Share your best moving tips for family with young kids

[Anonymous]

We're getting ready to move about an hr away in a couple weeks. I have very little experience with moving and have never done it with kids before. I have a 4 and a 5 yr old. Please share your best packing, preparing, moving and unpacking tips and tricks. We will be moving after school starts so will be having a lot going on in addition to moving and I want things to go as smoothly as possible. We also have 3 kittens. TIA!

[Anonymous]

Pack the kids shit last. Unpack the kids shit first. De-clutter before it's time to pack. You don't want to pay to move crap you never use. Find jobs for the kids to do so they're busy.

[Anonymous]

Pay for packers as well as movers!

[Anonymous]

Pack one or two boxes with the following: bed sheets for everyone's bed, sleep clothes, toiletries, paper towels, toilet paper, bath towels. Make sure that goes in your car with you and you know where it is.

When you arrive at the house, make sure one of the first things that you do on move-in day is set up beds for everyone and make them. This way whenever you are ready to collapse (and you will push yourself pretty hard the first day), then you have everything you need to shower and roll into bed. The last thing you want to do at the end of that long first day is have to hunt for bedsheets, bath towels and have to make beds before you can collapse.

For young kids like yours, plan some activity for them to do while moving in. Either pack a box of games/toys/books for them or plan some activities to keep them occupied or plan for someone who can come and take them off for a few hours.

Plan meals for the first day. Get drinks, a cooler of ice, and look for delivery (something like Pizza or Chinese) near your new house. Print out a menu and phone number so that you don't have to hunt for the info when you get hungry.

Ideally you should find a kennel or pet boarding location for the first day or two you are in the new house. When you are coordinating with movers, the doors are propped open, many extra people are wandering through the house and a completely new location without even the familiar furniture is not the best experience for kittens. They'll be able to acclimate much better if you wait until the move-in chaos is over to introduce them to your and their new home.

[Anonymous]

Can they go to grandma's for a couple of days? Really the easiest thing - have kids elsewhere for the move days.

Also, just keep going through the house throwing stuff away. Fill two black garbage bags before going to bed. Pack some boxes of stuff you do need every night. Have a go-bag for each kid with their most favorite toys. And yes, bring the sheets and towels to unpack their beds first.

[Anonymous]

I hired someone to help me unpack on one of our last moves. I had her do the kitchen first. Didn't really care where stuff went -I could relocate it after. But a house doesn't really function until your kitchen is settled.

Big second on the bedding. You'll want to be able to sleep that first night.

My other advice is to purge as much as possible now. You don't want to have to move clothes the kids have outgrown or kitchen gadgets you never use. Make a huge pile for Goodwill and get rid of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pack the kids shit last. Unpack the kids shit first. De-clutter before it's time to pack. You don't want to pay to move crap you never use. Find jobs for the kids to do so they're busy.

+1

Agree with other PP to set up and make beds first.

Also, I let my kids decorate their new rooms themselves to get them more excited about the new house. They were very sad to leave our old house.

[dancingsunflowers06]

We are a military family so have moved quite a bit. The first bit of advice I have is to remember that it's a couple of days that are really long and really annoying, but then you've moved and you can start to get re-settled. When you go into the move with that mindset, nothing surprises you when things don't go as planned. I found a bunch of moving tips on Pinterest that were helpful and time saving. Pack a few boxes of the bare necessities because after you've moved, you won't want to open 50 boxes looking for your toilet paper. Do you have boxes yet? I got free boxes from a local mom's group that I'm apart of and then got newspaper from the grocery store that tosses their papers. Hope it goes smoothly!

[Anonymous]

If possible either send your kids somewhere or have someone come help you. We had DH's parents come when we moved and while I had reservations going into it, it ended up being a god send. You need someone to keep the kids out of your hair.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for the tips. I'm going to see if kids and kits can stay with grandma for a night or two. I like the other ideas too - please keep them coming!

[Anonymous]

We had an Amazon list of things like toilet paper, paper towels, paper plates, Lysol wipes and other cleaning supplies, paper cups....there were other things too like more toilet scrubbers and a lawn mower. Anyway, it wiped out the first round of errands just to have all that delivered to the house the first day. DH mowed the overgrown lawn the afternoon after we closed!

Definitely look up places that deliver and take out places and enter them as contacts in your phone in advance.

Scope out the nearest playground so one of you can get the kids out of the house while the other unpacks.

If any of your friends ask how they can help, let them take your kids for awhile! And or bring food.

We had I think three days between close and move in and got some work done in the house then and we scrubbed it from top to bottom. Our son was in daycare while we did these things. It was nice to get that out of the way.

[Anonymous]

We recently used Lend A Box for a local move. I don't know if they will pick up an hour from DC, but it's worth calling to ask. They drop boxes off and then pick them up. It's so much easier than assembling 8000 cardboard boxes. Plus they're stronger. OH MY GOD it made things so easy. THey lend you a dolly too. Seriously - I'm am now recommending them to everyone.

[Anonymous]

Agree with PPs advice - lots of goodstuff. Something that might keep the kids occupied and feeling positive about the move - as you pack, let them draw on the boxes or decorate with stickers etc. This really helped my 4YO associate moving boxes with good things, and kept her close bt / semi engaged with us as we packed.
Also, i did the pinteresty thing with different colored tape on boxes for different rooms - made a big chart for the movers as they walked everything in the front door. DH and i agreed that all "misc" boxes or stuff we werent sure about got labeled Office. Very helpful.

[Anonymous]

Another military family here. I always hire a house cleaner to set up the kitchen the day of unpacking. They are responsible for cleaning out the cabinets, washing all the items and putting them away. Find someone on Craigslist. Usually takes about 8 hours to get the kitchen in order. Best money spent ever (signed mom of a 5, 3 and 1 year old).

[Anonymous]

Call in reinforcements-seriously. Having an extra pair of hands for the kids is key...