Move-in week home setup: the seven things to do before you unpack

Move-in week is chaos. Boxes everywhere, no idea where the spatulas ended up, and the urge to put away clothes before doing anything else. Resist that urge for a few hours and do these seven things first. They take less than a day total and they make the next ten years of homeownership much easier.

1. Change the locks (or rekey them)

You do not know who has keys to your new house. The previous owner. The dog walker. The cleaner. The teenager who moved out four years ago. A locksmith can rekey a typical house in under an hour for $100 to $250, which is far cheaper than replacing every lock. If you have smart locks, change the codes and remove any users you do not recognize.

2. Find and label every shutoff

Walk the house with a roll of painter's tape and a marker. Label:

• The main water shutoff (often near where the water enters)
• The gas main (often outside near the meter)
• The main electrical breaker
• Every angle valve under sinks and behind toilets
• Outdoor spigot shutoffs (often inside the basement)

Test that each one actually closes. Seized valves are common in older homes and finding out they are seized at midnight when a toilet supply line bursts is the wrong time.

3. Test the smoke and CO detectors

Press the test button on every detector in the house. Replace any that do not chirp. Check the manufacture date on the back; smoke detectors expire after 10 years and CO detectors after 7 to 10 depending on model. If any are over their life expectancy, swap them; replacements are $20 to $40 each.

4. Photograph and label the breaker panel

Two people: one at the panel, one walking the house. Flip each breaker, identify what it controls, and label them with stick-on labels or a labeled photo. This is the kind of thing every homeowner means to do and never gets around to. Doing it in the first week takes one hour.

5. Inventory model numbers and capture warranties

Photograph the data plate on every major system and appliance: furnace, AC, water heater, range, dishwasher, washer, dryer, refrigerator. Keep the photos together with any user manuals you find. Five years from now, when you need a part for the dishwasher, you will not have to crawl behind it with a flashlight.

Many appliances also have warranties that follow the appliance to new owners; read the small print before you decide there is none.

6. Set up a service tracker

Pick the system you will use and start it now. Whether it is a notebook in the kitchen drawer, a spreadsheet, or HomeBase, the important thing is that you start it before you have a year of services to back-fill from memory. Capture:

• What is in the house (HVAC, water heater, septic, etc.)
• Anything the seller documented in the disclosure
• The date and provider for any services you do this week
• Reminders for the next round of routine maintenance (HVAC tune-up, gutter cleaning, filter change)

7. Walk the exterior

Twenty minutes on a clear afternoon. Look at:

• Gutters: leaves, sagging, separations from the fascia
• Downspouts: where they discharge, whether water gets away from the foundation
• Foundation: cracks visible from outside, signs of water staining on the brick or stone
• Grading: does the ground slope away from the house? It should.
• Trees: any limbs over the roof, anything dead, anything within ten feet of the house
• Outdoor spigots: do they all turn off? Are they freeze-protected?
• Gas meter, electric meter, AC condenser: clear and accessible?
• Dryer vent termination: clear of lint, screen if any

Take notes or photos of anything that looks like it wants attention. These become the seed of your year-one to-do list.

What you can put off

Most of the rest of homeownership can wait. The painting, the landscaping, the “eventually let's update the kitchen” list. Move-in week is for the things that matter for the safety of the people in the house and for setting up the systems that make future you look like a hero. Do these seven and the rest can wait until the boxes are unpacked.