The Ultimate Guide to Moving Interstate

Moving home is a stressful experience at the best of times. But when you are doing so interstate, the anxiety and strain levels tend to get even more elevated.

So, if you are one of the 400,000 Aussies annually who relocate to a different state it pays to be organised.

During any house move there is a lot to organise, let alone one that might involve travelling thousands of kilometres.

With that in mind, here is our ultimate guide to moving interstate. It should provide you with a good overview of what needs to be done to make your resettlement go as seamlessly as possible.

3 Stages to Moving

When planning your move, it is a good idea to break down your tasks into three main stages. Namely, the time before the move, the week before the move and moving day.

By doing this, you will be able to maintain greater clarity of thought, as you can easily schedule and keep track of what needs to be done and when.

You can use these ten resources to help you.

Before the move

While this is not always possible, try to start preparing for your relocation at least two months before you move home.

The more lead in time you can set aside for it the better. Though two months will potentially give you at least 16 weekend days to comfortably complete your to-do list.

As soon as you know you will be moving interstate, the first thing you should do is to find a specialist company to help you. Google Reviews and word-of-mouth are a good start. However, you should also explore reliable movers using Muval’s comparison tool.

In the period before your move, it is a good idea to take the opportunity to declutter your home. It is highly likely that you have things that have been hidden away in cupboards or languishing in boxes in the storage room for many years that you no longer need or use.

So, why not take the opportunity to sell, donate, recycle and responsibly dispose of these items at a rubbish tip?

Doing this will reduce the amount of your possessions you will take with you to your new home and therefore save you money.

Other activities you should do include enrolling your children into new schools or daycare, getting all your essential documents together such as passports and ensuring they are backed up on the cloud, and, of course, begin packing.

When packing, it is worth doing this on a room-by-room basis, starting with the one you use the least, for example, a guest bedroom.

Week Before the Move

The week before the move is when it’s all action stations.

At this time, you should contact your utility companies to arrange for when electricity, gas and water should be turned off at your present home, and on in your new abode. You should also do the same for your internet service provider.

Setting up a post office redirect to ensure that you don’t miss important pieces of mail, is another good idea. This service lasts for a year which should give you ample time to make sure you’ve changed all your addresses over with the relevant parties who mail you in that time.

A couple of days before you move, you should put together a bag of clothes and other essential items for each member of your family. Make sure you know where these are at all times, as these will need to be taken on your personage when you move home.

Additionally, it is worth putting together a children’s entertainment bag, so they don’t get bored in transit, and also running the fridge and freezer down. If you can do so enough to give them a complete clean then all the better.

Lastly, the night before the move, you should pack your car. That way you’ll be ready to go as soon as the removalists arrive, and there will be no risk of important items you need accidentally being taken in their van.

Moving Day

On moving day, you’ll want to supervise the removalists. However, it is also important not to get in their way. Instead give them clear instructions of what you want them to take and confirm the address they are transporting your possessions to.

Once they have gone you should conduct a thorough audit of each room of the house to make sure you haven’t left anything behind. This should include looking in the back of cupboards, outside sheds and storage cupboards and downstairs/under-the-house areas. Make sure you take curtains with you as well, if you want to.

With everything packed away, it’s good form to give your old home a good clean and vacuum. Not only is this good karma for those who owned the home, but it is also necessary if you are renting and want to get your bond back.

Finally, once you have done all that, take a moment to say goodbye to your old home.

You no doubt have some wonderful memories of living within it. So, it’s worth reminiscing on them briefly before you close the front door for a final time.