Moving House Checklist – moving sucks, but everybody’s doing it

Download a printable version of the Moving House Checklist (pdf)

We created a moving house checklist to help Australians deal with the stress of moving. It turns out that Australians move house a lot with 43% of all Australian’s aged 15 years or older have moved house in the past 5 years (ABS Report). But, if you’re like me and are aged under 35 and living in a household with no children, then there is a 90% chance that you have moved house at least once in the past 5 years and a 40% chance you have moved three or more times (like the author) in the same period.

Previous moving house attempts

So it is quite clear that we are a mobile bunch, and anyone that has moved house knows that it is quite a draining and stressful process that takes twice as long as you originally allow for. My moving procedure once consisted of sitting around, sipping wine and taking a stroll down memory lane whilst I very slowly packed old mementos into boxes. It wasn’t very efficient to say the least.

The moving house checklist is born

A couple of moves ago, I decided my moving procedure lacked structure and so I built a little checklist. It has gradually grown to become something that is actually quite useful, so I have decided to put a little formality around it and package it up as a resource for all of the movers out there to use freely.

You will notice that I have gone with the work backwards from the move date approach. I find that having a clear goal (ie move date) set in stone and working backwards from this date allows bite size tasks to be set and conquered more easily.

The Moving House Checklist is particularly well suited to tenants of all ages and circumstances moving house. But I believe is also quite useful for new home owners if you bear in mind there may be some extra steps required (ie conveyancing and settling issues) that your lawyer should be able to sort out, or at least assist in pointing you in the right direction.