Your first day in a new apartment

Before a single box comes in: fifteen minutes

1. Photograph everything. Every room, every wall, every floor. Close-ups of anything already damaged: scuffs, carpet stains, chipped worktops, marks on paintwork, the inside of the oven, the state of the bathroom sealant. Video walking through with the camera running is faster and harder to argue with. Make sure the files carry a date, and back them up somewhere that is not the phone.
2. Photograph the meters. Electricity, gas and water, with the reading legible. This is how you avoid paying for the previous tenant’s last month.
3. Note anything that needs reporting, in writing, today. A broken blind reported on day one is the landlord’s problem. The same blind reported in month four is yours.

Fifteen minutes here is the single highest-value thing you will do in the apartment all year. We say the same thing in the week-one guide because it is the one piece of advice people skip and then regret.

Then the safety checks: ten minutes

1. Press the test button on every smoke alarm. If it does not sound, or there is no alarm where there should be one, that is a report-it-today item. The US Fire Administration’s guidance is one alarm on every level and outside each sleeping area.
2. Find the breaker panel. Open it, see whether the circuits are labelled, and label them yourself if not — a photograph of the panel on your phone is enough for now. You want to know this at 11pm when something trips, not be learning it then.
3. Find the water shut-off. Usually under the kitchen sink, in a utility cupboard, or on the pipe entering the bathroom. Turn it to confirm it actually turns, then turn it back. A seized shut-off discovered during a leak is a very expensive discovery.
4. Check every lock and every window catch. Including the ones you will never use. If a lock is stiff or a window will not latch, report it today.
5. Run the hot water and the heating. Both, even in July. A boiler that does not fire is a two-day repair, and you want the two days to start now rather than in October.

Fire extinguisher placement, alarm types and the breaker-labelling job in full are in home safety essentials.

The first-night box

Pack this separately, label it, and carry it in your own car or hand. On day one you will not find anything in a stack of thirty identical boxes, and these are the eight things you will want within two hours of arriving:

The box-cutting knife and the tape measure in particular save an hour each on day one. The wider kit is in moving day essentials and the tool kit you actually need.

The three measurements to take today

Before you order anything, and while the rooms are still empty and easy to measure:

• The narrowest point on the route in. Front door width, stair turn, lift interior. This is the number that decides which sofa you can buy, and it is the one measurement people take after ordering.
• Under-bed and under-sink clearance. Both decide what storage fits, and both are the reason storage gets returned.
• The big walls, and window width and drop. For a bed, a television, a bookcase and curtains. Write them in your phone notes, not on paper you will lose.

What can wait until tomorrow

Unpacking anything that is not in the first-night box. Hanging anything on a wall — and when you do, use damage-free strips or a stud, because a nail on day two is the most expensive hole you will drill. Buying storage. Buying furniture. Meeting the neighbours. Setting up the internet, unless you need it for work, in which case it should have been arranged before the move.

Sleep somewhere flat, eat something that does not need a saucepan, and do the rest in the week. The week-by-week plan is here.