FROM the moment your offer is accepted, the countdown begins and your head becomes full of mortgages, solicitors, moving out and moving in.
Keep everything together in a file from the beginning, noting essential phone numbers, mortgage details, sales memorandums and solicitors' letters.
Start packing up sooner than you think you need to, giving yourself time to sort through everything – and don't forget the loft. Make a note of what is in each box – 91 boxes all look the same when you want something in a hurry. Box up the most precious things and give them to a friend for safekeeping.
After exchange of contracts, inform the dentist, doctor, DVLA, etc. Change all magazine subscriptions. Redirection through Royal Mail takes five days to set up so take two utility bills and photo ID in person to the Post Office at least a week before the move. Leave the new owners a few sheets of sticky labels pre-printed with your new address to forward anything that slips through the net during the redirection period.
Make up a file for your buyers with guarantees, instruction leaflets, etc, and write a list including details of the nearest doctors, dentists, shops, bin collection day and recycling facilities. If you get a parish magazine, leave a copy in the file.
On the day, if you have a removal company, make clear what you don't want them to take. Ideally, get it loaded into your car before they arrive.
Have the vacuum cleaner, box of cleaning products, toolbox and two changes of clothes alongside a box of moving essentials in the car. This essentials box should include tea, coffee, sugar, kettle, mugs, toilet paper, light bulbs and dinner for the first night.
Take a meter reading at the old and new houses. Take a picture as this saves losing a scrap of paper with it written on and provides solid evidence if there is any discrepancy.
Check out helpful websites such as helpiammoving.com and handymoves.co.uk
