Your New Home Checklist

Minute Read

From changing your address (which you can do early) to unpacking your boxes, there are dozens of things to take care of when moving into a new home. Use our New Home Checklist to make a plan and stick to it! Otherwise, you'll be one of those people with unchanged locks ten years down the road.

1. Change your address and transfer utilities. Two weeks before you move, you can change your address with the United States Postal Service (USPS) and set up mail forwarding. There is a small cost for processing, but you can easily change the address for your family members, yourself and your business (if you have one). It only takes a few minutes and a credit card. Next, contact your utility companies to ensure that they switch your service to your new location. Depending on the company, you may have to wait until you're at your new home before you can make any changes.
2. Walk through your new home before moving anything is inside. Before you unload your boxes from the moving truck, carefully walk through each room. Ensure that everything looks as it should and take note of any issues. After you have your repair needs recorded, prioritize your home improvement projects. If you can fix a few things before you fully move in, go for it!
3. Replace the locks. Even if the previous owner collected "all the spare keys," you can never be 100% sure that's the case. One of our members just purchased a 65-year-old home that only had one owner. Even though they received seven sets of keys at closing, there is a strong possibility that they made duplicates over the decades without anyone remembering. It is always better to be safe than sorry and replace the locks in your new home.
4. Deep clean and paint. This is a step that we also recommend doing pre-move-in if at all possible. When we say deep clean, we mean deep clean. Take off the toilet seats, get under the refrigerator, move the washer and dryer—you get the idea. Let's face it, you're probably not going to clean those places regularly. You might as well start with a sparkly and shiny space. Then, once you finish the cleaning, paint everything, including baseboards, walls and ceilings.—Get it done before you move your boxes in.
5. Test all the mechanicals. Find out where your water shut-off valve is and how it works. Go through your electrical panel with a partner and label the circuit breakers. Check the smoke detectors and the carbon monoxide alarms. Make sure they work! Find your air filters and change them. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, replacing your dirty filter with a new one can lower your energy costs between 5% and 15%. Change them every two to three months after that.

This blog post is the second in our Members on the Move series. Check out Declutter Before You Move to help guide you as you declutter your home, and watch for more blog posts in this series to help you with your moving process.

Download our new home checklist. 

At Members 1st, one of our primary goals is to empower our members to have the lives they want. During your initial home walk-through, if you find you have several large projects on your list, we can help you in many ways. We offer home equity lines of credit, home equity loans and personal loans. If you're not sure what option is right for you, get in touch with us! We would be happy to guide you.