You spoke, and thankfully, I listened.

To all of you who commented with moving advice on my blog post over at www.thebabymachine.com – if I could reach through this computer screen and give you a big squeezy hug, I would. I owe you my sanity. What those comments confirmed was that if you want the very best advice – go straight to the mamas.

To all of you who commented with moving advice on my blog post over at www.thebabymachine.com – if I could reach through this computer screen and give you a big squeezy hug, I would. I owe you my sanity. What those comments confirmed was that if you want the very best advice – go straight to the mamas.

There is no question, the move day was a monster – 13 hours of non-stop action, cardboard boxes galore and the odd dropping of the F-bomb. But we survived it, largely because I implemented what you told me to!

Here are a few of the gems that blog readers provided:

• GET MOVERS. I did that and even got them to pack up the house for me. There was one stressful thing about this – I wasn’t prepared for them. I needed to do a “pack for the packers”, much like you do the “clean for the cleaners” the night before the house gets cleaned. Because I didn’t prepare for them, I was unwrapping empty yoghurt containers in the boxes marked “basement office” when we got to the new house. I would have liked to avoid that, but not this time around. Having said that, this move would have been impossible without movers;
• Farm out the kids. Check;
• Keep drawers taped in the dressers and move them that way;
• Don’t take clothes in closets off hangers. Use the close moving boxes;
• Have kids pack up their own desks and decorate the boxes. It makes them feel involved and gives them a sense of ownership and responsibility;
• Keep all special items (loveys, blankies, etc) and necessities (toilet paper and toothbrushes) IN THE CAR so as not to get lost in transition;
• Make the beds FIRST, so that when exhausted at end of day, at least people can crash in bed;
• Make the kitchen an unpacking priority;
• Label all boxes very clearly;
• Keep perspective – you will survive and it’s only STUFF! Your home is about the PEOPLE;
• If you cannot be there to direct the movers to the right rooms, colour code each room in the new house and colour code the boxes. Colour code furniture too;
• Use numbers to prioritize boxes – 1 means open now, 2 means later, 3 means no rush.

I’m still taking life one box at a time, but it’s done. We did it. And I don’t know how I would have done it without you.

 

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Written by Veteran mother, Julie Cole has six young children in her charge and is the co-founder of Mabel's Labels. With humour, Julie blogs about life in a family of eight, including honesty about cereal for dinner and monstrous carpool schedules.