House shifting checklist: a four-week plan for moving home in Kolkata

Book two or three surveys and insist they are physical or over video. A quote produced without seeing your goods is a guess, and guesses get revised upward on loading day. Ask each mover for an itemised written quote covering material, labour, transport, insurance and GST.

Pick your date deliberately. Mid-week and mid-month slots are cheaper and better staffed than month-end. Avoid the Durga Puja fortnight entirely if you can — crews, vehicles and traffic all work against you in Kolkata during those weeks.

Then start decluttering. Every carton you do not move is money saved, and in a city where volume drives the vehicle size, one honest afternoon of sorting is worth more than any negotiation.

Kolkata housing societies routinely require written permission for lift use and a time window for loading, and many restrict moves on Sundays. Get that letter in hand two weeks ahead, and confirm where a 19-foot truck can legally stand on your lane — narrow-lane addresses in north Kolkata often need a shuttle tempo, and your mover needs to know before quoting.

Arrange electricity, gas, broadband and newspaper transfers or closures. Update your address with the bank, your employer, insurers and your child's school. Collect school transfer certificates and medical records now, not on moving week.

Begin packing the things you will not miss: books, off-season clothes, spare linen, decorative items. Label every carton with the destination room, not with a list of contents.

Keep an essentials bag with you: documents, jewellery, chargers, medicines, a change of clothes and something for the children to do. Walk the empty rooms with the supervisor before the truck leaves and check the signed inventory against what has actually been loaded.

At the destination, unload room by room using the labels, and check the inventory again before the crew departs — a claim raised at delivery is straightforward, and one raised three days later is not. Set up the beds, the kitchen and one bathroom first; everything else can wait.

Report any damage in writing within 24 to 48 hours with photographs. Spring Hill leaves a supervisor's direct number with every customer for exactly this reason.