Your first week in a new Sydney home: a settling-in checklist

The move is done, the truck’s gone, and you’re standing in a house full of boxes. The first week is about making it liveable fast and closing off the few things that matter for safety and money — and the very first job, before you unpack a single box, is to secure the place and record the meters.

Here’s the week, in the order that actually works.

Day one: secure it and record the meters

Four jobs before you settle in for the night.

Change or rekey the locks. This is the one most people skip and shouldn’t. When you take over a home, you have no idea how many keys are floating around — previous tenants, their friends, tradies, cleaners, the agent. Rekeying or replacing the barrels is a modest cost for knowing exactly who can walk in. Renting? Check with your agent first, since who arranges and pays can be set by the lease or strata.

Photograph the meter readings. Electricity, gas and water. Snap the reading with the date on day one and send the electricity and gas figures to your retailer, so your first bill starts from your move-in — not the last occupant’s usage. In apartments, water is often billed through strata.

Test the smoke alarms. A working smoke alarm is a legal requirement in NSW homes. Press the button on each one. In a rental, report any that don’t sound to your agent in writing straight away.

Find the essentials of the building. The water stopcock (for when a tap won’t stop), the meter box, the fuse box, the hot water switch, and the internet/NBN connection point. You want to know where these are before you need them at 11pm.

Then live out of the essentials box you packed — kettle, chargers, toiletries, a change of clothes — and leave the rest for tomorrow.

Days two to three: kitchen and bathroom first

Unpack the two rooms that make a house liveable fastest.

The kitchen stops the takeaway cycle and gives you somewhere to make a coffee at 6am. The bathroom means you’re not hunting through boxes for a toothbrush or a towel. Get these two functional and the rest of the house can wait without you feeling like you’re camping.

While you’re at it, confirm the utilities are actually on — not just booked. Flick the lights, run the hot water, check the internet has activated. If the NBN hasn’t connected, chase it now; a technician slot can take days.

And break the empty boxes down as you go. A room you’ve unpacked should look unpacked, not like a recycling depot.

Days four to five: bedrooms, then living

Set up the bedrooms so everyone sleeps properly — beds reassembled, sheets on, wardrobes filled. Then the living areas.

This is also the moment for a quiet safety pass while the house is still empty enough to see it: window locks, balcony gates and railings, the garage door, any pool gate. Hang mirrors, art and shelves now, while the walls are bare and you can reach everything.

Through the week: admin, neighbours and local setup

• Finish your change of address. If you haven’t already, work through the NSW change-of-address checklist — licence, rego, electoral roll, Medicare, your pet’s microchip, toll tags.
• Meet the neighbours. A quick hello now is easier than a first conversation that’s a complaint, and it’s who you’ll ask about bin nights and parking.
• Sort the council basics. Confirm your bin collection day and bin sizes with the local council, and apply for a resident parking permit if your street is permit-zoned.
• Map the essentials. Nearest GP, hospital, pharmacy and supermarket. Worth knowing before you need one in a hurry.

The stuff you’re not ready to deal with

Most moves leave a pile of “not sure where this goes yet” — the spare-room boxes, the seasonal gear, the furniture that doesn’t fit the new place. You don’t have to force a decision in week one. If it’s genuinely more than the home can hold, storage collected from your door keeps it out of the way until you’ve settled, rather than living in a corner for six months.

Settling in is the easy part when the move went well

A good move makes a good first week — everything arrives in the right room, nothing’s broken, and you spend the week arranging rather than recovering. That’s the whole point of the way we pack and move: so the hard part is behind you before the boxes are even open.

If you’re still planning the move itself, the complete Sydney moving timeline shows how the weeks before lead into this first week — and you can get a quote in under a minute.