Why a house move breaks every system you have
A move is unusual. It's high-stakes, it has a hard deadline, it generates a pile of documents you'll need exactly once at an unpredictable moment, and it happens across every device you own - the estate agent emails your laptop, the removals quote arrives on your phone, and the measurements are on a scrap of paper in the kitchen. No app is built for it, because it only happens every few years and nobody wants to learn a tool for it.
So most people run it out of four places: an inbox, a downloads folder, a notes app, and a chat with themselves. It works, until the Thursday you need the EPC certificate and can't remember which of the four it went to.
One room called "House Move"
A MoveMyWork workroom is a parking space for one subject. It has four tabs - Chat, Files, To-Do and a Whiteboard - and it's open on every device you sign into. You don't need anyone else in it. Create a room, name it "House Move", and you're set up. That's the whole setup.
If you're new here, the organising-your-projects page explains the idea in general; this guide is the house-move version.
Files: four folders, no more
The Files tab takes any file, and lets you make single-level folders. Resist the urge to build a filing system. Four folders cover a move:
- Mortgage & legal. The offer, the solicitor's letters, the searches, the contract when it comes. The things a stranger will ask you to "send over" at short notice.
- The property. Floor plan, the listing PDF, your own photos from viewings, the EPC. Anything about the place itself.
- Quotes. Removals, storage, cleaners, the person who'll take the piano. Drop the PDF in when it arrives and stop searching your inbox for it.
- Admin. Utilities, council tax, the redirect-post confirmation, the insurance schedule. Boring, and exactly the pile you'll need in the first week at the new place.
Drag files in from the laptop. From the phone, open the room in your browser and use the attach button - a photo of a meter reading goes straight into Admin.
Links: park them in the chat
The chat panel with one person in it is a notes feed with an address. The sofa you found, the paint colour, the Rightmove listing for the place you didn't get but liked the kitchen of - paste the link into the room's chat and it's there on every device. Pin the handful that matter (the listing, the solicitor's portal) so they sit at the top.
Because it's built on the MoveMyWork clipboard, the phone-to-laptop hop is short: copy the link on your phone, paste it into the room. If you're used to WhatsApping links to yourself, the chat-with-yourself guide is the gentle transition.
To-dos: the ones with dates
A move has two kinds of task. The ones you'll remember anyway (pack), and the ones you keep almost forgetting until they become urgent. Put the second kind in the room's To-Do tab with a due date:
- Book the removals van (the good ones go weeks ahead)
- Redirect the post
- Final meter readings, both ends
- Cancel or move broadband - the lead time is longer than you think
- Tell the bank, the DVLA, the GP, the insurer
- Return the keys and get the deposit moving
The list sits next to the quotes it refers to, which is the point: when "book the van" is due, the three quotes are one tab away.
Whiteboard: where the sofa actually fits
Take the floor plan, draw the rooms roughly on the whiteboard, and drop in rectangles for the big furniture. It takes five minutes and it settles the argument about whether the sofa goes in the bay window before the van is parked outside. It also works for the "which box goes in which room" map on the day.
If it's not just your move
A partner, a housemate, a parent doing the admin: they join the room with the six-character code or the QR, and everything you've already parked is there for them. Nothing to re-send. If you'd rather keep it solo until you're ready, it stays solo - the room doesn't care.
Honest limits
The free plan gives you 3 GB of storage and files up to 250 MB each - more than enough for the documents a move produces. Links, notes and to-dos never expire. Files on the free plan are kept for 30 days from upload, which covers the sprint at the end of a move but not a six-month chain; if you want the mortgage offer still there at completion, Pro keeps files indefinitely (100 GB, from $7/month), or you can re-upload the few that matter nearer the day. And MoveMyWork is a website, not a mobile app - on the phone it lives in Safari or Chrome, or as an icon if you add it to your Home Screen.
When you've moved
Download the Files tab as a zip if you want a keepsake of the paperwork, then delete the room. The next project gets its own. The method for that is in one room per project.