The day has come, coming up on Saturday this chick and her three kiddos are moving to a new location. A beautiful home located on a beautiful side road with what appears to be some pretty amazing neighbors. Both the kids and I are excited for our new chapter, but part of me is upset that I have moved so much in my life since being a Mama. I am always reassured by friends and family that moving isn’t the end of the world. You see, it isn’t like I switch school zones and sometimes moving can be a fun adventure, although someday I would like to settle down with a home that I own on my own, but for now, I am moving to a new rental with lots of room.
As I work to procrastinate in packing this full house up, I am getting slightly overwhelmed by everything that moving entails. My friend who was hoping to help me will be camping in Maine on the weekend I am moving, so I am left to try to find help with muscles for some of the heavier items as well as find a friend with a truck to get stuff moved quicker. 90% of my stuff will fit in my Town & Country with the stow & go down, but it would be a lot of short trips in that vehicle. Fingers crossed I get some help between now and Saturday!
Here are some tips for you, if you are finding yourself on a move …
- Make sure you work to have the utilities transferred over: whether you have utilities in your name now or not, you will need to ensure they are put in your name in the new place. Best bet is to call ahead of time to ensure no kinks come up on the way of transfer.
- Pack one Room at a Time: It is easy to get overwhelmed when you look at the big picture of all of your items, so to avoid getting frustrated and ending in tears, take one room at a time. Focus all efforts on packing room 1, move on to room 2 and so forth, this really helps to get the overwhelming feeling at bay.
- Enlist the Kids to Help: depending upon the age of your children, they can easily assist you in packing. Assign each child their own room or part of packing. For me, the daughter is by far old enough to pack up her own bedroom, she is a pack rat and I quite honestly have zero interest in packing her collections up.
- Breath and think of what this future holds: I must admit I can get anxiety going with things like this, the anticipation of the change is killing me, but the excitement is there and the promise of a new future is what I choose to focus on. Remember to breath and really just take each moment as it comes, let go of the “what ifs” that could go wrong, instead train your mind to focus on “what will be”.
- Let Family and Friends Help you: There is nothing wrong with a little help, I am horrible about asking for help but when offered, I will gladly accept. Do not wait around for others to help, all too often your friends and family just assume you got it covered. If you would be more calm with help, just ask someone for their assistance!
Moving can be so full of many emotions, it isn’t easy to pack up a family that has settled in one place for any period of time, but if you work to train my mind on the positive possibilities of the future … you will succeed in moving peacefully.
I remember having to go through this last summer. It was great that we had friends to help us. What really helped us was packing one room at a time. It also kept us organized when we were loading and unloading from old to new place.
Make sure you change your mailing address for everything from banking, insurances, IRS and more. Good luck on your new venture!
I haven’t moved in 14 years. Honestly the thought scares me!