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How To Move Houses With Children In Tow
Moving house with children can be a tough feat. You will need extreme organization skills, a ton of patience, and a dash of luck.
The act of moving itself is difficult and traumatic for anyone and everyone involved. However, there is just something about moving with kids that makes it all the more challenging.
These impending changes in their lives could leave them feeling insecure and unsettled. And this, in turn, could lead you to more stress than you would have originally anticipated. Fortunately, there are ways to ease and address the stress that you and your kids might be feeling during the whole moving process. Below, you will find a list of tips you may find useful when moving house with children.
Tips For Moving With Children
Don’t Wait Until The Last Minute To Tell Them
Allow your children to prepare themselves for the big move. Tell them as soon as possible. Their lives are also getting overturned so you should give them more than enough time to process, cope, and adjust.
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Moreover, always be ready to answer any questions they might have regarding your move. Young children, in particular, will probably have some questions about the new house, why they have to move to a new home, and what happens to the things they have in the current home. If questions arise, try to be as honest and straightforward as possible.
Plan Your Move Ahead With A Moving Checklist
Proper planning is vital to the success of your move. It would be a good idea for you to create a moving schedule and moving checklist to ensure that no task is left unfinished or forgotten. This ensures that your moving day will be as stress-free as possible.
It is also the best time for you to decide if you want to hire someone to help you keep an eye on the children. You may also opt to hire a removals company to help you packing up and transporting your stuff.
Do I Need To Hire A Removals Company?
There is just no reason for you not to hire movers for moving day! When you have children around, it is much more difficult for you to dedicate the necessary energy and time to pack up your home. Conversely, it would be harder for you to focus on helping your children cope with these changes if you have to worry about packing and preparing for the big move to your new home.
Hiring a removals company is an ideal way to ease your burden. Aside from giving you time to focus on helping your kids cope and keeping an eye on them, you’ll also be able to get moved and packed up as quickly as possible.
Moreover, you wouldn’t have to worry about driving a huge removal lorry or about your belongings getting damaged. For more information on moving companies, check out this guide.
Let Your Kids Say Goodbye
As you will be uprooting them from everything they know, you must give them the chance to say goodbye. You may do this by organising a going-away party with all of their friends. Take some photos and have them exchange contact information (i.e., telephone number, address, email address).
You may also get creative with helping your child say goodbye. For example, start slowly packing up their room long before moving day, and then immediately organise their stuff upon getting to the new house. This will make the change much easier to get used to, as you are immediately providing them with the familiarity of the items which have been missing during the moving process.
Although this seems a bit cruel and harsh for a child, you will have to teach them to let go, either way. And this is much easier than forcing them to go through it overnight.
Give The Children The Reassurance That They Need
You want to reassure them that moving is not necessarily a permanent goodbye. Reassure them that while they will have a new home, a new room, and a new school, they will always have their friends and family, whom they can stay in contact with throughout the year, and then see over the summer holidays.
Moreover, you will need to reassure them that they will always make new friends, even if your family moves to a new place.
Get Your Child Involved
Involve your child with the moving process as much as possible. Make them feel that they are not in any way slowing the moving process down. Here are some ways for you to do so:
- 1. Give them the responsibility of decluttering, organising, sorting out the things in their own rooms. Let them decide which items they will want to pack or donate.
- 2. For older children, let them help label boxes and make a list of contents for each.
- 3. You may also have them wrap delicate items in wrapping paper or bubble wrap.
- 4. Have them pick and design their new room.
- 5. If you are moving with pets, have them be on pet duty.
Keep Your Children Occupied
For most kids, moving is nothing but tedious and unnecessary, especially when they’ve already done their moving tasks. To keep them occupied, and more importantly, out of trouble, you may:
- – Have them spruce up the boxes of their belongings with some art materials.
- – Have them record a video diary of moving day.
- – Prepare colouring books for the road.
- – Make sure all gadgets and portable games devices are fully charged,
- – Make sure your new home has WiFi ready when you arrive.
- – If you have young children, make sure to have a playpen ready.
Help Them Get Settled In
Once you get to your new place, get your child settled into their new room as soon as possible. Make sure to give them a house tour so that they can feel at home immediately. It would also be a good idea to explore the new neighbourhood together and make some friends along the way.
Use the old sheets they used from your old house, as this will give them some sense of comfort and familiarity.
However, while these things can help them feel more settled, it will be normal for them to feel a little uneasy and even clingy during the first few days. So, be as patient with them as they get used to the new surroundings.
For us here at WhatStorage, it is our mission to help families moving house make the process smooth and easy. So, if you are planning on moving with your children, whether they be an infant or toddler, a child of school age, or a teenager, let us find suitable moving companies in your area! All you have to do is fill out our no commitment, risk-free enquiry form!