Moving Out Checklist
Everything you have to do to leave home for a first rental, grouped into five areas with a deadline on every line. Start three months out and work down it.
The five phases
| When | Focus | The one thing |
|---|---|---|
| 3 months out | Money and paperwork | Know your savings target and your monthly number. |
| 6 weeks out | Finding the place | Viewings booked and questions written down before you go. |
| 3 weeks out | Signing and setting up | Lease signed, deposit paid, utilities in your name from day one. |
| 1 week out | Packing and logistics | Everything boxed except the last-day bag. |
| Move week | The move and the first week | Keys, meter readings, photos, then food and sleep. |
Three months is comfortable. Six weeks is doable. Under a month means you are borrowing the deposit or moving somewhere you have not seen properly.
The checklist
Money
Nothing else on this list works if this part is guessed at.
- Work out your real monthly total: rent, utilities, internet, phone, transport, food — 3 months out
- Set the savings target: deposit, first month, a setup fund, one month of living costs — 3 months out
- Open a separate savings account and set a standing order for payday — 3 months out
- Check your credit report and fix anything wrong on it — 2 months out
- Get proof of income ready: three payslips, or an employer letter if you are new in the job — 6 weeks out
- Line up a guarantor and warn them, if you need one — 6 weeks out
- Budget the setup spend as week one and month three, not one lump — 4 weeks out
- Keep one month of rent untouched as a cushion after you move — Move week
Paperwork
Boring, fast, and the reason applications fall through when it is missing.
- Gather ID, proof of address, bank statements and references into one folder — 6 weeks out
- Read the whole lease, including the fees and the notice period, before you sign anything — 3 weeks out
- Pay the deposit and get written confirmation of which scheme protects it — 3 weeks out
- Take out renters insurance, effective from your move-in date — 2 weeks out
- Register your change of address with your bank, employer, phone and doctor — 1 week out
- Set up mail forwarding from your parents' address — 1 week out
- Move yourself off any family plan you are paying into by staying at home — 1 week out
- Save the landlord or agent contact details and the emergency repair number in your phone — Move week
The place
Choosing it and getting it switched on before you arrive.
- Set your must-haves and your absolute rent ceiling before you look at listings — 6 weeks out
- View at least three places, and view them in daylight — 5 weeks out
- Ask the landlord about bills, repairs, parking, guests and how notice works — At each viewing
- Check water pressure, phone signal, damp smell, and the road at night — At each viewing
- Confirm what is included: white goods, furniture, blinds, parking space — Before you apply
- Set up electricity, gas, water and internet in your name for the move-in date — 2 weeks out
- Book the internet install early, since it is the one that takes two weeks — 3 weeks out
- Measure doorways and the lift before you buy any furniture — 2 weeks out
The move
Three weeks of small jobs so the last day is only lifting.
- Book the van or the movers, on a weekday if you can — 3 weeks out
- Sell, donate or bin whatever you are not taking, room by room — 3 weeks out
- Start packing what you do not use daily: books, out-of-season clothes, decorations — 2 weeks out
- Label every box with the room it goes to and one line of contents — As you pack
- Pack a first night box: bedding, towel, toiletries, charger, toilet roll, kettle, snacks — 2 days out
- Confirm key collection time and where you pick them up — 2 days out
- Photograph the empty apartment and record meter readings before anything arrives — Move day
- Feed whoever helped, and make the bed before you are too tired — Move day
The first week
The jobs that stop being easy once you have settled in.
- Find the fuse box, the stopcock and the boiler, and learn how to reset each — Day 1
- Test the smoke alarm and buy batteries if it is silent — Day 1
- Do one real grocery shop, not four convenience runs — Day 2
- Return the signed inventory with your photos attached — Day 3
- Report every fault in writing, even small ones, so they are on record — Day 3
- Learn the bin days and where the bins actually go — Week 1
- Set every bill to a date just after payday — Week 1
- Introduce yourself to one neighbour — Week 1
What this list does not cover
These are tasks, not purchases. What to actually buy is a separate job and it lives on moving out essentials, so you are not shopping and organising in the same hour. If you want the reasoning behind the sequence rather than the bare list, read moving out for the first time. And if your date is close, the week-by-week plan spreads the same tasks across the calendar you actually have.