A Practical Moving Checklist for Dubai, Sharjah and Ajman

Almost every moving day that goes badly went wrong earlier — a lift that was never booked, a building permit nobody mentioned, a utility disconnection scheduled for the wrong date. The physical work is rarely the problem.

This checklist is ordered by when things actually need to happen, not by how important they feel. Work backwards from your moving date and most of the usual failures disappear.

Four weeks before: decisions and paperwork

This is the stage where you create room to manoeuvre. Everything here is administrative, and every item on it takes longer than you expect because it depends on somebody else responding.

• Confirm your handover date at the old property and your access date at the new one — and note whether they overlap. If they do not, you need storage, and it is much cheaper to arrange now than in the final week.
• Check your tenancy notice requirements and give notice in writing.
• Ask both building managements what they require for a move. In many UAE towers this means a moving permit or NOC, a booked service lift slot, and sometimes a security deposit or proof of insurance from the moving company.
• Get quotations. For an apartment, a video walkthrough over WhatsApp is usually enough. For a villa, insist on a site survey — a villa quoted over the phone is a villa quoted wrong.
• Start a "do not move" list: documents, passports, jewellery, medication, laptops. These travel with you, not in the truck.

Three weeks before: reduce the volume

Moving cost is driven by volume more than by distance. Every item you dispose of now is an item you do not pay to pack, carry, transport and unpack.

• Go room by room and separate what you are keeping, selling, donating and discarding.
• List sale items early — collection takes longer than listing does.
• Empty the store room and the top of every wardrobe. This is where forgotten volume hides.
• Check what will actually fit in the new property. Villa furniture rarely fits into an apartment, and finding that out on moving day is expensive.
• Decide what needs specialist handling: chandeliers, large mirrors, artwork, marble tops, pianos, aquariums, safes.

Two weeks before: confirm the logistics

• Confirm the booking with your movers in writing — date, arrival time, crew size, vehicle, scope of packing and the agreed price.
• Submit the moving permit or NOC application to both buildings and get the approval in writing.
• Book the service lift at both addresses. Note the exact time window and whether it can be extended.
• Arrange your utilities. Schedule the final reading and disconnection at the old property for the day after the move, not the day of it — you will want lights and air conditioning while you are clearing the place.
• Set up the utility connection at the new property to be live before you arrive.
• Arrange internet installation at the new property. This has the longest lead time of anything on this list.
• Update your address with your bank, telecoms provider, insurers, employer, schools and any delivery services you use.

One week before: pack in the right order

If your movers are packing for you, this week is mostly preparation. If you are packing yourself, the order matters more than the speed.

Pack in this sequence

1. Store rooms, spare rooms and anything seasonal — nothing here is needed before the move.
2. Books, decorative items and wall-mounted pieces.
3. Out-of-season clothing and spare bedding.
4. Kitchen items you are not using this week — serving dishes, appliances, surplus crockery.
5. Everyday items, packed last and unpacked first.

Rules that save you on the other side

• Label every carton with the room it is going to and what is inside. "Kitchen — glasses, fragile" beats "Kitchen 4".
• Heavy items go in small cartons. A large carton full of books cannot be carried safely and will fail at the base.
• Plates travel on edge, not stacked flat, with padding between them.
• Bag and tape screws, bolts and shelf pins to the furniture they came from.
• Photograph the back of your television and any complex cable setup before disconnecting anything.
• Pack a separate "first night" box: bedding, towels, toiletries, phone chargers, basic tools, a change of clothes and anything the children or pets need. It travels in your car.

The day before

• Defrost and dry the fridge and freezer. A fridge moved wet arrives smelling of it.
• Charge your phone and a power bank.
• Confirm the crew arrival time and re-check the lift booking window.
• Set aside the "do not move" items and the first-night box somewhere the crew will not load them.
• Draw a simple floor plan of the new property and mark which room each item goes to. Give a copy to the crew leader — it saves an hour of questions.
• Withdraw any cash you need and keep your documents on you.

Moving day

• Walk the crew through the property before they start. Point out anything fragile, valuable or awkward.
• Confirm which items are not being moved.
• Stay reachable but out of the working route — a crew that has to walk around you moves slower.
• Before the truck leaves, check every room, wardrobe, cupboard, balcony and the store room. Then check them again.
• At the new property, direct large furniture first. It is far easier to place a wardrobe before the room fills with cartons.
• Check that everything we dismantled has been reassembled before the crew leaves.
• Do a final walkthrough with the crew leader and raise anything you are unhappy with while they are still there.

The first week in the new property

• Unpack the kitchen and bedrooms first. A functioning kitchen and a made bed make everything else feel manageable.
• Test every appliance, socket, tap and air conditioning unit and report faults to the landlord immediately — early reports are treated as pre-existing, late ones are not.
• Photograph the property's condition on the day you move in and keep the images.
• Arrange collection of the empty cartons and packing material.
• Update your address anywhere you missed.