Moving, selling your home, and or buying a home all are usually pretty stressful events. Happy but stressful. Moving with a toddler…well that was a whole new fun ball of frustration and stress that I just recently experienced. So please read on and get some moving tips that helped me when we moved with our toddler.
Tips For Moving With A Toddler:
- Talk to your child about the move.
If the move is a local move, I suggest driving by the “new house” and show them around (if possible). Since most toddlers do not have a huge concept of time or when things are happening so keep it basic. Because saying we are moving to the new House “next month” or in “a few weeks” really may only lead to an array of constant questions of is it moving day yet??
- Give them their own box.
My daughter was a little confused by the concept of our belongings getting wrapped and going in a box. She thought it was Christmas and my wrapped belongings were “presents” for her to unwrap. As a mom who also works full-time, I was packing at night or on the weekend. Trying to pack when my daughter was present was not very successful. So I tried packing mostly at night after she was in bed. If that was unavoidable I gave her a box for her to pack her belongings in. This made her feel apart of all the packing that we were doing and kept her occupied.
- Pack a small bag with basic clothing necessities and snacks for moving day.
- Give your self plenty of time to pack (more than you think).
- Hire movers.
If your budget allows, hire movers! Seriously even if it is only for the heavy lifting. We used Movers for the first time and it was so worth it! To make the movers be efficient (less time they spend the less they cost) breakdown all beds before they come and make it easy for them to access the boxes. If you have a garage, put as many boxes in the garage as you can. When they have the truck backed up it makes it faster and easier to grab boxes from one location then scattered throughout the house.
- Get a babysitter for moving day.
This only applies for local moves unless you can swing something differently. We were moving on a Saturday morning. My mom was able to pick up Sofia from daycare on Friday. She spent the night that Friday and I picked her up Saturday after the movers were done. Having someone watch your child not only the day of, but the night before you move is a huge help! HUGE! You can finish everything you need to and be ready to go in the morning when the movers come. Have their crib or bed broken down and ready to go. Anything that you couldn’t pack or put away without a meltdown happening; now can be done the night before. In the morning you can just worry about yourself, your stuff, and the movers.
- Set up their room first.
I had my daughter’s bed and furniture all set up before she came to the new house. This is where movers are super handy! I then just unpacked the main necessities, toiletries, bathroom stuff. Had it all ready for her arrival for later that day.
- Say goodbye to the old house.
To help out with the transition, we went back to the old house and did a walk-through. Said goodbye to her bedroom and to the house. I think this a big help in her understanding the move. Later that night she wanted to “go home”. So reminding her that we said goodbye to the old house and this is our new house seemed to work. She never asked about the old house again. For the first week whenever we said we were going home; she asked if we were going to the new house. She seems to understand that we will never be going back to the old house.
Here is something I would do differently if I ever move again (I NEVER want to move again) I would take a day off before the move. I took time off the after the move to do all the unpacking, organizing, cleaning, etc. In hindsight, I really needed at least one day off to do solid 6-8 hours of packing without any interruptions. This would have been so much better than trying to do a little each night and wind up finishing at 1:00 a.m. the night before moving-day. Yeah that happened. In part because I just did not realize how much crap we have and also because I was packing with a toddler.
So these are my tips for moving with a toddler! What are some of your tips? Hope you found these moving tips helpful! Don’t forget you can have Free to my Parent Resource Library. Become a subscriber!
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