How to prepare your apartment for a renovation (the checklist we give clients)

Two weeks out from a reno, everyone underestimates the prep. Then day one arrives and someone's frantically boxing a kitchen while we're standing in the corridor with crowbars. Here's the checklist we send every client: steal it even if you don't hire us.

Two weeks out

• Confirm body corporate approval is back in writing, we chase it, but the letter goes to you.
• Tell the neighbours. We drop courtesy letters, but a text from you lands better.
• Book your accommodation if it's a whole-unit job, see our timeline article for which weeks you'll actually need it.

One week out

• Empty the rooms being touched. Not 'mostly empty': tradies can't demo around a bookshelf you meant to move.
• Clear the corridor route to your door if you have storage there.
• Photograph everything: walls, floors, furniture that stays. Ten minutes now, zero arguments later.
• Arrange somewhere for the cat/dog. Doors get opened a hundred times a day on a job.

The day before

• Strip the kitchen or bathroom completely if it's being touched, cupboards empty, benchtops bare.
• Move cars if we're bringing the skip, and tell us the loading zone rules.
• Leave a key arrangement: under the mat, lockbox code, agent drop-off.

What we handle (so you don't duplicate it)

Lift padding, corridor protection, the courtesy letters, the building manager's certificate requests, the skip permit. That's our side of the prep and it's included: details are on the renovation page. Your side is everything inside your front door.

The best-prepared job we ever ran had a labelled floor plan taped to the fridge. The owner got their keys back a day early.

The one thing everyone forgets

Mail and deliveries. Parcel lockers, food deliveries, subscription boxes, they all still show up to a sealed-off apartment. Redirect the post, pause the meal kits, tell your regular couriers. Nobody remembers until the third missed delivery.

Booked with us already? The full checklist lands in your inbox the day the deposit clears. Not booked yet: start with a walkthrough.