Preparing a home move is one of those things that is not stressful until the moving day arrives and then you suddenly find that you don’t have enough hands to pack it all. We can’t make the move easier, but planning well in advance can sure make it go a lot smoother on your nerves and minimise the moving shock for your children. Here, we have compiled your top 3 essential steps to guide you through the process and help you keep your head cool and your smile bright.
Don’t Leave The Emotional Goodbyes For The Last Minute
Moving out is a big deal: It means leaving a life behind to settle elsewhere. Even if you are moving only a few streets away, make sure that you let your kids enough time to adjust to the idea of a new home. There is no way around it: You will need to bring the news to them as early as you can. They might be tears, there might be anger, there might be sulking. But your kids will need to prepare emotionally for a new life and it is only fair to plan time for a Goodbye party with their friends, and for a last walk in their favourite spots.
Image by Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/angelganev/14582720768)
As a working mommy, it’s not always easy to make room in your agenda for these. Therefore the more time you give your kids to think about moving out, the better it will be. Keeping organised at this point is essential to make sure that you can help your kids keep happy memories throughout the moving.
Don’t Do It On Your Own
Packing and moving out represent a tremendous amount of work to prepare. So why should you do it on your own? Ask friends and relatives to give you a hand with packing the seasonal boxes in advance: For example, if you are moving in April, you can safely pack all your Halloween and Christmas decorations away and store them in the garage. You don’t need to hack through hundreds of boxes. Just pack a little regularly, and allow for breaks. Why not combine the seasonal decoration packing with a nice barbecue and an afternoon out, for instance? By doing this, and planning step by step, you can fully enjoy every day and still create fond memories that will be precious to keep your spirits up.
Moving image from Flickr https://flic.kr/p/8hKLE
Help can come in different shapes, so make sure that you also book a cleaner using, for example, the Whizz app to enjoy a last time your favourite restaurant with the kids while the house is being cared for.
Be The Queen Of Planning
As a rule of the thumb, you can count 8 to 12 weeks of planning for a smooth and almost stress-free moving day. Moving out is never without stress, but you can avoid most of it if you start well ahead. There are more than just boxes and goodbyes to think of when you decide to change address and neighbourhood. You will be facing questions of complex logistic (“How many boxes do I need? Will they all fit in one moving truck?”), difficult financial calculations (“How much does it cost and how can I make it cheaper without losing on quality?”), mindboggling geographical considerations (“Where do we live again? I can’t find the way to the new house!”), etc. So make sure to take as much pressure off as you can by putting on your planning hat and starting early.