The week before a Sydney move is where easy moves get made easy and hard moves get made harder. The difference isn’t effort — it’s timing. This is a day-by-day checklist, counting down from seven days out, with the reasoning behind each step.
Seven days out: confirm, pack, notify
Confirm the removalist booking in writing. An SMS or email back from us with your date, start time, crew size and truck size. If anything’s changed — a new address, an extra stop, a piano we didn’t know about — this is the moment to flag it. Calling at 6:30am on the day with a change is when things get hairy.
Confirm the strata lift booking at both ends. If you’re moving between strata buildings, both lifts need to be booked for overlapping windows. Call each building manager, confirm the time slot in writing, and ask about:
- Loading dock or loading bay access
- Lift key or fob pickup
- Bond amount and how to pay
- What time you need the lift clear by
Notify utilities. Electricity, gas, internet and water (if separately billed). Most NSW retailers need five business days to arrange transfer. Book internet activation for your new address as early as possible — NBN technician slots book out, and ending up without internet for a week is the most-regretted mistake on Sydney moves.
Organise mail redirection. Australia Post redirect service handles it for $33 for three months. Submit seven days ahead so it’s active by move day. Also update your address with your bank, employer, Medicare, super fund, insurance, and anywhere you have direct debits set up.
Start packing out-of-season and non-essentials. Winter coats in summer, Christmas decorations, books you haven’t opened in a year, the contents of the hallway cupboard. These are the boxes that can be packed, labelled and stacked by the door without disrupting your week.
Five days out: wind down the kitchen
The kitchen is the room that breaks most moves. Start using up the fridge and freezer now — not because you won’t survive buying groceries at the new place, but because an empty fridge is a fast-to-pack fridge.
- Plan meals around what’s in the freezer
- Stop buying frozen food
- Eat the condiments down to the “can’t face mustard again” level
- Use up the last of the pantry staples (oils, rice, dried pasta)
Pack the cookware and utensils you won’t use this week. Keep two plates, two bowls, two mugs, a frying pan, a pot, a chopping board, a knife and a kettle out until move-day morning. Everything else can go in a box.
Four days out: dismantle and declutter
If your removalist is disassembling furniture on the day — we do, for standard beds, tables and shelves — you don’t need to pre-dismantle. If you’re doing it yourself, now is the time:
- Bed frames (screws in a labelled zip-lock bag taped to the frame)
- Dining tables
- Any flat-pack that came from IKEA
Declutter ruthlessly. Move day costs the same per cubic metre of furniture whether you love it or haven’t looked at it in two years. The single best way to reduce a Sydney move bill is to own less on move day.
- Charity donations: Vinnies, Salvos, Red Cross accept most furniture with 48-72 hours’ notice
- Council cleanup: most Sydney councils offer free kerbside collection — book online, check dates for your LGA
- Facebook Marketplace: list on Tuesday evening, schedule pickup for Saturday morning
- Hard rubbish: last resort, and some items (mattresses, whitegoods) have specific disposal rules
Three days out: label every box
By now, most of what’s moving should be in boxes. The single change that makes unpacking faster is labelling boxes by room, not by contents. The crew reads the room name on the box and puts the box in that room at the new place. Contents don’t help them — they help you in week two, if at all.
The labelling system we recommend:
- Top label and one side label with the destination room (not the source room)
- Optional: a number so you can spot-check a missing box against a list
- Red “FRAGILE” tape on anything breakable — not a permanent marker scribble, actual tape
- “OPEN FIRST” on the essentials box for each room
Print the destination address on one box per room too. If a box falls off the back of the truck — rare, but it happens in wind on the M2 — the next driver who finds it has somewhere to return it to.
Two days out: defrost, fold, clean
Defrost the fridge and freezer. This is the number-one overlooked step. An ice-packed freezer in transit melts, drips, and the next thing you know there’s water through the truck floor and into whatever is packed below it. Empty it two nights before, prop the door open with a tea towel, put a towel inside to absorb the last of the condensation, and on move-day morning it’s dry and ready to pack.
Strip beds and fold linen into suitcases. Sheets and doonas compress into a suitcase or two and don’t need boxes. One suitcase per bed, labelled with the bedroom name. Faster to unpack, easier to sleep on that first night.
Run a pre-move clean at the old place. Not the end-of-tenancy clean — that comes after the move — but wipe down surfaces, vacuum, take out the bins. A clean house is a fast house to pack, and the crew is less likely to pack the dust with your books.
One day out: essentials box and final pack
This is the biggest day of the week before. The kitchen and bathroom pack today. The wardrobes pack today. The last bits and pieces go in boxes today.
Essentials box for move-day morning. One clear plastic tub per person in the household, packed with what you need in the first 24 hours without having to open a single cardboard box:
- Phone and laptop chargers
- Toiletries and a towel
- Toilet paper and hand soap (for both old and new place)
- Kettle, two mugs, coffee or tea, a spoon
- Change of clothes and sleepwear
- Medications
- Paperwork folder: lease, moving contract, strata details, new address, Thales’s phone number
- Kids: favourite toy, night light, spare clothes
- Pets: lead, food bowl, carrier
This tub goes in your car, not on the truck. It’s the first thing you unpack.
Confirm parking at both ends. If street parking is tight, cone off the space the night before (with council approval where required) or park your own car there and move it when the truck arrives. A 10-minute truck search for parking is $25 of your move.
Charge everything. Phones, laptops, battery packs, the portable speaker. On move day the power is likely off at both ends at different points.
Early night. Move-day starts at 7am for most of our crews. You want to be up before 6:30am to finish the last few things. Don’t do dinner and drinks the night before — do takeaway at 7pm and be in bed by 10pm.
Move-day morning: the walk-through
The crew will arrive on schedule — we confirm a 30-minute arrival window the evening before. While they’re unloading the truck and bringing up blankets and dollies, you walk them through:
- Which rooms are moving and which aren’t
- Anything fragile or valuable — point, don’t just say
- Anything in a cupboard, on a balcony, under a bed that’s easy to miss
- Destination addresses confirmed in writing (crew will have it; you confirm anyway)
- Any access notes for the new place they don’t know yet — steep driveway, no lift after 6pm, narrow hall
After the walk-through, the load starts. You stay available for the first 20 minutes in case anything needs decision — “this stays, this goes” — and then you can step out for coffee if you want. The crew will call you 20 minutes before arriving at the new address.
The three most-forgotten items
After 500+ Sydney moves we know what gets left behind on the last sweep:
- Items on the top shelf of cupboards. A 6’2” removalist’s eye-level is your reach height.
- The letterbox. Mail that arrived yesterday, spare keys taped to the inside of the lid.
- The balcony or courtyard. Plants, outdoor speakers, the drying rack, the hose reel.
Do one final walk after the crew thinks they’re done. Every room, every cupboard, the balcony, the letterbox, under every bed. If you can, take photos — a condition record you’ll want if the agent disputes anything.
Running this as a couple or a family
Split the checklist by person. One of you does the utilities and admin (five-days-out stuff). The other does the packing and the kitchen wind-down. Kids older than about 8 can pack their own rooms with supervision — give them their own box count target and the system works.
And if you want the whole thing done for you, professional packing starts from $60/hr + GST per packer. The usual brief is “pack the kitchen, pack the wardrobes, leave the rest” — the two rooms that break most DIY packs.
Move day should be the part of the week where you show up, walk the crew through the house, and watch it come together. The work is in the week before. If you’re at the quote stage now, book the date early, lock in the lift, and work back from there.