Interactive planner

Your moving checklist & timeline

Everything to do before, during and after your move, week by week — from six to eight weeks out through to closing out your bond. Tick things off as you go — your progress saves automatically in your browser, so you can come back any time. Add your move date to turn the checklist into a timeline with real deadlines, then download it straight into your calendar.

Watch: how to use the moving checklist & timeline.

My move includes

Set your move date to unlock calendar export — every deadline lands as an all-day reminder, including booking your removalists and connecting your utilities.

Your progress 0 of 0 done

6–8 weeks before

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4–6 weeks before

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  • Renting
  • Interstate
  • Pets
  • Pets
  • Kids

3 weeks before

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2 weeks before

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  • Kids
  • Pets

1 week before

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The day before

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  • Renting

Moving day

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Moving in — the first few days

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  • Renting
  • Kids
  • Kids
  • Pets

The first weeks after

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  • Kids

Final close-out

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After the move

What to do after you move

The truck has gone and the chaos is yours. Here's how to make sense of it quickly — and start actually living in your new place.

Your first 24 hours, in order

  1. Check the utilities. Lights, power points, internet — and make sure the hot water system is switched on before you need that shower.
  2. Quick clean before unpacking. Benches, cupboards and bathrooms are easiest while they're still empty — even after a professional clean.
  3. Beds first. Assemble and make every bed before you're too tired to care.
  4. Plug in the fridge and unpack the esky and cutlery drawer.
  5. Kitchen and bathrooms next. The rooms you use most, unpacked first — everything else can wait.
  6. Easy dinner, early night. Takeaway or that grocery delivery you scheduled. You've earned it.
Unpacking without the overwhelm

Follow your colour codes: get every box into its matching room before you open anything. Then unpack by priority — kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms, then the home office if you work from home. Don't aim for perfect placement; you can finesse later. More in our guide to unpacking.

Leave fragile and decorative boxes until the chaos settles, and photograph any transit damage as you find it so you can raise it with your moving company promptly.

Settling in kids and pets

Be open about the move from day one and talk up the new area from their perspective — explore the neighbourhood on Google Earth together before you arrive. Set up their rooms early, keep meal and bedtime routines familiar, and take breaks from unpacking for some family fun in the new space. More: moving with small children.

Enrol at the new school as early as you can (check catchment zones), and empower kids to make decisions about their own things when packing and unpacking.

For pets: keep supplies handy on day one, give them a quiet corner that smells like home, and keep cats indoors for a couple of weeks. See our tips for moving with pets and pet-proofing guide.

Making your house a home

Once the essentials are away, the fun starts: deciding whether your old decor suits the new space. Set a decorating budget before you get carried away, tackle one room at a time, and remember renters can transform a space with curtains, rugs, plants and lighting alone.

Outside counts too — a tidy letterbox, some potted colour and outdoor lighting change how home feels every time you walk in.

Muval Connect

Get connected before you arrive

One call sets up every service at the new place, so the lights, the hot water and the Wi-Fi are all working the day you walk in — instead of chasing four providers in your last fortnight.

  • Electricity
  • Gas
  • Internet
  • Pay TV
Connect with Muval Connect

Or call us on 1300 168 825 — we'll make sure the new place is ready and welcoming.

Don't skip it: the most common "first night fail" we hear about is a hot water system that was never switched back on. Check the switchboard and the tank before sunset.

First job on the list: lock in your removalists

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