You Found Your New Home. Now What? Your Moving To-Do List

Quick answer: Once your offer is accepted or your lease is signed, work backward from move day. Four or more weeks out, book movers, give notice, and sort what you are not taking. Two to three weeks out, set up utilities, forward your mail, and book your packing supplies. In the last week, pack room by room and set aside one tote for the first night. Here is the full to-do list.

You found the house. The offer went through, or the lease is signed. For about an hour, it feels done.

Then you look around the place you live now. The closets. The garage. The kitchen cabinets you have not opened since you moved in. And the question shows up: now what?

Moving is a lot of small jobs with dates attached. None of them are hard. The trouble is doing them in the wrong order, like packing the kitchen before you have anything to pack it in, or calling the utility company the day before the closing. So here is the order we would do it in, written for a move around Lombard and DuPage County, though most of it works anywhere.

Step one: put the move date on paper

Every item below hangs off one date: the day you leave the old place. If you are buying, that is usually tied to your closing. If you are renting, it is the day your new lease starts or your old one ends.

Write the date down, then write the backup. Closings slip. A date with a little give in it is easier to plan around than one you are hoping holds.

Four or more weeks before you move

This is the planning stretch. Nothing gets packed yet. You are booking the people and things that fill up first.

• Decide how the move happens. Hire movers, rent a truck, or round up friends. Book whichever you pick now. Weekend dates and the end of the month go first.
• Give notice. If you rent, check your lease for how much notice your landlord needs, and send it in writing.
• Ask for the time off. Plan for move day plus a day on either side.
• Walk every room and sort. Keep, sell, donate, toss. Every item you do not move is one less thing to pack, carry and unpack.
• Measure the new rooms. Check the big furniture against doorways, stairs and the spots you have in mind. Better to find out now that the sectional will not fit.
• Request records. School records for the kids, vet records for the pets, and copies of anything medical you want on hand.

Two to three weeks before you move

Now the house starts to change. You are lining up the services and supplies for move week.

• Set up utilities at the new place. Electric, gas, water, trash, internet. Schedule them to start the day you get the keys, and the old ones to stop the day after you leave.
• Forward your mail. File a change of address with the post office, then update your bank, employer, insurance and subscriptions.
• Update your driver's license and vehicle registration. In Illinois, that goes through the Secretary of State.
• Line up home or renters insurance for the new address, starting on move day.
• Book your packing supplies. More on that below. Pick the drop-off date now, so supplies show up the week you start packing, not the morning of.
• Start eating down the freezer and pantry. Frozen food is the hardest thing to move.
• Refill prescriptions so you are not hunting for a pharmacy your first week.

Boxes or totes? Pick your packing supplies

Most people buy cardboard boxes, tape and a tape gun, then spend an evening building boxes and a weekend breaking them down again. That works. It is also the part of the move people complain about most.

The other way is to rent reusable moving totes. Tote Sweet Home rents them in Lombard and nearby DuPage County towns. Here is how it works:

1. We drop off clean totes with matching lids and a dolly at your current place.
2. You pack.
3. You move them, or your movers do.
4. We pick up the empties after you unpack.

No tape, no building boxes, no cardboard to haul away. The lids close on their own and the totes stack square. Every stack comes with removable room labels, so a tote marked KITCHEN lands in the kitchen.

We rent the totes. We do not pack your rooms, carry furniture or store anything. You or your movers handle the move.

Every stack includes matching lids, one dolly, removable room labels, 14 days, and one delivery and one pickup. The Starter Stack is 20 totes for $129, and stacks run from 20 up to 80 totes. Stack names are labels, not a promise about bedrooms. Counts and prices are on the pricing page.

A timing tip: plan the drop-off so the 14 days cover your packing week and your first week of unpacking. Totes that show up too early just sit there. Totes that show up too late make for one long night.

To book, you will need both addresses and your dates. We check both addresses before anything is booked. Standard handoffs need a safe, ground-level spot, and stairs, a tight elevator or parking limits get a quick review first. The details are on how it works.

One week before you move

This is packing week. Go room by room, starting with the rooms you use least.

• Pack the spare rooms first: guest room, basement, garage, the closet nobody opens. Then work toward the rooms you live in.
• Label every tote with its room in the new house, not the old one. The den might be the office now.
• Keep dense things in lighter loads. Books, canned goods and dishes get heavy fast. A tote someone can lift is better than a full one nobody can.
• Bag the hardware. When you take apart a bed or a shelf, put the screws in a zip bag and tape it to the piece, or keep every bag in one place.
• Confirm with your movers or truck rental the time, the address and who is meeting them.
• Clean out the fridge and plan simple meals for the last few days.
• Bring your own packing paper for glasses and fragile pieces, or wrap them in towels and linens you were packing anyway.

The day before you move

• Pack an open-first tote. One tote with what you need for the first night and the next morning: sheets and pillows, towels, a shower curtain, toilet paper, soap, phone chargers, a lamp, medications, a change of clothes, coffee and paper plates. Label it OPEN FIRST and put it in your car, not on the truck.
• Charge your phone and keep chargers out.
• Put keys, garage remotes and paperwork in one folder that stays with you.
• Clear a path. Move packed totes near the door so carrying goes fast.

Move day

• Walk the old place one last time: closets, cabinets, the dryer, the attic.
• Read the meters if your utilities ask for it.
• Tell the movers which tote is yours, or better, keep it with you.
• At the new place, set totes in the room on their label.

After you move

Unpack the kitchen and the bathroom first. Those two rooms make a house usable. The rest can go a room a day.

If you rented totes, empty them as you go. When the last room is done, peel the labels, nest the totes, and set them with the lids and dolly at the pickup spot we agreed on. We take the empties. You keep the house.

What if the closing date moves?

It happens. Update your movers, your utilities and your supplies as soon as you know. If you booked totes with us, ask before you assume they can sit an extra week. We recheck stock, the route and the cleaning buffer, then confirm new dates. If you need more time, a seven-day extension is available by stack size, subject to availability.

Where we deliver

We are based in Lombard, Illinois, and deliver in eight DuPage County towns: Lombard, Glen Ellyn, Elmhurst, Wheaton, Downers Grove, Villa Park, Oakbrook Terrace and Lisle. Both the old address and the new one have to be in the area. If you are not sure, check the service area page and ask before you book.

Did your agent send you a closing gift code? Some realtors send our Starter Stack with their name on the tag. Use the code when you book. Agents, see our realtors page.

Moving to-do list FAQ

What should I do first after buying a house?

Set your move date, then book whatever fills up first: movers or a truck, time off work and your packing supplies. After that, give notice if you rent and start sorting what you will not take.

How far ahead should I start planning a move?

Four or more weeks out is a comfortable start. That leaves time to book movers, sort the house and set up utilities without rushing.

When should I start packing?

About a week before move day for most homes, starting with the rooms you use least. Bigger homes or homes with a full basement or garage may want to start earlier.

When should moving totes be delivered?

Time the drop-off for the start of your packing week. A stack includes 14 days, which can cover a week of packing and a week of unpacking.

Do I need tape or boxes with rented totes?

No. The lids close without tape and the totes stack square. Packing paper is not included, so bring your own for fragile things.

Do you move my things?

No. We drop off the empty totes and pick up the empties. You, or the movers you hired, handle the move.

You found the house. Now make a list.

The hard part was finding the place. The rest is a list with dates on it. Start with the move date, book what fills up first, and pack in the right order.

When you have both addresses and your dates, book your totes. Planning a move into a new home? Start on our new home moving page.