Moving house checklist UK: an 8-week countdown from Connor at Marley Moves

Moving house in the UK takes about eight weeks of decisions, paperwork and packing — and most of the stress in those eight weeks comes from doing the right thing in the wrong order. This is the checklist we wish every customer had in front of them when they first ring us at Marley Moves. It's the same week-by-week plan Connor walks people through on the phone — written down so you can tick it off, share it with whoever's helping, and stop trying to remember which utility you've called and which you haven't.

It's organised as an 8-week countdown to completion day. If you're tighter on time, scan to the week that matches your timeline and start there — the steps don't change, just the pace. Where it's useful we've added a sense of cost and a real-world note from the kind of moves we do every week across Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire.

8 weeks before move day — the big-picture decisions

This is when removal companies still have your date free, when your conveyancer has bandwidth to start on paperwork, and when you can afford to be picky about decluttering. Don't waste it.

• Decide your move date — at least a target window. Avoid bank-holiday weekends if you can; the M-way fills up and removal slots vanish first.
• Get three written removal quotes. Insist on a fixed price after a survey, not a phone-quote estimate. Anyone who won't survey is guessing.
• Check the removal firm's insurance: minimum £2.5m public liability and £50k goods-in-transit per load. Walk away from anyone vague on those numbers.
• If you're storing between completions, ask for a containerised storage quote in the same conversation — it's far cheaper booked together.
• Book a school place transfer if children are moving schools. Local authorities want 4–6 weeks; some popular schools want longer.
• Start the 'keep / donate / dump / sell' walkthrough — one room at a time, ten minutes a day. Not a marathon weekend.

6 weeks before move day — paperwork and logistics

The middle stretch. Less visible work; more important. This is where the moves that go wrong start to go wrong, because nobody's done the paperwork.

• Confirm your removal company in writing. Pay the deposit if asked (10–25% is normal). Get the booking confirmation and crew arrival time on paper.
• Tell your buildings and contents insurer you're moving — most policies need 14 days' notice and some lapse if you don't.
• Order packing materials if self-packing. A 3-bed home typically needs 50–80 boxes, two rolls of bubble wrap, four rolls of tape, and one pack of tissue paper. Your removal company should drop them free a week before.
• Notify the bank, credit-card providers, mortgage lender, and any pension/ISA accounts of the move date. Online forms take 5 minutes per provider.
• Tell HMRC if you're moving to a different local-authority area (Council Tax band can change).
• Book annual leave for the day before, the day of, and the day after move day. The day after is the one most people forget — and it's the one you'll need most.

If you're moving to or from a listed building, original-floor cottage, or property with awkward access (Bath crescents, Bruton lanes, Shaftesbury hill), flag it now to your removal team — see our town-by-town local guide for what tends to trip people up.

4 weeks before move day — declutter, donate, decide

You'll move 30% less stuff than you currently own — most of it never makes it out of the box at the new place anyway. Now is the time to admit it.

• Walk through every room. For each item: keep, donate, sell, dump. Be ruthless. If you haven't used it in 18 months you won't.
• Book a charity collection. Sue Ryder, British Heart Foundation, Salvation Army and Air Ambulance all offer free van collection of furniture in usable condition (3–7 day waitlist).
• List sellable items on Facebook Marketplace, Vinted, eBay. Set the listing end-date for two weeks before move day so you're not chasing collections in the last 48 hours.
• Book a skip if needed (from £200 for a standard 6-yard, council permits 3–5 days to issue if it'll sit on the road).
• Confirm utility transfer dates: gas, electricity, broadband, water. The supplier needs 14–28 days' notice for most types.
• Start using up the freezer. Awkward to transport, expensive to defrost-and-refreeze, easy to plan meals around.

2 weeks before move day — packing properly starts now

If you're doing any of the packing yourself, this is the week to start. Two weeks gives you time to do it right; two days does not. The kitchen and the loft will take you twice as long as you think.

• Pack room-by-room, not category-by-category. Label every box with the room it's GOING to (not the room it came from) and three words on the contents.
• Books in small boxes, bedding in large, kitchen breakables in medium with tissue between every item. Don't mix.
• Photograph anything fragile or valuable before it goes in a box (insurance evidence if anything's damaged in transit).
• Empty wardrobes — most removal companies provide hanging-rail boxes (free) so clothes go straight from rail to box to rail. Saves hours of ironing the other end.
• Submit the Royal Mail redirection form (£36 for 3 months, £52 for 6) — they need 5 working days to start.
• Set up a 'do not pack' shelf for the first-night box (kettle, mugs, tea, phone chargers, toiletries, fresh clothes, paperwork, kids' / pets' essentials). Mark the shelf clearly.

If your timeline is tight or the packing volume is overwhelming, our part-packing service takes the kitchen and the breakables off your plate for around from £100. That's the part where DIY tends to go wrong in the last 48 hours.

1 week before move day — the home stretch

This is when the move stops being abstract and starts being a thing happening on a specific Tuesday. Tighten the screws.

• Confirm the removal crew arrival time in writing. Confirm parking arrangements both ends — get a parking suspension permit from the council if you're in a controlled-parking zone (most councils need 5–7 working days, so don't leave this).
• Take meter readings now AND on move day. Photograph both with the date visible.
• Disconnect and drain the washing machine and dishwasher 24 hours before. Removalists won't touch a wet appliance — water damage in transit is uninsurable.
• Defrost the freezer 24–36 hours before. Empty the fridge to a cool box for the journey.
• Pack the first-night box and put it OBVIOUSLY in a different spot — it goes in your car, not the van.
• Run the hoover one last time. Wipe down empty cupboards. The sale agreement says 'clean' and disputes get expensive.
• Withdraw a small cash float (from £100) for tips, last-minute supplies, and the inevitable forgotten payment.

48 hours before — last-minute prep

• Strip the beds. Bag the bedding into clearly-labelled bags so it goes straight back on at the new place.
• Pack a 'kettle and breakfast' bag separate from the first-night box (you'll want tea before you can find anything).
• Charge every phone, every battery pack, every Bluetooth speaker. Move day eats batteries.
• Finalise the kids' / pets' plan. Pets are best out of the house with a friend or relative until the van is loaded; kids best out for the morning then back for lunch at the new place.
• Tell at least one neighbour what time the van's arriving. Saves the awkward parking dispute.
• Charge the credit card you'll use for the removal balance. Most companies want payment on the day before unloading starts.

Move day — the actual day

Move day is long but predictable if you've done the prep. The wheels come off when something on this list got skipped two weeks ago — not when something goes wrong on the day itself.

Morning

• Crew arrives at the agreed time (most removal teams aim for 8:00–8:30am for a local move; earlier for long-distance).
• Walk the crew lead through the house. Point out anything fragile, anything the kids made that you can't replace, anything you DON'T want loaded.
• Take final meter readings, photograph them with the date.
• Hand over the first-night box (and the kettle bag) — these go IN YOUR CAR, not the van.
• Final walkthrough once the van is loaded — every cupboard, every drawer, the loft hatch, the garage. Twice if you've got time.
• Lock up. Drop the keys at the estate agent or buyer's address as agreed.

Afternoon / evening

• At the new place: walk the crew lead through, agree where the van parks, confirm where the big furniture goes (mark rooms upstairs with sticky notes — saves a lot of 'where's this go?').
• Take meter readings at the new place straight away. Photograph them.
• Boxes go to the right rooms first time if labelled properly (which is why you labelled them — see Week 2).
• Beds reassembled and made up before the crew leaves — you do NOT want to be wrestling a bed frame at 11pm.
• Walk-through with the crew lead. Anything missing, anything damaged — flag it now while the paperwork's open.
• Pay the balance, sign the inventory, get the receipt emailed.
• Order takeaway. Don't try to cook. The kettle is enough.

The week after — settling in + admin

Most people forget the week after, and most people regret it. The post-move admin that takes you 90 minutes spread across 5 days saves you weeks of chasing later.

• Update your address with: bank, credit cards, mortgage, pension, employer payroll, HMRC, doctor, dentist, vet, car insurance, home insurance, V5C log book, driving licence, electoral roll, online retailers (Amazon, Tesco, etc.).
• Test smoke and carbon-monoxide alarms in every room (legal requirement in England since 2022 — every storey + every habitable room with a fixed combustion appliance).
• Find the stopcock, the fuse box, the gas-meter cut-off. Photograph each location and put the photos somewhere you'll find them at 11pm in November when something leaks.
• Locate the boiler manual / service certificate. Book a service if it's overdue.
• Register at the new GP surgery and dentist (NHS waiting lists are moving slowly — sooner you join, sooner you're seen).
• Take the move-day photograph series (every room, before unpacking) — useful for insurance, useful for the 'before / after' year-on satisfaction nostalgia.

If items went into storage between completions, contact us when you're ready for delivery — most containerised storage customers come back for the contents within 4–8 weeks but we've held loads for over a year while customers renovated.

A final word from Connor

If you've ticked your way down this list and ended up with three weekends of clear evenings, you're in the rare and excellent 5% of UK movers. Most people get to week 4 and realise they've left the kitchen, the loft and the children's bedrooms entirely untouched. That's normal.

The job we love most — and that we're frequently called in to do at three weeks' notice — is the one where someone's run out of bandwidth and just needs us to take the rest off them. We can survey on Tuesday, quote on Wednesday, pack on Friday and load on Saturday. The price doesn't go up because you're tight on time; it goes up only if the volume's bigger than we estimated. Honest pricing, in writing, before we lift a single box.

Wherever you are on the countdown — eight weeks out or eight days out — get a fixed written quote from us within two working hours. Request a quote, or call 01747 637070 and speak to Connor directly. We move people across Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire every day, and UK-wide for long-distance moves.