What To Do After Moving House
The move is over and your can breathe a sigh of relief. All that stress, tension, overexertion and worry melts away and it’s all about moving forwards with renewed vigour and energy. But at the same time it would be foolhardy to think that just because your boxes are unpacked and your furniture’s arranged, that’s the end of the story. Moving house leaves other issues in its wake, which is why removals companies sometimes have after-care services. Here’s the Master Remover guide to what to do after your move.
You’ve crossed the threshold of your new home, fully unpacked and settled in. All those moving checklists can be forgotten. No longer do you have to fuss over which removals firm to use and what time of year will suit you best for getting the job done. The pondering over what to pack and what to discard, what to take to charity shops and what to auction off need no longer concern you. And then the Herculean undertaking over getting everything together and ready to be loaded into a moving vehicle… that’s all, thankfully, far in the past. You can draw breath and start to enjoy your new surrounds. And that may be when it hits you; everything is new. New neighbours, new area, maybe even new county or new country. There’s a kind of post-move delayed reaction that swiftly engulfs you. But with a bit of guidance, you can navigate these choppy waters and soon they’ll settle. It just takes a bit of conscious acclimatising so that the unfamiliar becomes familiar.
What To Do After Moving into a new Home
First things first. Dip your toe into the local scene by looking up local newspapers (so much easier now that so many of them are online) and finding out if there’s a residents’ association for your street or area. Community magazines are another good option. Your can wrench your focus from the past to the present by delving into what’s going on in your new neighbourhood.
Really explore your home. Prior to moving into it, your only experience of it will have been during formal viewings when it’s never really possible to relax and engage with the space in a normal way. It may now be your home, but it’s still virgin territory as far as you’re concerned. Doing a proper examination also means you can flag up any pre-existing damage which might be useful to know about when it comes to final negotiations with the agent and former owner. It’s also important to know where fuse boxes are placed, and don’t forget the water valve stop, either. Now’s also the opportunity to determine whether you need additional security. While you’re at it, work out whether the front and back-door locks are up to the standards required by your contents insurance company. Better safe than sorry.
Keep up the good work by joining things. Foremost among these, especially if you have children, is the local library. In this day and age, with more and more of them getting the chop, it’s a resource to be treasured. Not only is it, of course, great for books you want to read but not own permanently (e.g. genre novels), the local library is also a hive of community news and the venue for a variety of interesting events, including author readings and personal appearances.
It’s potentially tedious, but absolutely vital to clear a day for setting up all the services you need – everything from a local GP/healthcare provider to vets, dentists and the array of utilities needed for modern living; not just electricity and gas, but also water, broadband and TV services. Also, don’t wait until there’s an emergency for making sure you have telephone numbers for plumbers, electricians and all-purpose handymen and women. If something goes wrong, you want to be able to snap straight to action. If there’s a burst water pipe, you don’t want to be wasting time researching phone numbers when you could have done it months earlier. Asking friends for personal recommendations is still the best method for making sure you get only the most reliable and trustworthy personnel and this brings us on to the next point:-
Introduce yourself to neighbours. You don’t have to be new best friends, but neither do you have to stand on ceremony and wait for people to be friendly to you. And if you’ve forged a few links with people in your street, town or village, then you’re in a far better position for asking them about local plumbers, cleaners, electricians etc. You may also find families whose children are the same age as yours, which could pay dividends later on.
Change-of-address cards should be sent to all your friends, relations and associates. Whether you go the old-fashioned route and get them printed up or just issue the electronic equivalent is down to your own judgment. You should also take a moment or two to update all the companies whose services you use, especially utility companies. If needs be, you can avail yourself of the mail-forwarding service at the Post Office, but it’s preferable to get as much of your mail as possible sent directly to your new address. Re-routed mail will take longer to reach you.
