Moving House With Pets: A Calm, Step-by-Step Checklist
Pets do not care about square footage. They care about smell, routine and knowing where the exits are. Plan the move around those three things and the whole thing gets easier for everyone.
Two to three weeks before
Update your microchip details with the new address now, not later — this is the single most useful thing on the list. Register with a vet near the new house and ask your current practice to forward records. Leave a couple of packing boxes out early so they become furniture rather than an event. For cats, start leaving the carrier open with a blanket inside.
The week before
Pack a "pets first" box you will unpack the moment you arrive: food, bowls, medication, litter and scoop, a familiar blanket, one favourite toy, poo bags, and a towel. Keep it in the car rather than the van. If your dog is anxious, talk to your vet about calming options before moving week, not on the day.
Moving day: one closed room
Pick a room the removals team will not need — a bathroom works well — and set your pet up in there with water, a bed, and a litter tray for cats. Put a sign on the door. A folding travel litter box is ideal here because it comes out of the car, opens flat, and does not need to be one of the things you carefully wrap. Better still, if you can, have a friend or a day boarding place look after your pet entirely.
The journey
Cats and small dogs travel best contained and belted in. A hands-free carrier sling is useful for the short walk from the door to the car and back at the other end, when hands are full and doors are wide open. Offer water at stops with a portable water bottle, never open a carrier in a moving car, and never leave a pet in a parked one.
Arrival: small world first
Set up one room in the new house before anything else: bed, bowls, litter tray away from the food, carrier left open as a hiding place. Let your pet come out in their own time. Plug in and unpack around them over the following days rather than giving them the run of an empty, echoing house.
Keep the routine identical
Same food, same feeding times, same walk times, even if everything else is chaos. Consistency is what tells an animal the world still works. A gravity feeder and water dispenser helps here, because meals stay on schedule even when you are three hours into assembling a wardrobe.
Going outside again
Keep cats indoors for at least two weeks, ideally three, then let them out before a meal, hungry, in daylight, and stay in the garden with them. For dogs, walk the same short route for the first few days so they build a mental map. Fit an AirTag breakaway collar or a tracker before any outdoor access — the first fortnight is when pets go missing.
Signs to watch for
A few days of hiding, reduced appetite or extra clinginess is normal. Not eating for more than 24 hours, no urination, ongoing diarrhoea, or house soiling that continues for over a week deserves a vet call rather than more patience.