Moving house checklist for Brisbane

This moving house checklist for Brisbane counts backwards from eight weeks out to your first week in the new place: booking the truck, lift and loading dock bookings, council parking, connections and change of address, packing, moving day and what comes after. If you do one thing today, do this. Book your Brisbane removalists and your building’s lift as early as you can. In December and January, and on the last Friday of any month, the good dates go first.

Why a Brisbane moving house checklist starts at eight weeks

Moving house in Brisbane puts two jobs on the list that are not yours to control. A removalist’s calendar and a building’s lift booking belong to somebody else, and both tighten at the same times of year. A four-week run sheet reads fine until every Friday turns out to be gone.

• Summer is peak season. December and January bring school holidays, new leases and the university intake at once. The dates go first, and so do the early starts.
• End of month is the crunch. Leases turn over and Queensland settlements cluster on Fridays and Mondays. The last Friday of the month is the hardest date to book.
• Apartment buildings have their own rules. Through Newstead, Teneriffe, Fortitude Valley, South Brisbane, West End and Hamilton, most towers want the lift booked and padded, allow moves only inside set hours, and some ban weekends.
• Parking is not a given. Plenty of inner-Brisbane streets are permit or meter only, and a Brisbane City Council parking permit for moving day has a lead time.
• Storm season overlaps peak season. An afternoon storm can stop a load-out cold.

Eight weeks is comfortable. Six is workable. Four means taking whatever date is left.

The Brisbane moving house checklist at a glance

What to do when moving house, in seven stages.

• 8 weeks out — lock the date, book the removalist, sort notice or settlement timing.
• 6 weeks out — book the lift and loading dock at both ends, clear the building paperwork.
• 4 weeks out — connections, disconnections and everyone who needs your new address.
• 2 weeks out — declutter, pack in earnest, sort parking for the truck.
• The week of the move — fridge, plants, pets, bond clean, exit condition report.
• Moving day — essentials box, the first hour, a walk-through at both ends.
• After the move — locks, alarms, meters and the unpack order.

8 weeks out: lock the date and book your Brisbane removalists

This stage decides how the rest of it feels. Everything else can be caught up; a booked truck cannot.

• Confirm the date you can actually move: your lease end and notice, or your settlement date.
• Get written quotes from two or three Brisbane movers. Ask four things every time — the rate, whether it includes GST, the minimum booking, and how the travel fee is worked out.
• Be honest about access: floor, lift or stairs, how close the truck can park, whether it is a high-set Queenslander with under-house storage. Access is the biggest variable in a move.
• Choose the day carefully. Fridays carry settlements and lease handovers. A Tuesday or Wednesday mid-month is easier to book.
• Book in writing and read the terms, including what happens if the date moves. Ours are on our booking terms page.

Worth reading before you commit: what the day is likely to cost you, and how to pick a Brisbane removalist at the six to eight week mark.

The settlement trap. Queensland settlements often land on a Friday, funds can clear late, and keys may not arrive until three or four o’clock. Say so at quote time. Brisbane movers who have done it will load in the morning, wait, and unload late, and will tell you what the waiting time costs.

6 weeks out: book the lift, the loading dock and the building paperwork

If either address is an apartment or a townhouse complex, this is the step generic checklists skip. Building managers book lifts weeks ahead, and a lift you cannot get is a move you cannot do.

• Contact the building manager or body corporate at both addresses, and ask what has to be booked and how far ahead.
• Ask for the permitted move hours, and whether weekends are allowed at all. A 9am to 4pm window is common, so you cannot be the first job of the day and your start time becomes a window.
• Book the lift, and ask who pads it.
• Book the loading dock or driveway bay, and check the height limit. Some basement docks will not take a large truck.
• Fill in the move-in or move-out form, and ask whether a deposit applies.
• Ask whether the building wants a certificate of currency from your Brisbane movers, and request it early.
• Overlap the two bookings so the truck leaves one dock and reaches the other with time in hand.

For a house, walk the street and note where the truck can sit.

4 weeks out: connections, disconnections and everyone who needs your new address

None of it is hard. There is just a lot of it, and it goes badly left to the last week.

• Book the electricity connection at the new place and the disconnection at the old one. In South East Queensland the poles and wires are Energex’s, but your account sits with a retailer.
• Sort water and sewerage. In Brisbane that is Urban Utilities.
• Book the internet now. A new connection can take longer than the move itself.
• Arrange final meter readings, and photograph every meter on the day you leave.
• Redirect your mail with Australia Post, and check the current options and cost.
• If you own, sort the rates handover through your solicitor or conveyancer.

Your change of address checklist

That is a lot of personal detail handed over in one fortnight. Ours is set out in our privacy policy.

2 weeks out: pack in earnest, and sort parking for the truck

Two jobs run in parallel. One is packing. The other is getting the truck close to your door, the most overlooked item on any moving house to do list.

Parking

• Check whether your street is permit or meter parking. Much of Paddington, Highgate Hill, West End, New Farm, Teneriffe and Woolloongabba is.
• If it is, ask Brisbane City Council about a temporary permit or loading zone. Check the current fee and lead time with the council rather than assuming.
• If it is not, hold two spaces out the front with your own cars the night before.
• Check the bin collection day.
• Tell the neighbours which morning it is, so nobody is blocked in.

Packing

• Declutter first. Anything you would not pay to move should go now.
• Pack the rooms you do not use daily: spare room, garage, under the house, bookshelves.
• Heavy things in small boxes, light things in big ones. Books and tins go in the smallest box you have.
• Write the destination room on every box, on the side as well as the top. Colour-coded tape beats reading labels.
• Keep one labelled box for cables, remotes, screws and allen keys, and photograph the back of the TV before you unplug it.
• Order boxes now if you are packing yourself. If not, Movers Brisbane brings them and packs alongside you — see packing and unpacking.

Packing that makes the day cheaper

A Brisbane move is billed for the time it takes, so preparation is not a virtue, it is a discount. Our rates at Movers Brisbane are $69.50 per half hour plus GST for the small truck with two removalists, and $74.50 per half hour plus GST for the large truck, with a two-hour minimum and a travel fee shown in your written quote. Both are on our published rates.

Because you pay by the half hour, these packing tips for moving house turn straight into time saved.

• Be finished, not nearly finished. A half-packed house is the most expensive thing a crew can arrive to.
• Stack boxes by the door, grouped by room. Sealed, labelled, stackable. Loose bags cost more time than you would think.
• Clear a path. Rugs rolled, doors wedged, hallway empty.
• Sort the parking. Every extra ten metres of carry, repeated across a truckload, adds up faster than anything else here.
• Keep your phone answered. Ten minutes of a crew waiting for a lift code is ten minutes billed.

As a rough guide from our own jobs, a studio or one-bedroom runs about two to four hours, two bedrooms three to five, three bedrooms four to six, and four or more bedrooms six to ten. Treat those as estimates, not a price. Access moves them more than anything else. Straps, trolleys, blankets, shrink-wrap and disassembly are included either way.

The week of the move

The week the house stops working as a house. Keep out one set of everything and pack the rest.

• Confirm the removalist, the time and both addresses, and re-confirm the lift booking.
• Empty and defrost the fridge. Give it a full day, door ajar. It needs to stand upright for several hours at the other end before you plug it back in.
• Set aside what cannot go on the truck: gas bottles, petrol, thinners, garden and pool chemicals, aerosols. Pets travel with you, so book boarding if you need it.
• Pack an essentials box: kettle, mugs, tea, chargers, medication, toilet paper, soap, a towel each, bedding and a torch.
• Do the deep clean now, not on the morning. Oven, rangehood, blinds, fans, tracks, walls.
• Collect every key, remote and fob into one labelled bag.

Renters: the exit condition report

Moving out of a Queensland rental? The exit condition report matters as much as the clean does. It is the document your bond gets argued over.

• Find the entry condition report you filled in on the way in, and work the new one against it room by room.
• Photograph everything once the place is empty and clean, with the date on the photos.
• Finish the bond clean before the keys go back. Once you hand them over you cannot get in to fix anything.
• Return the form and keys inside the timeframe your agreement sets out, and keep a copy. Read the current forms and timeframes on the Residential Tenancies Authority site rather than relying on what a friend remembers.

Moving day

The work is mostly done and the day is about sequencing. These are the moving house tips that change how the morning runs.

• Be up and dressed before the crew arrives, essentials box already in the car.
• Walk the crew through first. Show them what goes, what stays and what is fragile.
• Point out the awkward items early: the piano, the pool table, the wardrobe that will not come down the stairs assembled.
• Stay contactable and out of the carry path. One person answering questions beats four hovering. Keep water and sunscreen going in summer.
• Keep pets and small children elsewhere.
• Sweep before the truck leaves: under the house, the shed, the linen cupboard, the letterbox, the clothesline. Photograph the meters and the empty rooms.
• At the new place, stand where you can direct traffic and name the room for each box. Furniture goes in the rooms you choose, so choosing quickly keeps the day short.
• Walk through with the crew before they leave.

After the move: your first week in the new place

• Photograph the empty rooms and meters before boxes go everywhere.
• Re-key the locks, and change any garage or alarm codes.
• Test every smoke alarm and replace the batteries.
• Find the water mains tap and the switchboard, then check the hot water, toilets and drains. Report anything faulty to the agent in writing.
• Complete the entry condition report if you are renting, within the time your agreement allows, and photograph everything you note.
• Unpack in this order: beds, bathroom, kitchen, wardrobes. The rest can wait for the weekend.
• Update your address anywhere you missed, and watch the redirected mail.
• Learn the bin days, then break down the boxes and pass them on.

Frequently asked questions

How far in advance should I book removalists in Brisbane?

Six to eight weeks, and eight if you are moving in December or January, on a Friday, or at the end of the month. Those dates fill first. If your move is sooner, ring anyway: mid-week dates open up far more often than Friday mornings.

What is the most forgotten thing when moving?

Parking for the truck. People book the removalist, book the lift, pack every box, and then nobody holds a space out the front. Every extra metre of carry is time you pay for. The other regular misses are defrosting the fridge and photographing the meters.

Who do I need to notify when moving house in Australia?

Start with anything that costs you money or documents if it lapses: electricity and gas, water, internet, insurers, bank, super, employer and Australia Post. Then government, through myGov, the electoral roll and Transport and Main Roads. Then school, childcare, GP and vet.

What is the best day to move house in Brisbane?

A weekday in the middle of the month, and ideally not a Friday. Fridays carry the settlements and the lease handovers, so they book out first and run tight. A Tuesday gives you a better choice of start times.

What are the first things I should do when moving into a new house?

Photograph the empty rooms, the meters and anything already marked before the truck is unloaded. Then check the locks, test the smoke alarms, and find the water mains tap and the switchboard. Unpack beds, bathroom and kitchen first.