Back in July, we secured our forever home. We were told we pretty much had a week to pack up, sort new schools, change all our addresses over and be ready to move. Imagine the stress of that for an adult? Throw two children in the mix and you can probably guess I was a little (a lot) stressed out.
I sat down and thought to myself, is this definitely the right thing to do? Then I thought to myself that perhaps this is just meant to be! I pulled up my adult socks and thought to myself, let's make a list!
First tip - LIST MAKING - Lists are everything when it comes to moving house. Jot down absolutely everything that is whirling around your brain and work your way down the list until you can calm down and start packing.
SCHOOLING - I knew my first priority to finalise if we could move was making sure we could secure a school place for our eldest son, Archie. I called around all the schools in the district, starting with our favourite and working down the list. I then printed a late application and sent it off the same day. Luckily we got a place in a great little school and he is so happy there! One job ticked off.
SACRIFICE - This can relate to a lot of things when it comes to moving, we have all had to sacrifice something. For Archie, it has been sacrificing which toys and belongings he can take with him to our new home. I really wanted to minimise on toys that didn't really get used or were outgrown. Same for the adults though, even though it wasn’t so much toys as things we put up and never use.
GARAGE SALES - Honestly you will thank me for this one, you will be so surprised at how many of your belongings that you never look at will be something someone else is wanting! We did a garage sale and managed to minimise so much junk that would've gone to the dump. We even managed to get some money to add to new homeware.
NAPTIMES- When your baby sleeps, work! Get up and ditch that program you are dying to watch and just get sorted. Pack, organise or go through old things. In one nap time, I managed to clear my whole wardrobe, fill 5 charity bags of clothes and also pack two full-size boxes! It's impressive.
I wouldn't class this as a tip or a trick but I would definitely warn you that emotions in little people can run high when such a big change is happening. We noticed a change in Archie (age 4) in his behavior, he was often saying "I don't want to move house" "I want to stay here forever". Try to be sympathetic, it's a big change! We have really tried to involve him in all our home moving journey from packing, selling at the garage sale, picking colors for his new bedroom and so on. I think I may even allow him to pick a Toy Story bedding set *shudders*.
Take all the help you can get when it comes to people offering a hand with the children to people offering their cars to ship some of your boxes across to your new home! It will all make a world of difference! The saying is most definitely true, "You know who is really there for you when you move house."
Good luck!
