Don’t Pack the Kids: Sanity-Preserving Moving House Tips for Busy Moms

Don’t Pack the Kids: Sanity-Preserving Moving House Tips for Busy Moms

If you’re raising children and taking care of a family, you’re a master of multitasking and stress management. Moving house when you have young children to care for, however, is a test that breaks the best of them. The challenge in moving with children is about more than just finding a way to keep everyone well-fed and happy while work gets done. It’s also about keeping everyone safe in the middle of an upheaval, and managing them in their misery as they watch the home they love disappear into boxes.

Clearly, moving is a task that can frustrate the most unflappable of moms. Hiring a professional removal company to do all the packing and hard work should be something that you give serious thought. It does cost more to do this, however, and it may be a problem.

If you’re up to the task of packing an entire house, corralling your friends to help and maneuvering a large truck through narrow streets on your town, you could try it. You do need to be aware, however, that the DIY route could increase the complexity of a move manifold. Here are tips that can help.

Check if someone can take care of the pets and the children

It takes a couple of weeks to go through the contents of the average house, clear out unneeded stuff, and adequately pack everything else. If the children and the pets could find a temporary home with a relative, it would be wonderful for all concerned. If you can’t manage it, however, you’ll need to work out a plan. The children’s room should be left alone until the very end. Children can feel miserable during a move, and to have their own sanctuary can be wonderful consolation.

You do need to send the children and the pets away on the day of the move, however (with pets, it’s a good idea to change the information on their chip before the day). Not only can it be hard to keep everyone well-fed and rested, safety tends to be a real concern, as well. Both tend to get in the way of heavy moving runs.

Do your best to downsize

The less stuff you have to move, the less stressed you will be moving it. If you believe that you will need to move once every couple of years or so, minimizing your inventory can be an excellent plan. Not only is moving likely to be easier, you’ll be able to choose a smaller home, and save all around. It takes time and planning to decide how to downsize and get rid of possessions, however, and it’s a good idea to give yourself plenty of time.

Whatever you pack, keep track of it all

It’s much easier to pack than it is to unpack. When you’re harried and want nothing more than for the packing ordeal to be over with, it may seem like a good idea to stuff everything you can find into whatever box is closest. You’ll have a maddening situation on your hands, however, when you get to the new home. You’ll have everyone coming to you for help finding something that they need, and you won’t know what box it is in.

Get an app, a notebook or anything else to note down every single detail of what you’re packing, and be sure to number each box. You will thank yourself for it when one kid wants a TV remote and another a toy, and you know exactly where to look. If you have an app, hitting Search for any given item should be especially easy.

Watch out for injuries

Risk of injury is the number one reason why a DIY move isn’t a good idea. When you help move heavy, unwieldy articles, it can be ever so easy to throw your back out, crush a finger or trip and fall. All of this is only to be expected when you force yourself to do work that you aren’t used to.

It can be a good idea to begin working out a little, days in advance of the move. The more limber your body is, the less the chance of injury there is. On the day, you want to be very careful. It would simply not do to hurt your back, and find that you have to stay in bed in the middle of your move.

If an injury does happen, ensure that you’re ready for it. This includes having a first-aid kit that you can reach for easily, but you should also ensure that you’re not left paying medical bills caused by negligence if, for instance, the movers are responsible for the injury. Legal help like Dennis Hernandez might be necessary to ensure that you get the compensation you need in the event of an accident or injury. For that reason, keep the number of someone you can rely on at hand, just in case.

Moving with a family of young members may be challenging; it’s doable if you commit to staying strictly organized, however.

Guest Author Imogen Lane is a Mother of 3 gorgeous girls under the age of 12. A single parent, life can be a handful but she wouldn’t have it any other way! She writes about parenting and family life.