What order do you do things in, when moving to a new house? (cleaning, painting, carpets etc)

[MrsBloop]

We want to get the new house professionally cleaned, and need to have every room painted, also internal doors. We also want to have carpet laid in lounge, stairs and bedrooms. Also some little jobs need to be done ASAP, like adding window locks in children's bedrooms.

Is it madness to arrange to have painters or carpet layers in the the same day we get the keys (also the day we move in, with two small DCs) ? In what order to do you paint/carpet? Is it a waste of money getting it professionally cleaned if we are going o have painters/carpets laid, creating mess and dust?

I am at a loss to know where is the best place to start - any advice from people who have been through it before much appreciated!

[Madbengalmum]

Well your paint would need to dry before you lay carpets. And I would have all decorating done before new flooring

[Artistic]

We had 6 days between collecting keys & moving in. Painting needed 5 days so we got that done first. Carpet fitters came in on day 6 & did the carpets of the whole house. Simultaneously furniture was delivered & we had that put together right after carpets we done in each room. Towards evening cleaners came in & did a full clean. We moved in next morning. I think we got the sequence right but luckily we had those days...on the same day I don't think you could include painting TBH.

[mayhew]

Yes it would be madness. There's no guarantee that the keys will arrive on time. Do you you want workmen sitting in vans as well as removal men?

[Artistic]

In your position I'd try & do carpets before putting furniture down if possible. Painting & cleaning can happen later but carpets are a big hassle to get in after you've settled down. You can plan the painting in week 1 before you start fully putting your stuff in place.

[Artistic]

In your position I'd try & do carpets before putting furniture down if possible. Painting & cleaning can happen later but carpets are a big hassle to get in after you've settled down. You can plan the painting in week 1 before you start fully putting your stuff in place.

[GrubbyWindows]

Is there any way you could delay moving in? Even a couple of days in an air b&b or staying with relatives would make it much easier! Most movers also do storage, might be worth getting a quote?
Agree that ideally its paint, carpets clean, but if you just have one day, carpets is the priority!

[whois]

Ideal world would be:

• Take up and dispose of old carpets
  
• Clean 1
  
• Decorating
  
• Clean 2
  
• New carpets
  
• Move in
  
  If you only have 1 day I would only have the carpets done.
  Just make sure you are there when the company are taking up the old carpets so that you can hoover behind them as they go cos you don’t want new carpets laid down on top of old crap.
  
  Then you can get your stuff moved in and boxed dumped in the middle of the floor in each room. Then deep clean and decorating can happen with you and stuff there (just protect the carpets well and don’t unpack).

[tittysprinkles]

On your time scale I would get carpets laid then decorate. We decorated first and there are a lot of scuff marks on the walls and skirting from where carpet was moved in, laid down etc. Any decorator worth their salt should be able to avoid getting paint on your flooring anyway.

[BeYourselfUnlessUCanBeAUnicorn]

When we moved in, we had removal men put everything we owned downstairs (all wooden flooring) and had the entire upstairs recarpeted 2 days later then we moved stuff up gradually. Saved a huge amount of faff with not having to move furniture room by room.

We had to decorate as we went though so couldn't do it all in one go.

Don't arrange any of this for removal day. It won't work. We only got our keys at 4.30 despite our house being empty from midday. It almost didn't happen because of how long the monies took to clear from our solicitors to vendors, was a total nightmare.

[BoboChic]

I moved recently. Basically I am going room by room, with all the unsorted boxes and unhomed items currently corralled in the dining room. The first thing I did when moving in was to sort the sitting room so that I could at least relax on the sofa with an aperitif!

[Bragadocia]

It can be a bit risky booking things to happen one after the other, in case something falls through. If the carpet supplier has to postpone at the last minute, and you have arranged for furniture to be moved in, in anticipation of the carpet being down, it throws everything off. Or if the decorator has an unforeseen problem, and his/her timing goes over, the carpet can't go down when you had intended etc etc.

My preference is to go easy, and take your time. It'll still all be done within a fortnight.