Make moving home and completion day easier with Brookworth

Moving home is the start of an exciting new chapter in your life but, until you’re through the door, it’s not unusual to feel a touch of nervousness. What if you’ve forgotten something? What else can you do to make moving day smooth? With so many bits and pieces to take care of, from downsizing your furniture to booking professional movers, it’s easy to overlook something important.

To help you plan your move, we’ve put together a handy checklist of useful tips and things to consider: everything you need to make your move a success, based on our first-hand experience working with hundreds of homeowners.

Of course, we take our responsibility seriously too. We pride ourselves on making the process of moving into your home simple, with dedicated QA and Customer Care teams to get everything ready for completion day and remove the stress of getting to know your new home.

First, let’s look at what you can do to prepare for your big move.

Before you start

1 Take time to reflect and celebrate

While moving can be fraught with things to do and plans to make, be sure to take some time to celebrate! Whether you’re downsizing, upsizing, rightsizing, modernising or relocating to somewhere spectacular, there’s a lot to be excited about—and this will make all the hard work worthwhile.

2 Set realistic goals and timings

The earlier you start planning and preparing to move house, the better. Even with a clear timeline that breaks tasks down into manageable chunks, you might find that some things take longer than expected. Starting early gives you space for this kind of unpredictability.

3 Involve your entire family

If you live with family, be sure to give everyone clear tasks along the way, including children. This doesn’t just help lighten the load on you but also keeps them involved with important tasks like saying goodbye to some clutter and making sure the most sentimental items are safely moved.

Reducing your clutter

1 Declutter room by room

The idea of decluttering your entire home is intimidating, but surprisingly simple when you take it room-by-room. You can also put rooms in order based on how much effort they’ll take—your crowded kitchen cupboards might take much longer than your minimalist living room.

2 Sort your sentimental items

Over the years, we all accumulate sentimental items that mean a great deal to us. What starts with a few crayon drawings on the refrigerator suddenly becomes an entire cupboard stuffed with memories. These emotional items are a good place to start decluttering—once you know which personal items you can’t part with, you’ll have a better idea how much space is left for everything else.

3 Check (and digitise) your paperwork

The most organised of us keep files and folders full of old paperwork, but how often do we need to refer back? While some documents will be essential, others can be discarded. It’s also a good idea to reduce clutter by digitising paperwork—a quick snapshot on your phone is enough to keep a copy without keeping the physical paper.

4 Keep, sell, donate or discard?

As you move through the rooms in your house, create distinct piles of objects you want to keep, dispose of, or give away. If there’s anything you’re unsure about, create a maybe pile—it’s better to have a stack of items you’re undecided on than get stuck for hours on end trying to make a decision.

Planning your space and furniture

1 Consider your new home’s layout

Before you organise your furniture and consider new purchases, get clear measurements for the rooms in your new property. If you’re buying a Brookworth home, we can provide all the information you need to help you plan more effectively.

2 Downsize your furniture

Rather than trying to fit all your furniture into your new home, think about the pieces you really need to fill your new space and create a relaxing environment. If you can say goodbye to some pieces of furniture now, that’s one fewer piece to move on the day.

3 Recycle large items responsibly

If you have furniture you no longer need, there are numerous donation services that will pick it up for free. Alternatively, you could sell these pieces and arrange for them to be collected by the buyer as close to your moving day as possible.

Remember the admin

1 Schedule transfers with your utility suppliers

In the few weeks before you move, contact your internet provider, water, gas, and electricity provider to inform them about your change of address. Your utility providers and energy company may also request meter readings. In some cases, your energy provider can capture this automatically, picking up electricity meter readings from your smart meter. However, we recommend making a note yourself to avoid any unexpected bills from an energy provider who takes electricity meter readings after you’ve moved.

2 Keep people informed about your change of address

Spend an evening going through your address book (or the contacts on your phone) to make sure friends and family are all up-to-date. Alongside your address checklist for friends and family, you’ll also need to inform various businesses about the change, from your bank to your mobile phone provider. Royal Mail also offers a useful mail redirection service to ensure you receive your post, even if you forgot to inform somebody and it’s sent to your current property.

Finally, you can also update your address details on the electoral roll to ensure you remain registered to vote.

3 Update your insurance

While you may opt to keep your buildings insurance and contents insurance, you’ll need to inform your provider of your new address. Your insurance provider may ask some key questions to make sure your premiums and insurance policies don’t need to change, from when the new property was built to locks and doors.

At Brookworth, we equip our new homes with best-in-class home automation and security technology designed to keep your property safe—and keep your insurer happy.

Arranging your moving day

1 Hire a removal company if required

For the big move itself, you may choose to hire professional movers or, at the very least, a self-drive van or truck to move your possessions safely. A removals company will often need to be booked well in advance, so it’s vital to get your removal quotes and make a booking in plenty of time.

2 Label your boxes clearly

If you’re doing the packing, spend a few extra minutes labelling your boxes as you go. Even a simple room name scrawled on each box can save a great deal of time when you begin to unpack. Removal firms with a packing service will usually do this on your behalf.

3 Pack a box of essentials

To make your first night in your new home easier, pack a box with the first objects you’ll need including toiletries and a change of clothes. That way, you can relax after a long day without the need to rummage through boxes.

4 Check the weather forecast

Finally, keep a close eye on the weather in the run-up to your moving day. While our weather is notoriously hard to predict, an obviously rainy spell calls for some waterproof covers and smart planning to protect your belongings against the elements.

How Brookworth makes completion day seamless

Even with the best planning (and our useful checklist), completion day tends to be busy and full of things to do. That’s why our QA and Customer Care processes start long before you move in, so we can give you all the information you need while addressing any snagging early.

We make moving in seamless in three key ways.

The advantage of a luxury new build home

New build homes make moving day easier by definition–when you’re moving into a vacant property, there are simply fewer things to worry about and no need to juggle timings with the outgoing homeowners.

With our uncompromising quality standards, you can also be confident that everything in your property is working as it should, with no hidden surprises.

Multiple layers of inspection and Quality Assurance

Our robust inspection processes start long before completion day, giving us more time to address any small issues we uncover. When you exchange, our technicians conduct in-depth inspections, taking an entire day to review:

• Any signs of damage or shrinkage, which may occur as construction materials dry out. These can be addressed by our in-house decorating team.

• Appliances and plumbing, including visual inspections of fixtures like taps and showers, as well as zone-by-zone testing of your underfloor heating.

• Security and smart home features, including your Control4 Smart Home functionality and Lutron lighting and blinds.

As an additional layer of peace of mind, we then repeat these inspections around a week before completion day–so you can be confident of the quality you’ll experience from the moment you receive the keys.

A more personal and in-depth handover

Finally, our commitment to making life easier doesn’t stop on completion day. We go further to make the handover experience a real pleasure, with a Home Demo Day planned shortly before you move in.

On this day, our team will walk you through every part of your home, explaining how to use innovative features like security systems and Lutron smart blinds. We can even help you set up your smart thermostat–one less thing to do when you arrive.

See how simple moving should be with Brookworth

Decluttering and preparing to move might be intimidating, but some extra time planning—and support from an expert team—can significantly reduce the stress and complexity of the move itself.

At Brookworth Homes, we help make moving less stressful through our strong focus on quality. Our in-depth snagging process means you can settle into your new home from day one without any hassle or imperfections. So you can recover after your move and start enjoying your new environment with confidence.

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