Moving house timeline: eight weeks to moving day
A move has a fixed day and a lot of small jobs that only work in order: you cannot book the movers before you know the date, or pack the kitchen before you have boxes. Laid out as a Gantt chart, the eight weeks before moving day show which jobs to start now and which can wait.
The plan, in four groups
Keep the plan readable by putting one of four headings in the Owner column of each task: Admin, Movers, Packing and Moving week. Tasks with the same heading sit together, and the dependencies cross between them.
- Admin: give notice to your landlord (or agree completion), redirect post, tell utilities and the council, update your address
- Movers: get three quotes (5 working days), book the movers, confirm the time a week before
- Packing: order boxes, declutter and sell or donate, pack room by room, leaving the kitchen and an essentials box for last
- Moving week: defrost the freezer, final meter readings, moving day as a milestone
What waits for what
Moving day is the milestone everything points at, but the real chain starts earlier. The movers wait for the confirmed date. Packing waits for the boxes. Telling the utilities waits for the date too, and should be done at least two weeks before. Write those links in the Depends on column, and the dates follow.
Some jobs are waiting rather than work: quotes come back over a week, a parking permit for the van can take ten working days. Give them their real length, or they will quietly push moving day later than the plan shows.
Work backwards from the day
Put the move in as a milestone (duration 0) at the end of the chain. If it lands after your real moving day, the plan is short of time. Move the packing earlier, split it across rooms in parallel (start-to-start links), or start the quotes this week. The critical path shows which jobs have no room to slip.
Moving an office instead?
An office move adds IT, a new lease and staff communication to the same shape. QueryChart has a ready-made office relocation Gantt chart.
Frequently asked questions
How far in advance should I plan a house move?
Around eight weeks gives time for quotes, notice periods and packing without a rush. Plan it as a chain: the movers and utilities wait for the confirmed date, and packing waits for the boxes.
What should I do first when moving house?
Confirm the date (notice or completion), then get quotes and book the movers. Most other jobs depend on that date.
Try it on your own plan
The editor is free and opens with a starter plan. One row per task, and the Gantt chart schedules itself as you type. No signup required.
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