Moving House When you Have Kids

Two years ago I moved house from a place where I had lived for twenty four years. I found the whole experience very daunting. There is so much to think about when moving house but when you add in the mixture your pets and your children it makes it all so much more difficult.

We had the added stress of having our moving date changed several times. It helped a little letting the children know right from the beginning what was going to happen though. We talked to them about moving house and changing schools, we discussed all their worries and fears and visited the area we were moving to so it wouldn’t be so strange for them.

The packing was the worst part. After living in the same house for twenty four years you accumulate an awful lot of stuff! We started by having massive clear outs and getting rid of all the things we no longer needed. They were taken to charity shops or the skip.

Then we set down to packing everything up. I involved the kids by letting them pack their toys into boxes and helping me write on the boxes. We colour coded the boxes for each room for ease. They still got mixed up on the day but it did help quite a lot.

It’s important to get your removal company right. I left that job up to my partner and it didn’t go to plan because he’d left it really late. We ended up calling around the day before we moved to try and get someone to fit us in. The company would not have been my first choice, but we had no choice left. So choose wisely, and in plenty of time.

On the day we took the kids to grandma’s house and she looked after them while we did the heavy moving. When we were ready to sort everything out the other end we picked up the kids. The whole experience can be very overwhelming, so keeping them out of the way as long as possible is the best idea if you can.

I packed suitcases for all the essentials we would need for the first day or two so they would be easy to find and close at hand. I was going away the day after we moved so I had a bag packed for that too. these were kept at grandma’s house until the very last minute.

Unpacking and getting back into a routine was not easy and took us ages. We tried to make it easier for the kids by having their space ready for them. we sorted their bedrooms and made sure they had their favourite toys. For ages our new home was a maze of boxes, but slowly and surely it all got sorted and life in our new home began.

Do you like moving house? Have you done it more than once? Is it harder with kids?

For more advice you may like to read How to Move House With Kids by Removal and Storage Experts

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