What should I do first when I move into a new place?

Before the boxes, before the first night, six things that take an afternoon and save the year: the locks, the shut-offs and alarms, the water valve and the old hoses, the bills you can ask about before you sign, the boxes you do not pay for, and two records for a future you. A seventh page covers the first night and the first week: what to pack, what to buy before you need it, and what can wait.

Change the locks the day you get the keys. Change the locks the day you get the keys says the handover gave you keys, not the only keys: many people carry former owners trying an old key on a house they sold, a management company that never updated its list, a spare hidden forty years ago that still turned. Rekey or change every outside lock before the first night; some people say rekeying the existing locks is the cheap version, and some say a cylinder swap is a screwdriver job. Clear and reprogram the garage opener, because the fix is in the motor’s memory, not the remotes. The page’s safety lines sit beside the locks: find the shut-offs on day one, the main water valve, the gas valve, the electrical panel, and have the whole household know where they are, because a burst pipe does not wait for you to learn the house; and read the dates on the smoke and carbon-monoxide alarms, because the United States Fire Administration says a smoke alarm is replaced ten years from the date on its back and a carbon-monoxide alarm by the maker’s stated life, five to ten years. If you smell gas at any point, leave and call your country’s gas emergency line. If you rent and the agreement forbids a lock change, ask the landlord in writing to rekey.

Interview the apartment’s bills before you sign. Interview the apartment’s bills before you sign says the bill for that exact address already exists, and some utility companies will read you an estimate built from the previous tenant’s twelve months. One broke student took the cheapest place they could find at three hundred fifty a month; the person at the utility counter warned them the bills ran high, and high turned out to be nearly four hundred a month, more than the rent. On the tour, read the windows, feel around the frames on a windy day, notice single panes; read the trees, because big leafy trees to the south and east are summer shade and evergreens to the north are a windbreak; and ask which utilities the rent already covers, because heat included changes the whole maths of a slightly higher rent.

The boxes are free if you ask first. The liquor store has your moving boxes says the strongest free boxes are the ones built to carry bottles and paper; many people name the liquor store first, then the produce aisle for apple boxes and the toilet-paper aisle for the sturdiest board in the shop. The one rule the page will not soften: ask first, because cardboard behind a shop is usually baled and sold, and taking it unasked is, in people’s own words, theft. Call the day before the delivery. Inspect anything that held food, banana boxes above all. The page carries the argument about free mismatched boxes against a paid uniform stack, and what decides it is whether anyone is on the clock, how many trips, and what is inside.

Two records for future you. A chipped pet still needs your phone number on file says having a chip implanted does not register it, and a registration is a live thing: you moved, or changed your number, and the entry still holds the old one, so a record with a dead number looks exactly like a working safety net until it is needed. Look the chip number up and see whose details come back, and do it again every time you move. A chip is not a tracker; in the first ten minutes, what works is a collar with a tag, because neighbours do not carry scanners. Leave notes for future you is smaller still: write the circuit-breaker number on the back of the faceplate while the plate is already off, photograph every sticker that will fade, and check the warranty that came with the house before calling a repair company, because one member paid out of pocket for a repair the home warranty would have covered had they filed first.

Find the main water shut-off, turn it once, and replace the old hoses behind the washing machine and under the sinks before one of them fails. Find the water valve and replace the old hoses is for a home you own or look after; if you rent, the first step is to tell whoever looks after the building what you find, since the pipes and valves may be theirs. One person describes a burst rubber washing-machine hose as being like a tap left fully open in the house. Triple-I, the US Insurance Information Institute, says being able to locate and shut off the main water supply quickly saves stress, money and time. The page’s step is to turn it off and on once, so you know it works and which way it turns, with a wrench beside it if it needs one. In the UK, one council’s guidance says the stop tap is usually under the kitchen sink, and that turning it clockwise stops the water. If you cannot find it, ask the person you bought or rent the home from, or look for where the water pipe enters the house, and write the answer on a sticky note on the wall nearby. Then look behind the washing machine and under the sinks with a torch. Triple-I says to check the hoses on a water heater, dishwasher, washing machine and refrigerator ice maker once a year, replace any that are cracked or leaking at once, and replace them all every five to seven years. One person describes swapping a rubber washing machine line for a braided metal one: measure the old line before buying, and tighten the new one by hand. The page did not check the hose makers’ own guidance, so read the instructions that come with the new hose. Triple-I says a standard US homeowners policy generally pays for water that comes from above, such as a burst pipe, but that sewer backups usually need an add-on and outside flooding needs separate flood cover; one person warns that insurance may not cover long-term hidden water damage. UK policies differ and the page does not cover them, so read yours or ask your insurer.

The same page puts two safety lines before the water. First, gas. If you smell gas, National Gas in the UK says: do not smoke or light matches, do not turn electrical switches on or off, open doors and windows, turn off the gas at the meter control handle unless the meter is in a cellar, leave, and call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999, which is free and open all day and night. The US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration says something different: leave on foot at once and do not try to find the source, do not use a phone or switch anything on or off inside, and call 911 from a safe place well away, then the gas company. The two agree on leaving and on no switches; the US advice puts getting out ahead of reaching a valve, so if the meter is not right on your way out, leave. Second, electricity and water. Electrical Safety First in the UK says that after a flood or a burst pipe you should switch off the electricity at the consumer unit or fuse box only if it is safe to do so; if there is any water inside the unit, or any sign of arcing or overheating, call a registered electrician instead. It says to unplug damaged appliances, to keep away from exposed wiring because it may still be live, to avoid mains-powered appliances until an electrician says they are safe, and not to turn electricity or gas back on until a professional says it is safe. The page did not check a US source for the water-and-electricity advice; where water has reached outlets or the panel, ask a licensed electrician. If someone is being shocked, do not grab them: call 911 in the US or 999 in the UK (your local emergency number elsewhere). That page covers the first checks, not plumbing repairs, and it does not say how to find a leak behind a wall or how to tell a small problem from an emergency.

Pack a first-night box, buy a plunger and toilet paper before you need them, and let everything else wait. Buy the plunger before the couch says some people pack one dedicated box for the first night and load it last, so it comes off the truck first: toiletries, a change of clothes, a phone charger and a few basic utensils, so you are not digging through sealed boxes at midnight to find a toothbrush. On the first day, some people say to check the water pressure and how hot the water gets straight away, since a weak, lukewarm trickle is a big quality-of-life problem, and to check your phone signal; one person says to clean and look the place over for pests or maintenance trouble before all your belongings come in. If you find a problem, one person says to get everything with the landlord in writing, because a spoken promise is hard to rely on later. Some people say to buy a plunger straight away, before the day you need one: it is cheap, and a blocked toilet is a bad moment to learn you do not have one. One person says the toilet and the sinks want different plungers, an accordion style for the toilet and a flat traditional one for sinks; some people say to push down slowly when you use it, to stop the water splashing back, and one person warns that debris can splash. The other small things some people say new renters forget are a shower curtain with rings, and basic cleaning supplies and paper towels; some say to keep toilet paper stocked in a large multipack, and one person adds a bucket for cleaning and emergencies.

Everything else can wait while you see what the place needs. Some people say the first grocery shop is expensive if you try to buy every essential at once, and it is easier to stock the cupboards gradually. For furniture, some people say to use free or cheap sources before buying new: classified listings, thrift stores, garage sales, and items left at the kerb. Be selective about the soft things: some people warn against buying a used mattress or sofa, because bed bugs can come with them and are expensive and hard to get rid of, and say to buy those new or from someone you trust. The US Environmental Protection Agency says to check secondhand furniture, beds and couches for signs of bed bugs before bringing them home; a mattress or sofa has seams and folds that are hard to check, so if you do buy one used, check it carefully before it comes in. People split on a real mattress right away: one person says to buy a decent mattress and frame early, because a mattress on the floor can grow mould and mildew underneath, and another says an air mattress is fine as a short-term bed while you save for a better one. Some people say to get renters insurance, because it is cheap and covers losses such as fire or theft, which they say the landlord’s insurance does not; one person says it is not always needed if you own few things of value. Accounts differ on whether landlords require it, and the page could not check that, so read your lease; it also could not check the price or what a policy covers, so ask for a quote before you decide. In the UK the same kind of cover is usually called contents insurance.

If you are leaving a home you are not safe in, that page says this is not the list to start with: the first thing is somewhere safe, and then the basics. If someone is hurting you or you are in danger now, call 911 in the US or 999 in the UK. The National Domestic Violence Hotline (1-800-799-7233) in the US and the National Domestic Abuse Helpline (0808 2000 247) in the UK are free and open 24 hours a day. 211 in the US or Citizens Advice in the UK can point you to local help with housing.

Who this is not for. The locks page says it: if the person with a key is someone you are afraid of, a lock is one step and not the plan, and the pages on leaving are where that plan lives. The boxes page names anyone paying movers or a truck by the hour, for whom uniform boxes pay for themselves before the first coffee. And the chip page says in countries with one national registry the failure it describes is more or less impossible; in the US, registration is voluntary and split across private registries, and a blank lookup needs reading twice. The first-night page gives no full shopping checklist, because what you need depends on the place and on who lives there, and it does not cover the law: leases, deposits, repairs and insurance requirements vary by country, state and landlord, so read your own lease. Its advice comes from people who settled in without a crisis; if you left home in a hurry with very little, some of it will not fit, and the first step is help with the basics, not a shopping list.