Moving to a different house is always a stressful affair. No matter how careful you are, there’s always something you might have missed out on. Keeping this in mind, here’s a list of the most common things that homeowners forget about while moving to a new place.

Transfer school/ medical records

An important factor to think about while moving to a new location is your kid’s education. You’ll need to obtain the relevant documents and clear off dues at their current school. Research into the best schools at the new locality you’re moving into and send in applications beforehand. On the other hand, if you think your kids might have a hard time acclimatizing, you can choose to continue at the same educational institution. You’ll just need to update your child’s records with a different address.

The same applies to medical records. Talk to your current physician and inform them about your relocation. You can either choose to continue with the same doctor or look for another one whose practice is located much closer to your new home.

Inform your employer

In a similar vein, it’s important to communicate to your place of work about the relocation. You might assume that your company would automatically update your place of residence, but that’s not the case. Give them the right address and ensure that the digital records reflect the change. You run the risk of payslips being sent to the wrong address when you forget to make the change.

Update your mailing address

Having a mail redirect in place avoids having your online orders being delivered to the wrong place. So, update your mailing address from your old one to a newer one in your Amazon or FedEx account.

Defrost your freezer

This is a simple step that most homeowners forget about while moving houses. Defrosting your freezer or refrigerator the night before you move can potentially avoid water spilling out and damaging other precious goods. Imagine an expensive iPad or a laptop becoming non-functional simply because you forgot to press one tiny button on your fridge.

Note down your meter readings

This might seem redundant, but in reality, can help you save a significant amount of money. Writing down your meter readings from both the old and the new house can help you confirm that you aren’t being swindled by your energy provider. Calculate the units you’ve consumed from the readings and see if it reflects in the bill you were sent.

Pack an essential box

Pack all the tools you might need into an essentials box and carry it along with you. Fixing up furniture and setting up electrical gadgets at your new house becomes much easier this way. If not for the handy essentials box, you’d have had to spend hours fishing for all the necessary tools from among the hundreds of objects that were shipped.

Apply for homeowners’s insurance

Homeowners’s insurance can protect your house against a number of disasters like fire, lightning, explosions or windstorms, and hail. In addition, homeowners insurance in California by Lemonade also includes medical protection, which will come in handy if a guest gets injured in your place. So, it might be a smart idea to find the right homeowners insurance for you . In fact, mortgage lenders today insist on providing proof of your homeowner’s insurance policy before signing a loan agreement.

Look after your pet

It’s not just you that’s feeling the stress of moving to a new location, moving can be stressful for pets too. So, make the necessary arrangements for someone to look after your adorable pet when you’re trying to sort out the shifting of your belongings from one place to another. It’s also important to calmly introduce them to the new environment. Also, make it a point to point to update the address in the microchip on your pet. This will ensure that they’re returned to the new address in case they go missing.

House plants

House plants become an irreplaceable part of the furniture of a home, but it’s often forgotten about while moving. Not all moving companies in California transport live plants, so do your research before picking one. If your plants are large, then transporting them in pristine conditions can present difficulties of its own. So, think of donating them to your friend instead.