Moving home takes so much mental bandwidth that it’s no surprise things slip through the cracks.
Research found that two thirds of people forget at least one routine task when they move, and it’s usually the smaller, less glamorous jobs that get overlooked while everyone’s busy dealing with boxes and vans. Here’s a rundown of the most commonly forgotten moving tasks, so hopefully your next move goes a bit more smoothly than most.
Redirecting your post is the single most forgotten job.
Topping the list, one in five people admitted to forgetting to redirect their post entirely. It’s such a simple thing to sort out, and yet it’s the job that trips people up more than any other, probably because it feels like something you can “get to later” right up until you’re already unpacking boxes in your new home.
You can choose to redirect your mail for three, six or twelve months, with pricing sitting around £41.50, £61 and £87 respectively depending on the length you go for. Set this up a few days before you actually move too, since the service can take up to five working days to properly kick in.
Measuring up for curtains and blinds catches a lot of people out.
If you’re moving somewhere in the summer months, few things are worse than being woken up at 5 a.m. by blazing sunlight because you didn’t sort out curtains or blinds before moving day. It’s an easy job to overlook while you’re focused on bigger things like furniture and moving logistics.
It’s also one of those costs that catches people off guard financially, especially if the previous owners take their curtains and blinds with them rather than leaving them behind. Check early on with the sellers exactly what’s staying and what isn’t, so you’re not left scrambling to measure and order last minute.
Old addresses saved on shopping sites can cause real headaches.
Online shopping is brilliant, right up until an order gets delivered to your old address instead of your new one. If you’ve only moved a short distance, collecting it might still be possible, but for anyone who’s relocated further away, that’s simply not realistic.
Go through your saved addresses on sites you shop with regularly, whether that’s a supermarket, Amazon, or anywhere else you tend to order from. One Which? expert who moved recently found this out the hard way when a supermarket delivery defaulted to her old address, despite having added the new one, and the driver arrived to find the old property no longer even existed after being merged with the house next door during building works. Make sure you double-check any recurring orders specifically, since those are easy to forget entirely.
Sorting broadband before you move in saves a stressful first week.
Nobody wants their first few days in a new home spent dealing with video calls dropping out, shows buffering constantly, or being unable to order a food shop online. Arranging your broadband connection ahead of moving day avoids all of that, but it’s easily forgotten amid everything else going on.
When choosing a new package, check out exactly what kind of broadband is actually available at your new address first. Full fibre broadband has become considerably cheaper and more widely available recently, now reaching around four in five homes, and it offers both faster speeds and better reliability than older connection types.
You don’t necessarily need the fastest package available to benefit, either, since even a standard full fibre plan tends to outperform older technology in terms of reliability alone. Also, keep an eye on price increases, since many major providers raise their prices annually by around £3.50 to £4 a month, something that’s easy to miss when you’re focused purely on the upfront monthly cost.
Meter readings are easy to forget in the chaos of moving day.
Taking a meter reading on the day you move out matters far more than it might seem in the moment, since it helps make sure you’re charged correctly for exactly what you used. Writing the reading down and taking a photo as backup proof is a smart habit, too, in case there’s ever a dispute over your final bill later on.
The same goes for the day you move into your new home, taking a reading straight away ensures you’re only billed for what you actually use from that point forward. One Which? expert who recently bought a flat forgot to take a reading when she first moved in, which later caused confusion trying to work out exactly what she should have been charged for gas and electricity.
A handful of other jobs regularly slip through the cracks too.
Beyond the biggest offenders, plenty of other tasks show up repeatedly in research on this topic. Informing your current bank account provider of your new address and applying for a new driving licence both made the list too, each forgotten by around 17% of people surveyed.
None of these individual jobs feel particularly difficult on their own, but when you’re juggling dozens of tasks at once during a move, it’s easy for smaller admin jobs like these to quietly fall off the list entirely, only to resurface as an annoyance weeks later.
There are a few lesser known tasks are worth adding to your list.
Locating the stopcock as soon as you move in is important to do early, ideally before you actually need it in an emergency. The last thing anyone wants is water spraying across their brand-new home while they frantically search for where to turn it off.
If you’re planning any renovation work, contact a builder well in advance too, since the best ones often have long waiting lists. One recent mover admitted she wished she’d requested quotes much earlier, and said she might have even delayed moving in entirely had she known just how long she’d end up waiting for her preferred builder to become available.
Parking rules should be researched before you move, not after.
Anyone who’ll need to rely on on-street parking at their new address should check the local rules before moving day arrives, rather than assuming it’ll sort itself out afterwards. Every council handles this a little differently, covering everything from permit costs through to how many permits a single household can actually apply for.
Some councils won’t let you apply for a permit until you’ve officially moved in, while others, including Bristol City Council, will accept a letter from your solicitor as proof of purchase instead, letting you sort things out slightly earlier. And if you’re moving out of a property where you already hold a permit, don’t forget to check whether you need to formally cancel it too, since that’s another job that’s easy to overlook entirely once your attention shifts to the new place.
A proper checklist makes the whole process easier.
Given just how many small, easily forgotten jobs come with moving home, working from a proper checklist can make a real difference to how smoothly everything goes. Breaking tasks down by when they actually need doing, rather than trying to remember everything at once, takes a lot of the mental load off during an already overwhelming time.
Whether that’s redirecting post, sorting broadband, or simply remembering to jot down a meter reading, tackling these jobs early and methodically means far less chance of anything slipping through the cracks once the moving van has already come and gone.
