Five top tips for moving house with children

 

Top tips for moving house with a family

 

Are you selling a family home? If so, not only will you have to contend with all the stress that goes with selling and buying, you’ll also have to give some thought to the practical and emotional aspects of moving with children. Here are five tips you can use to make the process of moving house a little bit easier if you have kids in tow.

Warn children that change is coming

Change is hard for adults, so imagine how hard it is for children who don’t have the emotional maturity to articulate what they’re feeling. With this in mind, it’s important that you let children know that you’ve decided to sell the house as soon as you’ve made up your mind to. Ask them what they think is going to happen so that you can address their fears straight away, and if a house move means them starting a new school, start preparing them for that change too.

Get them excited about their new home

Next, make the house move exciting! It’s inevitable there’ll be some resistance or trepidation, but there is a lot of opportunity here to build excitement about their new home. If you’ve had an offer accepted and you’re progressing well towards completion and exchange, take the children to visit the new house. Take a tour online and show them photographs, and tell them about the amenities that will be near their new house, such as a library, a swimming pool or a fun park to play in. Remind them that there are likely to be children moving into the house you’re selling too. Perhaps it would be a nice idea for your children to write the new kids a letter outlining the fun things to do in the area?

Give children a little bit of control

Your children will feel better about moving house if they’re able to exercise even a small amount of control over what’s happening. So, with this in mind, why not ask children to help with de-cluttering and packing up? Make it a competition to see who can put the most into a charity box to give away, and ask children to write labels for boxes too. If you need to redecorate parts of your property to sell it, get children involved by letting them help apply the undercoat of paint. And, when it comes to decorating their room in their new house, let them help with the design. If you’re not comfortable doing this, why not let them to choose a new set of bedding, reserving it specially for their first night in their new room?

Move on a day when the children are at school

If you can, move house on a day where the children are at school or with a family member. This will mean that you’re better able to concentrate on the task at hand, but more importantly, will mean that your children are safer. Moving vans, heavy furniture and boxes piled high can pose a hazard to excitable children, so do the bulk of the moving without them.

Reduce the likelihood of obstacles and delays

Finally, helping children to understand that change is coming is one thing, but what happens if your buyer pulls out? Trying to explain that they’re not going to be moving right now after all is sure to disrupt their routine and sense of security. So, why not make the process a bit smoother? Vet your buyers carefully, checking they have things like an arrangement in principle with a mortgage provider, as this will indicate that they’re actually able to borrow money to buy your house. And, be careful if you accept an offer from someone in a chain – you may not be moving out on time if they’re not able to move on time, either!

 

Those are just five key tips to put into action when it comes to moving home with children. If you’d like to learn more about the practical aspects of moving, such as what to pack, where to store things and how to settle children in once they’re in the new home, this article offers some useful advice.

Photo of family moving house courtesy of Shutterstock

This is a collaborative post

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.