A move that goes wrong is almost never a lorry problem: it is a notice letter sent too late, a meter nobody read, a key handed back without an inventory. Here is the schedule we recommend to our clients; adapt it to your own situation.
8 weeks before: set the frame
- Send your notice to the landlord by registered post, respecting the period set in your lease. Write down the exact end date: everything else hangs off it.
- Fix your moving date. Month ends, Saturdays and the June-to-September period are the busiest slots. A midweek, mid-month date is easier to get and often cheaper.
- Ask for quotes. Compare at least two, and check what they actually include: number of movers, hours covered, furniture lift, packing, insurance.
6 weeks before: sort before you pack
Every box you do not fill is volume saved, and therefore cost saved. This is the moment to empty the cellar, the attic and the wardrobes.
- Make three piles: keeping, giving away or selling, throwing out.
- Book a slot at the container park for bulky waste, or ask us for a clearance.
- Photograph what you are selling while it is still set up: the listings do better.
4 weeks before: the paperwork
- Energy and water: tell your suppliers you are leaving and take out a contract at the new address. With no contract in anyone's name, a meter can be cut off.
- Internet and phone: connection is usually the longest lead time. Start it now.
- School, childcare, health insurance fund, doctor: report the change.
- Mail forwarding: bpost's paid service stops documents going astray during the transition months.
3 weeks before: parking and access
Check the width of the accesses, whether there is a lift, how many floors, and the distance between the door and where the lorry can park. Those details are what make a move's real duration.
If the street does not allow parking outside the building, request a parking permit from both municipalities. Allow several weeks depending on the commune: this is the step that catches most people out.
2 weeks before: pack in earnest
- Start with what you do not use: books, decorations, good china, out-of-season clothes.
- Label the side of the box, not the top: once stacked, lids cannot be read. Note the destination room and, in a word, the contents.
- Set aside identity papers, jewellery, keys, medication and hard drives: those travel with you, not in the lorry.
- Warn your neighbours of the date, at both addresses. Goodwill beats a blocked corridor.
1 week before: the last details
- Empty, defrost and dry the freezer at least 24 hours in advance.
- Dismantle what can be dismantled, and tape the screws in a bag to the matching piece of furniture.
- Prepare an essentials box: toilet paper, soap, chargers, cutlery, a pan, coffee, bedsheets, a first-aid kit. It goes into the lorry last and comes out first.
- Confirm the crew's arrival time and the number where you can be reached.
On the day
- Walk through the home with the team leader before loading: what goes, what stays, what is fragile.
- Read the meters (electricity, gas, water) and photograph them. Sign the energy handover document with the next tenant or the owner.
- Complete the outgoing inventory and hand over the keys against a receipt.
- On arrival, name the room for each box as it comes off the lorry: ten seconds saved there is an hour saved the next day.
Within 8 days of moving in
Register your new address with the municipal administration of your new home. The legal deadline is eight working days, and the rest of your paperwork follows from it.
Unsure about your timeline? Send us your lease end date and both addresses: within 24 hours we will tell you what is still feasible.
