Moving house checklist: 6 weeks to moving day

Moving house involves a surprising number of small administrative tasks alongside the physical move itself, and the ones that get left too late are usually the ones that cause the most last-minute stress. Spreading them across the six weeks before moving day makes the whole process considerably more manageable.

Six weeks out is the point to start firming up the practical foundations. Get quotes from two or three removals firms, ideally each based on a proper survey rather than a rough phone description, so the prices are genuinely comparable. If you're weighing up a BAR-accredited firm, this is also the point to check — membership of the British Association of Removers means the firm follows a Trading-Standards-approved Code of Practice and provides an Advance Payment Guarantee, which protects any deposit you pay if the firm runs into financial trouble before your move. This is also a sensible time to start decluttering, since anything you're not taking is one less thing to pack, move and pay to transport.

By four weeks out, book your removals firm properly if you haven't already — good firms, particularly for weekend or month-end dates, can get booked up well in advance. This is also the right time to set up Royal Mail's redirection service, so post starts reaching your new address from moving day rather than weeks after. Pricing (effective from April 2026, inc. VAT) is £45 for 3 months, £66.50 for 6 months or £95 for 12 months for one adult, with two adults at the same address costing £56, £79 or £108.50 respectively; a reduced-price Concession Redirection is available from £22.50 for anyone receiving Universal Credit or Pension Credit. It's also worth notifying your children's school and, if relevant, arranging a place at a new school near your destination, since school transfers can take longer to process than most other changes on this list and are best started early.

At two weeks out, turn to the utility and administrative notifications. Contact your electricity, gas and water suppliers with at least 48 hours' notice before you move, and have meter readings ready for both your old and new address so closing and opening statements are accurate. Notify your local council about council tax at both properties — this is usually straightforward to do online — and update your details on the electoral roll at your new address, since being missed off it can, among other things, affect your credit score. It's also worth registering with a GP and dentist near your new home at this point if you haven't already, since NHS registration is local and doesn't transfer automatically just because you've moved.

In the final week, the focus shifts to confirming details rather than starting new tasks. Reconfirm the time and access arrangements with your removals firm, particularly if there's anything about parking or access at either property that they'll need to know on the day. Start packing a clearly labelled "first night" or "essentials" box — toiletries, chargers, a change of clothes, basic kitchen items and any medication — so you're not digging through unmarked boxes after a long moving day. It's also worth double-checking you've actually received confirmation, not just sent a request, from each organisation on your notification list — a quick follow-up call to anything still unconfirmed a few days before moving day is far easier than chasing it up from a new address afterwards.

A simple way to keep track of all this is a single running list, ticked off as each item gets confirmed rather than just requested — council tax, electoral roll, utilities, GP and dentist, school, and anyone else relevant to your situation, such as your bank, employer, insurer or subscriptions with a registered address. None of these individually take long, but leaving several of them until the final few days before moving is a common source of avoidable stress, so spreading them across the six-week run-up tends to make for a considerably calmer move.

It's worth building a small amount of slack into this timeline too, rather than treating every date as fixed the moment you write it down. Removals dates can shift by a day either way if a completion date moves, redirection requests can take a short while to become active once submitted, and school or GP transfers occasionally need a follow-up call to actually confirm rather than just assuming the paperwork has gone through. Starting the process at six weeks rather than two or three gives enough buffer to absorb these small delays without any of them turning into a genuine problem close to moving day, and it means the final week can genuinely be spent on packing and logistics rather than still chasing administrative loose ends.

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