The Aussie Moving-House Survival Guide
By the I Do It Yourself team — Mick, Cal and Priya.
Moving house is the most stressful thing most Australians do that doesn’t involve a hospital. The team has collectively moved about 40 times across our houses, our parents’ houses, and helping mates — and almost every disaster we’ve seen could have been prevented by starting four weeks earlier. This guide is the project plan we wish we’d had on our first move: what to do four weeks out, two weeks out, the move week itself, the day, and the first 30 days in the new place.
Realistic budget: $2,000 to $8,000 for a removalist-assisted move depending on volume, distance and how much packing you do yourself. A fully DIY move (truck hire, you and three mates with pizza) runs $400 to $1,500 for a same-suburb 3-bedroom move. Interstate adds significantly — Sydney to Brisbane runs $4,500–$9,000 for a full container, Sydney to Perth $7,000–$15,000. Timeline: 4 weeks of prep + move week itself, with another 2–4 weeks to truly settle in.
What you’re getting into
A typical 3-bedroom Australian home contains roughly 200–300 cubic feet of stuff (8–12 m³), about 60–100 boxes of packed contents, plus 30–50 individual furniture items, plus 4–8 large appliances. That is a moving target. Underestimate it and you’ll be standing at midnight surrounded by half-packed rooms, while the new owners’ truck pulls into the driveway in the morning.
What you can DIY and what you should outsource: packing, dismantling flat-pack furniture, decluttering, the truck-hire moving — all DIY territory if you have the time and the bodies. Disconnecting and reconnecting gas appliances (cooktops, hot water units, gas heaters) — that’s a gas fitter, $150–$300 per visit, no exceptions, it’s illegal otherwise. Hardwired electrical items (dishwashers in some installs, hardwired ovens) — sparky. Pianos, pool tables, spas and anything over 200 kg — specialist movers, every time, the saving on doing it yourself is dwarfed by the orthopaedic bill if you get it wrong.
Tools and budget
- Boxes: heavy-duty book/wine boxes ($4 each) for books and dishes, large boxes ($6) for clothes and linen, port-a-robes ($25 each, hire from Kennards) for hanging clothes — budget $300–$500 for a 3-bed home
- Packing materials: butcher’s paper (newsprint, 5 kg roll $30), bubble wrap (50 m roll $40), packing tape (3 rolls minimum, $25), permanent markers, coloured stickers for room-coding
- Hand tools: trolley (sack truck) — hire $25/day or buy $80, furniture pads/blankets ($15 each, buy 6), ratchet straps ($25 set), Allen key set, screwdriver set
- Truck hire: 4-tonne pantech for a 3-bed, $200–$350/day plus per-km, from Budget, Hertz or Go With The Gecko
- Removalist quote range: $130–$220/hr for two men and a truck, 3-bed move 6–10 hours = $800–$2,200; full pack-and-move service $2,500–$8,000
- Specialist trades: gas fitter $150–$300, sparky $150–$250, piano mover $400–$900, pool table mover $500–$1,200
Phase 1: 4 weeks out — declutter and gather supplies
Mick here. Four weeks out is when you start, not when you start thinking about starting. The single biggest favour you can do yourself is to not move things you don’t want. Every box you pack, load, drive, unload and unpack costs you energy and money. Throwing out a box you don’t want before you start saves you packing it, paying to move it, and unpacking it.
Run through every room with three boxes and a bin bag: keep, donate, sell, bin. Be ruthless on clothes you haven’t worn in two years, kitchen gadgets you’ve used once, kids’ toys they’ve outgrown, books you’ll never re-read, and the random shed contents you’ve been meaning to sort for a decade. Donate to Vinnies, sell on Facebook Marketplace or Gumtree (start the listings now — most things take 1–3 weeks to move at a fair price), and bin the rest. A 3-bed declutter typically generates 3–5 carloads to Vinnies and a council clean-up booking.
While the decluttering is happening, gather supplies. Book the truck or removalist (4 weeks out is the minimum lead time for a Saturday in summer), book the gas fitter for disconnect, book the sparky if needed, lock in a cleaner for the old place (most landlords/agents require an end-of-lease clean and you do not want to be doing it yourself on move day — $300–$600 for a bond clean). Buy boxes early; running out of boxes mid-pack is the most predictable disaster in moving.
Phase 2: 2 weeks out — pack room by room
Priya here. Two weeks out the packing starts in earnest. The trick is to pack the rooms you use least first and the rooms you use most last. Garage, shed, study, formal lounge, guest bedroom — all packed by the end of week one of packing. Linen cupboard, dining, books — week two early. Kitchen, main bathroom, master bedroom — final 48 hours, because you’re using these every day until you leave.
Box-labelling is the make-or-break detail. On every box, write three things in big black marker: (1) the destination room in the new house — be specific, “Kitchen” or “Master ensuite”, not just “Bedroom”; (2) a contents summary — “books, novels, A–M” or “saucepans + lids”; (3) a priority sticker — green for “unpack last”, yellow for “unpack this week”, red for “open day one”. Set up a simple spreadsheet or notebook and number the boxes (1, 2, 3…) so on arrival you can see at a glance that 47 of 52 boxes have come off the truck and 5 are missing.
Pack heavy stuff in small boxes (books in book/wine boxes — never books in a large box, you cannot lift it), light stuff in large boxes (linen, pillows, soft toys). Wrap glass and ceramics individually in butcher’s paper; never use newspaper for glassware in 2026 because the ink no longer wipes off cleanly. For wardrobes, port-a-robes are worth their weight in gold — clothes hang straight from the wardrobe into the port-a-robe and back into the new wardrobe with zero ironing. Hire 4–6 of them for the last week of packing.
Phase 3: Move week — appliances and big items
Mick here. Move week is when the appliances and big furniture get prepped. Fridge: empty it 48 hours before move day and let it defrost; pack the contents into eskies the morning of. Washing machine: drain it the day before, disconnect the hoses, stuff the drum with a towel to stop the drum bouncing on the suspension during transport, fit the transit bolts if you still have them. Dishwasher: same drain procedure, disconnect supply and waste. Oven: clean the inside before disconnect — cleaning a cold oven in your old house is a hundred times easier than in the back of a truck.
For gas cooktops and hot water units, this is where Tomo or your local gas fitter is non-negotiable. They’ll arrive, disconnect the gas, cap the line for transport, and at the new place reconnect, pressure-test and certify. Trying to do it yourself is a criminal offence in every Australian state and an instant insurance void. Same with hardwired electrical — sparky on each end.
The big-item question: pianos, pool tables, spas. We have a hard rule on this team — these never move with the general removalist. They each have specialist movers because the consequences of getting it wrong are catastrophic. A pool table slate can crack from a 30 mm drop; a piano sounding board can deform if it’s stored on its side; a spa can damage its own shell if lifted from the wrong points. Specialist movers exist for a reason — they cost $400–$1,200 and they’re worth every cent.
Phase 4: Move day — logistics
Mick here. Move day is logistics, not heroics. The goal is to keep the truck loaded efficiently, the rooms emptied in order, and nobody injured. The single biggest rule: heaviest items go on the truck first and against the back wall. Fridges, washing machines, dressers, bookcases — these go in first and become the foundation that lighter, more delicate stuff stacks against. Last on, first off — boxes you need on arrival (the red-priority ones, kettle, sheets, toilet paper, phone chargers, the kids’ overnight bag) go on the truck last so they come off first.
Have a kit-bag of essentials that travels in your car, NOT in the truck: passports, wallet, medications, phone chargers, laptops, jewellery, the cat (in a carrier), the kids’ security blankets, and a thermos of coffee. If anything goes wrong with the truck (breakdown, accident, lost), you still have the irreplaceables.
Feed your helpers. If you’ve roped in mates, bacon-and-egg rolls and coffee at 8am, sandwiches and cold drinks at noon, beers and pizza when the truck is empty. If you’ve hired removalists, offer water and lunch — you don’t have to feed them but treating them well genuinely speeds up the job. Tip $50–$100 per removalist if they did a good job. They remember the good homeowners and the bad ones.
Phase 5: Settling in — first 30 days
Cal here. The first 30 days in a new place is when the move actually finishes — and when most people stall. Boxes labelled “garage” sit in the garage for five years. Don’t let it happen. Set a 30-day rule: every box opened, contents put away or thrown away, by the end of the first month.
The order I recommend: day one — beds made, kettle and toaster out, bathroom essentials unpacked, one functional toilet, internet ordered (book this 2 weeks before move day; nbn connections in 2026 still take 5–10 days). Week one — kitchen fully unpacked, main bedroom organised, kids’ rooms set up, washing machine connected. Week two — lounge set up, pictures stay in their bubble wrap for now, focus on functional living. Week three — pictures up, shelving sorted, rugs down. Week four — garage and shed unpacked or culled.
Use the move as a chance to deep-clean the new place before stuff goes in. Priya runs this drill: empty room → clean ceiling and walls (fresh eyes spot what the old owner missed), clean inside every cupboard, change the toilet seats (always, $30 each, you don’t know who sat there), check every smoke alarm has a working battery (legal requirement and you have to be able to prove it as a renter), check all light bulbs, change the locks if you’ve bought (a locksmith is $200–$400 for the whole house, do it day one). Now move stuff in.
The team’s verdict
If we were moving tomorrow, this is the order. Four weeks out: declutter, book trades, book truck/removalist, start Marketplace listings. Three weeks out: gather boxes and supplies, start packing the garage and shed. Two weeks out: pack least-used rooms, confirm gas fitter and sparky bookings. One week out: pack everything except daily essentials, prep appliances, do the bond clean of the old place if it’s a rental. Move day: logistics, kit-bag in the car, heaviest items on first. First week: kitchen and bedrooms. First month: everything else.
The single biggest thing we want to underline: pay the trades for the things that need trades. Gas disconnect-reconnect, electrical disconnect-reconnect, piano move, pool-table move, spa move. The total cost across all of those for an average 3-bed move is about $800–$1,500. The cost of doing them wrong yourself ranges from “voided insurance” to “snapped slate” to “broken back”. Outsource these, DIY everything else, and you’ve got the right balance of saving money and not creating a disaster.
FAQs
Removalist or truck hire? Removalist if you can afford $1,500+, your back will thank you. Truck hire if you have 3+ fit mates and the budget is tight. Don’t try to DIY a move alone — two people minimum for a 3-bed.
How many boxes do I need? Rough rule: 60 boxes for a 2-bed, 80 for a 3-bed, 100 for a 4-bed. Buy 10–15% extra. Empty boxes can always be returned or sold on Marketplace; running out mid-pack at 11pm cannot be fixed.
Do I need to disconnect the dishwasher and washing machine professionally? Hardwired dishwasher: yes, sparky. Plug-in dishwasher: no. Washing machine: usually no for the connections (they’re hose-and-tap), but if it’s hardwired drainage you’ll want a plumber.
What about the cat/dog? Pets travel with you, in a carrier, in your car, with the windows up and the cat carrier strapped in. Settle them in one closed room of the new house with food, water and litter for the first 24 hours. Don’t let them out into the rest of the house until the chaos has died down or they’ll bolt.
Should I take photos of the old place before leaving? Yes — every room, every wall, every corner, time-stamped on your phone. If your bond is contested, those photos are your evidence. Same for the new place on day one before you put anything in.
Got a project we should write a guide for? Tell us.