Your Moving Out Checklist

Getting married. Starting a new job. Moving house. These are supposedly three of the most stressful things that you can experience in life. Whereas we can’t claim to be able to help you with the first two, we know a thing or two about moving house. Especially when it comes to getting rid of rubbish and unwanted belongings. So, with that in mind, and assuming you’ve taken care of the estate agent-aspects, let’s look at your moving house checklist.

Getting rid of unwanted belongings

When it comes to getting rid of all the things that you don’t want to take with you, some checklists advise starting two months in advance, whilst others advise six weeks. In truth, the earlier you start, the better. Moving house can be time consuming enough without you becoming preoccupied with the things that no longer belong in your life.

Think about if a skip might be a worthy investment. A skip will give you time to clear your house of unwanted belongings before you start focusing on the things you want to take with you to your new abode. Clearabee’s skip hire period is 14 days and we can usually offer free skip delivery during the next business day. Ideal for filling up as you’re clearing out.

Book a removals company

Once your moving date has been confirmed, then it’s time to get your removals company booked. If you haven’t already started the process, take your time and do plenty of research. Act on friends’ and previous customers’ recommendations, if possible. Make sure that any potential company is able to provide the exact services that you require, whether it’s long distance removals, the appropriate insurance and suitably-sized vehicles which are able to park at either property.

Lastly, don’t just go for the cheapest removals company, but also stay within your budget. Check comparison sites and look out for customers’ reviews, but remember: customers are often more motivated to write reviews of a negative experience than a positive one.

Get packing

Now you know which items are staying, it’s time to get everything boxed up. It sounds simple, but start with the things you hardly ever use; you don’t want to be packing the kettle and then going without a cuppa! Empty cupboards, box up the contents and then stack them back in the cupboard and do the same with the loft. The trick is, to keep everything exactly where it is, for as long as you can – you don’t want to spend weeks squeezing in-between boxes or looking for something elusive that you wish you hadn’t packed.

Label your boxes with the name of which room in your new home they’ll be going into (and which room they’re from, if you’re particularly well-organised). Make sure you don’t overload your boxes so that they’ll still stack safely and you’re not at risk of them breaking or toppling, mid-transit.

Once you’ve finished unpacking, make sure you recycle or reuse your cardboard. You don’t want to be ruining the look of your nice new home with boxes blighting the view, but you might be able to find someone else who could make use of them. Websites like Freecycle and Freegal, as well as community pages on Facebook might surprise you and you could find someone who’s desperate for some moving-out boxes.

Utilities and Change of Details

Once you know the date that you’ll be moving into your new property, you can start the process of informing all of your service providers, insurers and the local authority of the new address and your moving date.

When you’re disposing of sensitive personal material, be wary of identity fraud. Make sure that all of the documents which contain personal information are shredded and, where possible, separated before setting them aside for rubbish removal to reduce the chances of identity fraud. Use only reputable rubbish removals companies with a proven ability to dispose of such items responsibly and who also provide a Waste Transfer Note for future reference. Clearabee provide these as a matter of course with all rubbish removals, skip hire and Skip Bags customers.

Leaving your furniture behind?

If you’re not planning on taking some of your furniture with you when you move, then please consider donating it to a local charity before you consider throwing it away. Many charities will not only accept, but will also collect items of furniture from you, providing they are in a good, resellable condition with the fire safety label still attached (where applicable).

Some charities may charge a small fee for the service and others may only run semi-regular collections, but you can consult our location pages for a list of furniture collection charities local to you and each donation will help them to continue supporting their cause. If, for whatever reason, you’d prefer not to use a local charity, Clearabee are the next best thing. We can provide same-day sofa collection and we never send a sofa to a landfill, instead striving to reuse, purpose and recycle.

With that, good luck with the move and if we can help, then don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Removing rubbish. It’s what we do.

About Clearabee

Clearabee operates nationwide on-demand rubbish clearance and waste removal services, with over 120 vehicles and 300 directly employed staff. Our core services include our industry-leading rubbish clearance service as well as our skip bag, skip hire and sofa removal services.

Clearabee has been ranked as the fastest-growing waste management company in Europe for 3 years running and featured on The Sunday Times Virgin Atlantic Fast Track for the last two years.