Moving Made Easy (It was hard!)

Part of any decision to move to a new town or a new house is the move. How am I going to get all my crap to a new location? It can be stressful and overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be impossible.

Here are some tips from our big family move to the mountains. We did it as a family of six, so you can do anything!

We paid a moving company (best money we ever spent)

Before we had twins we moved (when Kara was 8 months pregnant) and didn’t pay for a moving company. We just overworked our friends and family. And it was miserable. If you have a family, or even just a good amount of stuff (especially furniture), hiring a company is the best money you can spend. Consider it a part of your closing costs for the new house (I can help you figure that out). Just budget for it and do it, and you will be forever thankful you did.

One consideration when thinking of moving to the mountains is whether or not a moving company will drive to your new location. And even if they say they will move there - can they even get a truck down your street or even up or down your driveway? Make sure you consider how easy it is to get in and out of your property before you pay a company to load a huge truck only to find they can’t get it to your house. Make sure you hire a company that will use smaller moving trucks, not a major semi truck like you see on the highway. And of course, if you plan on moving in the winter, most big trucks stop driving in the mountains during snowy months so be prepared!

We started early (best decision we ever made)

We had a luxury of knowing we were going to move long before we actually did. We promised our kids we would stay until the end of the school year but we had our house picked out and scheduled to move the first week after finishing school in the spring. This allowed us to pack and sort and purge for various weekends in the winter and spring before we moved. That helped with organization but it especially helped with getting rid of stuff we didn’t need!

We held a garage sale (we should have done more than one)

After sorting and purging, we set aside an area in our garage that we could store things that would eventually go in a garage sale. We then found out when our neighborhood HOA was hosting a community-wide garage sale (good for foot traffic) and planned our weekend to offload a lot of stuff. We should have done another one since we didn’t get rid of as much as we wanted, but it still lightened the load substantially.

Plan on you having more stuff than you ever dreamed (it’s seriously overwhelming)

If you’re not asking yourself every few minutes, “How did we get this much stuff” then you’re not doing it right. I don’t know how having children accumulates so much stuff (and we have four kids!) but it happens to the best of us. We had a rule that if we hadn’t touched it in more than a year then it needed to be given away or thrown in the garage sale pile.

Don’t let your kids determine pack or go (they will always choose to keep things)

The worst thing you can do is make a pile of toys or stuffed animals and then say to your children, “do you want to keep these or give them away?” What are they going to say. Keep! No matter how long ago they actually played with that toy, it will be the most special item to them if you say you’re going to give it away. What we did was make a box of stuffies or toys that we considered giving away and then told them they can keep 5 items from that collection. We did that several times so we ended up giving away a lot of things but still kept some that were (mostly) special to the kids.

Packing: Using rooms as spacial guides (you will forget where boxes go)

This was a priveldge for us as we had enough space to fill some rooms, but as we packed certain rooms we kept those boxes in the corners of those rooms so we knew what went where. Then we labeled those boxes the same way so the movers knew where to go.

We packed our cars with go-bags (essential, especially for the kids)

This was crucial. We didn’t know if the movers would be able to do it all in one day and where our stuff would be once it landed in the house, so we packed a suitcase for each kid (and each adult) so they would have clothes, a stuffy to sleep with, pajamas, toothbrushes, etc. We put these bags in our car so they were easily accessible and we could get going right when we arrived at the house. We also packed a bag that had sheets and pillows in it so we could ensure they could go to bed right away after a long day of moving, even if their bed was set up or not. I also kept a bag with the nuts and bolts of the bunk beds and mattress frames for the kid rooms so we could build the beds the first night so they felt right at home. It worked - we were able to get them settled the very first night in their new rooms with their beds (even though the rest of the house was a mess).

We were realistic with the logistics and movers (don’t over prescribe)

Write on the box “Boys bedroom” don’t put “Boys bedroom in far right corner under next to another box that says Boys bedroom in the left corner, but not next to the one that says Other Boys Bedroom. This means you will have to do some organizing once you and your stuff are there, but even with the best planners will have to call an audible in most rooms anyways.

We did not do the tracking system where you label boxes with names or numbers and then have a spread sheet to explain what is in each box and where it should go. We simply wrote on each box what room it was going in. Then Kara was at the new house before the movers arrived (and I stayed behind to clean up our mess) and she played air traffic control and pointed people in the right direction. I wish we could be that organized, but we have four children and are really tired, so we skipped it and just went for it. Whatever works for you will be best - but create at least some type of system to ensure you’re not moving boxes over and over.

We took a lot of deep breaths on the move day (we survived!)

You can do this! It will be exhausting for a day, but you will get through it and then you will be in your new location with a head full of dreams for your new life!

**Once you move, make sure to change your address and forward your old mail. Find out how to do that here.

Let’s go!

Before the move, during the move (while pulling your hair out), after the move, I’m here to help. Let’s connect.