Moving checklist: from eight weeks out to handover day

A move becomes manageable the moment not everything shares one deadline. Start with whatever depends on someone else’s diary, because that is where you have the least control, and keep the day itself as free as you can.

Treat the weeks below as a guide and shift them to fit your own handover date. With an existing home that date often firms up late. With a new build you know it sooner, but delivery times are longer.

Eight to six weeks out: anything that depends on someone else

A removal firm, plasterer or floor fitter will not always be free on the day that suits you. So ask early when they have space. That way you can fit the work and the move around each other.

• set your moving date and tell everyone who is helping that day
• get two or three quotes from removal firms, or book a van
• book the work that is far easier in an empty house: painting, plastering, wiring, flooring
• order flooring and blinds or curtains, since measuring up and delivery together can easily take six weeks
• arrange an internet connection at the new address

Go through your belongings in the same weeks. Anything that goes now is something you do not have to pack, carry or find a home for again. With large furniture, measure the route in the new place as well: the stairwell, the doorways and the turn in the hall. If something will not fit, you find out now rather than on moving day.

Which jobs genuinely have to happen before you move in and which can wait until you live there is covered in what to renovate before you move in.

Six to four weeks out: give every contract a date

It pays to agree in advance which day your energy, water and internet should start. That way you and the supplier mean the same thing by 'around the move'.

For energy and water, use the completion date, and take your meter readings the same day. Ask your internet provider when the line will be live, so you know whether you will have internet from the day you move in.

With buildings insurance (opstalverzekering) the date is not yours to choose. Most lenders require cover from the completion date as part of their terms. Check your mortgage offer for the date that applies and have the policy start then.

Four weeks out: register your move with the gemeente

Your local council (gemeente) will not take the notification more than four weeks before you move. If you leave it until afterwards, you have five days from your moving date. You register with the council you are moving to, not the one you are leaving.

The council enters your new address in the population register (Basisregistratie Personen). Plenty of government bodies read from it, but your bank, your insurer, your employer and your subscriptions do not. Keep your own list for those and work through it in the week after the move.

Check what proof your new council asks for and get it ready. That saves you hunting for it when you register. You always need valid ID, and sometimes proof that you live there, such as your purchase deed (koopakte).

Three weeks out: pack what you are not using

Books, ornaments, out-of-season clothes, the store cupboard and everything in the shed and loft can be boxed up weeks ahead. That is the pile that otherwise ends up waiting for the final week.

Write the room and the contents on every box. 'Kitchen' tells you nothing on moving day. 'Kitchen, coffee and mugs' does, because that is the box you open first that evening.

Two weeks out: one plan for the day itself

On moving day you are the only one with the whole picture, and that is exactly the day you have no time for it. Agree now who does what:

• who holds the keys to the old and the new place
• who meets the removal firm or the people helping
• where the children and the pets will be that day
• which furniture has to go in first
• who photographs the meter readings, at both addresses

Set one box aside that will not end up at the bottom of the van: toilet roll, towels, chargers, medication, cleaning things, basic tools, coffee and your bedding. That box goes in your own car.

The last week: finish things off, start nothing new

Use the final days to wrap up what is already under way:

• confirm the booking with the removal firm
• sort out a parking space for the van if you are on a busy street
• defrost the freezer in good time
• take apart whatever needs taking apart
• put your important documents in one place

Do not take on an extra job just because two days happen to be free. Those two days are what keeps the rest of your plan workable.

Handover day

Your day starts with the final inspection and the appointment at the notaris. The removal van comes after that. The keys are only yours once the deed has been signed, and until then nothing of yours goes into the new house.

At the old place

• check the cupboards, the loft, the shed and the storage
• photograph the meter readings
• check the windows, the doors and the keys to any outbuildings
• hand over the keys you agreed to hand over

At the new place

• photograph the meter readings before anything is connected
• check that the water, the electrics and the heating work
• find the stopcock, the meter cupboard and the fuse box
• put the important boxes straight on the right floor
• make the bed first

Keep the meter photos with the date on them until your first annual bill adds up. They are your record of the readings your contract started from, and what you fall back on if the bill does not match.

What happens at the notaris that morning, and why the keys are only yours afterwards, is covered in the transfer at the notaris.

Do you need to change the locks?

No, and nothing says you have to. We would change the cylinders in three cases: if the place has been let out, if a key safe hung on the door during the sale, or if the seller cannot say how many keys were ever cut. In those cases nobody knows how many copies are out there.

If you do, check which type of cylinder is fitted before you order one. In a flat the front door is often part of a master-key system run by the owners' association (VvE), and then it is not yours to change.

You don’t need everything ready for your first night

You need less for the first night than you think: a bed, bedding, towels, a light, toiletries and something to eat. A finished living room is not a moving deadline. Get the house warm and safe, and leave the rest of the boxes for a week.

The first few days after

Check that your change of address has gone through and work through your own list. If you are not sure you have covered everyone, have your post redirected for a while. Then a bill or a reminder from someone you forgot still reaches you.

What is still to come in the first few months, from the council tax bill to the first real downpour against your dormer, is covered in what to arrange after moving.