The London Moving Checklist — Six Weeks to Moving Day

Most moving checklists are written for a house with a driveway. In London, the jobs that catch people out are the ones tied to boroughs, managed buildings, and permit parking — and they have lead times you cannot shorten. Here is a plan built around those.

Six weeks out

• Book the removal company. Good crews are booked weeks ahead for end-of-month Fridays, when most completions land. The earlier you confirm, the more likely you get your first-choice date.
• Sort what you are not taking. Decluttering now, rather than the night before, is the single biggest thing that keeps the cost and the stress down.
• Tell your landlord or check your completion date. This fixes everything that follows.

Four weeks out

• Check parking at both ends. If your street or the new one has no room for a van, you may need a parking suspension or a dispensation from the borough. Some London councils ask for five to ten working days' notice, so this is the job people leave too late.
• Book the service lift. Managed buildings often need around five working days to confirm a lift booking and may restrict move times to weekdays. Ask the building manager now, not on the day.
• Start using up the freezer and the cupboards. Frozen food does not travel well, and it is weight you are paying to move.

Two weeks out

• Redirect your post through Royal Mail so nothing important lands at the old address after you have gone.
• Give notice to utilities and broadband. Broadband in particular can take two weeks or more to activate at a new London flat, so book the switch now if you work from home.
• Register with the new borough for council tax and, if you drive, update your resident parking permit — different boroughs, different rules.
• Confirm the details with your removal company: access at both ends, lift bookings, parking, and anything that will not fit down the stairs.

The final week

• Pack a "first night" box — kettle, mugs, chargers, toilet roll, a change of clothes, medication. It travels with you, not in the van.
• Label boxes by room, not by contents. The crew reads the label to decide where a box lands, and it saves you carrying things twice.
• Defrost the fridge and freezer 24 hours before if they are coming with you.
• Set aside valuables — documents, jewellery, laptops — to carry yourself.

Moving day

• Be there, or send someone over 18 who can make decisions and sign off at both ends.
• Keep the lift and the loading route clear. In a managed block, five minutes spent propping the right doors saves an hour later.
• Do a final walk-through of the old place — lofts, the garden, the meter cupboard, behind doors — before the keys go back.

The honest summary

The hard part of a London move is almost never the lifting. It is the council permit you needed ten days ago and the lift you could not book. Get the parking and access jobs done in weeks four and two, and moving day becomes what it should be: a long day, but a predictable one.