff you may have forgotten.

Label any unlabeled boxes. This will save time by eliminating unnecessary questions from movers throughout the day.

Move valuables yourself

Put those cases and boxes of valuables in your own car or somewhere else where you can keep track of them. If you've already closed on the new home before moving day, consider delivering these items early, assuming you have a safe place to put them at the new place.

Shut, lock, turnoff

Shut and lock windows and doors. Turn off overhead lights. Make sure crawlspace or storage building doors are padlocked, much like you'd do before going on a long trip. If you're leaving a rental, be sure to follow the property manager or landlord's instructions for vacating the home. For example, they may want you to shut off the water main.

Say goodbye

Even if you're not the sentimental type, take a minute to say farewell to the old place. Spend a quiet minute or two in the empty place. What's changed since you moved in? What will you miss about the place? What will you not miss?

After moving in: Setting up and settling in

Before moving the boxes and furniture into your new home, look around inside. Even if you did a walkthrough or even a quick home inspection on closing day, take a minute to locate:

• The main water shut off valve: This may be in the garage, the basement, the pantry, or a utility room. For a newer home, look for a quarter-turn valve. When the shut off valve handle aligns with the pipe, the water should be flowing. In an older home, the valve may look round, like an old-fashioned outdoor spigot handle, and it may require more turning.
• The circuit breaker box: This may be on the back wall or inside a closet or laundry area. Are some of the breakers turned off? Don't flip them on indiscriminately. If the home has an electric tank hot water heater, for example, make sure the water has been on long enough to fill the tank before turning on the hot water breaker. (If not immersed in water, the heating elements will burn out.)
• Temperature and air quality: Find the thermostat and check for proper settings for the season and weather. Pay attention to whether the HVAC system responds by turning on or off. Also, test smoke detector batteries and carbon monoxide detectors. Replace batteries if these devices don't work.
• Trash and recycling bins: Depending on the municipality, your new home may have rolling trash and recycling bins somewhere outside. Look for the trash recycling schedule online if you don't know when the next pick-up day happens.

Once you know about these new home checklist essentials, It's time to move everything into the home. If you're working with professional movers, make sure they know where you'd like boxes with specific labels to go.

Along with unpacking everything, re-assembling and placing furniture, and arranging spaces, you should also:

Change or rekey locks

This will require a trip to a hardware store unless you've already bought new locks. It's always good to change locks, or at least rekey the lock cores, when you move into your own home. You never know who the old owner shared keys with.

Get new driver's license and voter registration cards

In many states you can make driver's license and voter registration changes in the same location.

Plan a party

You've got the place all set up. It's time to show it off. Why not invite over a few friends to see how all your hard work has paid off.

Taming new home chaos with good planning

Nobody wants to move by tossing random stuff into a moving truck on moving day. The way to prevent this unfortunate strategy is to plan for a different style of move, one that's calmer and more organized.

The same goes for home financing and the process of closing the mortgage loan and becoming a homeowner. Working with people who know how these processes work can help keep your home purchase on track.

We designed Better Mortgage's home financing and its other services for home buyers to make this process as easy as possible for new homeowners.

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