Moving Made Easy: A Step-by-Step Preparation Guide
Just the word is enough to make your heart race and palms sweat!
Experts agree: any significant life change brings stress and moving ranks near the top of the list.
Especially when it involves relocating to a different city or state, the task can feel massive. And that stress can drain your motivation, leading to last-minute panic.
However, by tackling key tasks early and staying organized, you can make the process far more manageable. Think of this as your moving playbook—something to print out and keep on hand as you prep for the big day.
Apart from choosing a moving company, and researching your new neighbourhood, we’ll be covering the often-overlooked basics that lay the path for a smooth transition.
1. Declutter Before You Pack
One of the first things you can do—right now—is purge what you no longer need. Most of us accumulate far more than we use, and moving it all only to lay dormant again, is a waste of time, space, and energy.
Go room by room and be ruthless!
- Donate clothes you haven’t worn in a year.
- Toss broken or obsolete tech items, near empty paint tins, and appliance manuals for your unused VCR.
- Take memorabilia photo snaps of nostalgic items that you don’t like enough to display but are finding difficult to say goodbye to.
- Host a garage sale and donate leftovers to charities such as the Salvation Army.
- List items on Facebook Marketplace
Decluttering not only lightens your load but gives you a real sense of progress and control of the situation.
2. Secure Important Documents and Valuables
Certain items should never go into boxes for the move. Set aside a folder or container for certain essentials and keep it with you during the move.
Here’s what to include:
- Birth certificates, passports, and wills
- Medical, dental, and school records
- Marriage licenses and tax returns
- Bank statements (if you’re not already electronic)
- Insurance policies, vehicle titles and registration
- Irreplaceable heirlooms, and personal mementos
Label it clearly: “NOT FOR MOVING TRUCK.”
3. Prepare Your New Location Early
There’s plenty you can do before you even arrive at your new place. A little early prep goes a long way.
Start with these:
- Perhaps you can open a post office box in your new suburb.
- Contact utility companies (gas, electric, water, internet, etc.) to schedule service start dates.
- Research and arrange new medical providers such as a local G.P.
- Review your insurance coverage—home, car, health—and get new policies if needed.
Have a list of people and companies to contact once you arrive, including:
- Credit card companies and loan providers
- Banks, subscriptions, and memberships
- Friends and family
- Department of Transport for your new address license sticker
4. Start a Moving Notebook (or a Note on your Phone)
As moving day approaches, chaos can take over. Avoid having to dig through old emails or sticky notes to find essential info by keeping everything in one place.
Get a clean notebook or legal pad or a dedicated note in your phone to jot down:
- Contact numbers for moving company, real estate agent, broker, utilities, etc.
- Emergency contacts
- Addresses for both locations
- Actionable items as you think of them
This notebook or note becomes your command centre throughout the move.
5. Plan Utilities and Services Like a Pro
A smooth transition means timing your disconnections and reconnections perfectly:
- Schedule current utilities to shut off a day after you leave.
- Schedule new utilities to activate the day before you arrive.
This prevents that dreaded moment when you walk into your new home—exhausted—only to find no power or water.
If you’re selling your home – even if you have moved out early (or had your investment property vacated), ensure that you keep utilities connected including gas, water and electricity until settlement, because the Buyer needs to check that services are connected at their final inspection. It’s the Seller’s responsibility to ensure this, and failure to remember this will be expensive to reconnect for a single check.
6. Hire a Small Truck or a Moving Company
If you have a small group of devoted friends and family members willing to help you move, you may be able to simply hire a small truck and do a few trips to your new home.
The maximum size for truck hire that can be driven on a regular car license is surprisingly large.
However, depending on how much you own, it may be worth hiring a moving company to take care of this exhausting task.
And I’m sorry to break it to you, but shouting your friends pizza at the end of the day isn’t a fair trade when it comes to moving house. Make sure that you have a very strong friendship or can offer to reciprocate in a substantial way.
7. Label Boxes Clearly
As much as you may feel in a rush to pack, it’s a mistake to think “Oh, I’ll remember what this box is for if I just write ‘BEDROOM’ on it. Plenty of boxes won’t get opened for a week or more, and when you arrive, you don’t want to be rummaging through mountains of boxes to find your essentials. Specify the person, and items E.g. JOHN – TOYS & CLOTHES.
Some Extra Things to Consider
Bear in mind, if you’re in Western Australia, settlement can generally be delayed by up to three days before the Seller or Buyer (usually whoever is at fault for the delay) will start being charged penalty interest. If you have no emergency contingency for this, you may be in a very sticky situation. Find out if the Sellers are purchasing another property “subject to sale” and whether there are other transactions in that chain of properties for sale, as a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
If you are moving into a property that has been recently tenanted, make sure that you have an up-to-the-minute confirmation of the tenant’s moving plans (not just confirmation that the property manager has given notice) as the hold-up could be quite stressful if the tenant hasn’t got secure and definite moving plans, and enough extra time left for vacate cleaning and an inspection etc.
A good, diligent real estate agent should be able to help you with these things, and consider a margin for error when writing up contracts.
Wrapping Up
Let’s face it—moving is rarely fun. But with smart planning, it doesn’t have to be chaos. When you:
- Declutter your belongings
- Secure your essentials
- Prepare your destination
- Keep your contacts organized
- Coordinate utility timing
- Book in the moving date(s)
- Label clearly
… you reduce surprises and make the entire process more manageable.
Good luck with your move!
If you’re moving from or to Bunbury (or the Greater Bunbury region), please get in contact, as I would be more than happy to help you with Buying, Selling, or answering any real estate questions that you may have!
Ben Colman
