There is nothing really worse than having to plan a move. It’s not that you won’t want to move to a new property, it’s not that you don’t want to start a new adventure. It’s all about the fact that moving is an absolute pain in the neck because you have to declutter and clean and pack and sort and load and unload and unpack and rebuild and it is a whole process that you really don’t want to be dealing with if you don’t have to.
The moving company that you hire can pack all your household items for you and when the truck is loaded and you’re set to move you still have a list of things that you have to do. You could have that sort of relief and focus on the trip you’re about to have and how wonderful your new home is going to be, but you also have to learn more about carpet cleaning and hiring in the best cleaning professionals to clean your home from top to bottom. Let’s take a look at everything that you have to do before you move out of your house, jump into the car and drive to the new one.
- Turn off all the lights. Whether you are renting or you have sold your property, you need to stop leaving all the lights on! Turn off all of the indoor and outdoor lights as we were leaving, and while some real estate agents may ask you to leave at least one light of the safety, if they have an asked you and you should switch everything off.
- Lock all of the doors and all of the windows and double check your keys. Imagine what could happen if you have left the property and you have left the back door unlocked? This isn’t something that you should even have to worry about because it’s natural just to lock all the windows and doors, including the garage and the storage shed out the back. Double checking all the locks to ensure the house is secure is just a good thing to do before you pass the keys back to the Real Estate agent.
- Check the water taps. Just one running faucet can cause a lot of damage to your home, including the force it’s outside in the garden. Checking and locking all of these can ensure that you prevent this damage from happening. You don’t know when the new residence may be moving in, and it’s a good idea to make sure that they will be moving into a house that is intact and not dealing with water damage, damp or mould.
- Turn off the air conditioning and the heaters and unplug any appliances. You may well have brought your fridge freezer and any of your smaller appliances with you, but built-in appliances will need to have the plugs turned off. I’m plugging everything that you are leaving behind is a smart thing to do so that nothing can overload or short out. The real estate agent should give you this as an instruction before you go but if not just do it as a courtesy.
- Do a perimeter inspection of the whole house. Moving around the outside of the home to see if you’ve left anything on smart. Toys, straight tools, unravelled garden hoses – all of these things can really get in the way and it’s not fair to leave it as a mess for somebody else. It will also help you to check that the outdoor gates are also shut unlocked as they should be so that you can ensure that everything is clean and clear.
- Go and get your keys. If you have left keys with trusted neighbours, then you need to go and retrieve those. It’s also quite common to have keys hidden around the property and if you have done this, take them back. Anyone could find them by chance after you’ve moved out and break into the property, you should also collect keys from every family member that you have given one too. This isn’t just for the house, but for the backyard, the garage and the shed.
- Check the insides of appliances. The fridge, freezer, washer dryer and oven – all of these have the potential to be built into the property. If yours are, then you should ensure that they are completely empty before you move. You don’t want to have gone to your new property only to realise that you’ve left washing in the machine!
- Give the house one last look and wave goodbye.