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Sarah
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| Posted: Feb 22 2006 at 2:38pm | IP Logged
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We will soon be moving about 10 minutes away from our current house. . .
Is anyone else moving or recently moved?
Or does anyone have any tips or thoughts on moving?
I packed my first box today, and was overcome with sadness to be closing this chapter of our life. All of a sudden I started thinking about all the moments we shared here. 
This move is for the best since we will have a more appropriate house and yard. I'm both excited and a little sad. I hope my kids adjust okay.
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Six boys ages 16, 14, 11, 7, 5, 2 and one girl age 9
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Michaela
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| Posted: Feb 22 2006 at 2:49pm | IP Logged
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Our moves were usually done by the military, but once-in-a-while we would move ourselves to another house in the same town.
The main piece of advice is don't wait until the last minute. Time flies and it can get overwhelming towards the end. For us, it was a lot more stuff than we realized. We always donated a lot of stuff. I've never been attached to a house becaue I always knew we'd move soon. It was the kids clothes, toys, just stuff that I would look at and remember where we were when we bought it.
How long have you been living in your current house, Sarah?
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Michaela
Momma to Nicholas 16, Nathan 13, Olivia 13, Teresa 6, & Anthony 3
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Sarah
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| Posted: Feb 22 2006 at 3:26pm | IP Logged
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Its only been 5 years, so I don't know why I got so sad. Maybe I'm overly sentimental. 
Actually, I think it was tears from ds 9 that triggered it. He's sad, but happy, too. He said how sad he'd be to drive by this house, seeing people living in it and worried they cut down favorite trees, etc. Hopefully. he'll get over this once we're settled. Afterall, with our current situation he's basically a backyard captive and at the new house he'll be able to roam 3 acres.
We'll be moving in a month, so I started packing today, since it was all confirmed yesterday. I've never moved in the same city before, so I wonder how much actually has to go into boxes, or can big baskets full of books, toys, drawers be just transported as is? Hmmmm. . . . . . .
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Six boys ages 16, 14, 11, 7, 5, 2 and one girl age 9
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kingvozzo
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| Posted: Feb 22 2006 at 4:28pm | IP Logged
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We moved ourselves from Texas to Connecticut in August, and I tried to keep as much as possible OUT of boxes, because they would eventually need to be unpacked. I was able to keep almost all of the kids' toys and most of the clothes (from drawers) out of boxes. It made a huge difference to just be able to move the drawers full of clothes and the dresser and be done!
I would think it would be especially do-able in a cross-town move.
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Noreen
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Karen T
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| Posted: Feb 22 2006 at 4:29pm | IP Logged
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Sarah wrote:
| We'll be moving in a month, so I started packing today, since it was all confirmed yesterday. I've never moved in the same city before, so I wonder how much actually has to go into boxes, or can big baskets full of books, toys, drawers be just transported as is? Hmmmm. . . . . . . |
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Personally, I have tried this and pretty soon you have baskets and baskets of stuff. We have moved 7 times in the 15 yrs we've been married, and two of those were local moves (rest were military) and we tried that. I would recommend just about everything goes into boxes, labeled with contents and which room in the new house it should go to. Make a couple boxes of things you'll need right away (TP, paper towels, cleaning spray, garbage bags, soap, etc.) and 1-2 of food items that are easy to fix with few dishes. We did leave clothing in drawers for our local moves and that worked out OK.
Karen
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guitarnan
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| Posted: Feb 22 2006 at 4:41pm | IP Logged
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I'm always moving...in or out!!! We're getting ready for our 9th (or is it 10th?) military move (two of those were local) this summer.
You can keep things in drawers and baskets, but it's a good idea, time permitting, to go through the drawers and weed stuff out prior to the move. Then, if time permits, do it again. (Sounds dumb, but it works.)
The book The Berenstain Bears' Moving Day was a big help to my son when he was in the preschool-grade 1 years. Also, Judith Viorst's book about Alexander (I think it's something like Alexander, Who is Not Ever Going to Move does a great job of telling children about the emotions, and the inevitability, of moving.
A local move is reasonably easy because you can do it in stages. Take clothes out of the closet on hangers, lay them flat in the car and then hang them up again in the new house. You get the idea. You'll certainly want to box up food items, books, garage stuff, etc. so it doesn't spill everywhere. You might be able to stage up some of that stuff in your garage (pack it, then put it out there) so the kids don't try to unpack every box as you seal it up. Once you empty a room, give them a few empty boxes and some marking pens...they can make a village or train...this will kill a few hours!
The most important thing is to acknowledge everyone's feelings. It's OK to be sad, happy, excited and nervous. Explain to the children that you'll be very busy (and sore, lifting stuff!) and ask for their understanding. Remind them about the bigger yard, their new rooms, how they can arrange their things, etc. and keep them looking forward to that if you all start feeling weepy.
There's a lot to do, but it's great to be in a place that's truly your own and that will be good for your family. Ask the Blessed Mother for help; she moved a couple of times under stressful circumstances! (She helps me a lot.)
Good luck!
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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Cheryl
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| Posted: Feb 22 2006 at 7:59pm | IP Logged
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We will be moving about 15 minutes from our current house when our new house is built. It's estimated date of completion is May 30th. We put our house on the market almost 2 weeks ago, and so far only one family has looked at it. I started packing stuff we don't need before the summer a couple of months ago. I used boxes labeled with the contents and the room it will go in. My husband stored the boxes in his office basement. We did this to make our house look less cluttered and to have less to pick up regularly.
My husband is more sentimental than I am. He says he'll miss the memories, etc. He'll miss the yard and all the work he did on it. I feel like it's just a house and a yard. We're going to have a nicer house and yard. I do hope we have good neighbors though. I scrapbook, so I feel like all our good memories will be coming with us. My ds 7 and dd 3 seem excited to move. My ds 5 was not happy about it. I figured out that he was thinking we would be leaving all his belongings behind. He seemed Ok with it when we told him we would be moving all his toys, etc. He still doesn't like to go to the new house and check out the progress. He thinks it's boring.
I'm due to deliver in 2 1/2 weeks, so I've been feeling stressed-out. I'm trying to get the shopping done now. Cabinets, counters, light fixtures, flooring, paint. We're trying to finish making these decisions by the first week of March. I don't know when the baby will come, but when it does I will be focused on the baby and my kids and probably won't be able to handle anything else. I have to pray more and trust that everything will work out the way it's supposed to. I read a meditation book this morning that said, "In the grand scheme of things, no single decision is ever really that important." Of course, I needed to read that because I'm analyzing everything right now.
Anyway, I don't have have tips on moving. I plan on starting to pack early, labeling everything and hiring movers. I'll also ask for as much help as I can get from family and friends with the unpacking and helping to watch my children when we move.
I'd love to hear about your moving experience and your experience in selling your house too. Are you using a realtor? Are you trying to keep the house all neat, or are you just cleaning up when you get a call to show the house? I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so I'm probably going to have a hard time letting someone come see the house after the baby is born, unless my husband can keep it nice. [:)
I think it's normal that you feel sad. I believe feelings are never wrong. Keep posting. I'll enjoy reading about your progress packing and selling the house, etc.
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Cheryl
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Mom to Matthew 13, Joseph 11, Sarah 10, Rachel 6, Hannah almost 4 and Mary 1
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Karen E.
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| Posted: Feb 23 2006 at 8:25am | IP Logged
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Cheryl wrote:
I think it's normal that you feel sad. I believe feelings are never wrong. Keep posting. I'll enjoy reading about your progress packing and selling the house, etc. |
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I agree -- it's perfectly normal, and especially normal to empathize with our kids, who do not have as much experience at partings and loss. Leaving a beloved house can feel like leaving a huge chunk of your life behind. My kids still talk about the "the big house" (it was a rambling old 1920's thing) that we moved from in 2001. We all have fond memories.
I look on these kinds of life-changes as opportunities to talk about heaven and about our final home destination. It seems to have helped my kids to point out that nothing on this earth is really "final" or "home" ... that God can use our feelings of sadness to remind us that when we are with Him, there will be no sadness. We'll finally be truly home and truly happy.
In the meantime, of course we're going to miss old homes and old friends ... we've been doing a lot of this kind of talking, as we keep having dear friends move away ....
I do think it's very important to acknowledge children's genuine feelings of grief and sadness over these losses.
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God bless,
Karen E.
mom to three on earth, and several souls in God's care
Visit my blog, with its shockingly clever title, "Karen Edmisten."
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Sarah
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| Posted: Feb 23 2006 at 12:11pm | IP Logged
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Cheryl wrote:
I'd love to hear about your moving experience and your experience in selling your house too. Are you using a realtor?
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Thanks everybody! Let's all keep posting as we continue our moves.
We decided to move out completely before putting our house on the market. We are using a realtor. Last year when we thought about moving our realtor brought a group of realtors through to get their opinion on the state of our house. Its a nice house, but cosmetically it looks like we have a bunch of kids. We can handle the payments for some time. . .and then dh will have to moonlight 
We have very serious gross carpet, several holes in the walls, and a classroom set up in the main living room. Also, we have beds stuck here and there and therefore no room looks nice. The boys don't even have a dresser, for pete's sake, they have their clothes in rattan baskets on the shelves of a former changing table. And those same baskets are always bubbling over! DD2 is potty training, so there are little toilet seats in the bathrooms and a constant little scent of. . . [you know what!]  The house screams we have lots of kids and homeschool. If you saw our neighborhood, you'd understand. People have really fancy cars and NO kids. Our children are VERY unwelcome here (thus. . .our big reason for moving). I just hope & pray the house sells quickly. We thought fixing it up nice would increase our chances. We couldn't keep it nice with our crew-four boys, a 2 yr old girl that acts like a ferret, a cockatiel and a 100 lb. black lab.
I'll pray for all of you, too, who are selling.
I'm being absolutely RUTHLESS  when it comes to giving things away. I don't want anything we don't need, or really like.
My 1st box---completely unpacked by dd2! Then dh tried to repack and mistook a give-away bag for a moving bag and mixed it all up!
TODAY:
Buy Tape and tape each packed box immediately! I'm learning. I'm going to have a little basket with tape, scissors, and perm. marker to take care of boxes immediately. Stored up high of course, away from out grafitti artist--dd2!
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stefoodie
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| Posted: Feb 24 2006 at 10:00am | IP Logged
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we just moved, been here 2 weeks. (sigh) although i am HAPPY-HAPPY-HAPPY to be back where we were 4 years ago. i miss the mountains of PA but i believe this is really where our family belongs. hopefully it will be our last move -- it's our 9th home in 16 years of marriage!
i understand the feeling of sadness though. in '98 when we moved out of st. louis i was depressed for several weeks (our first 5 years of marriage we lived across from my parents, so moving away was a HUGE adjustment for me.). something that has always stuck with me and helped me a lot was kim's (don't know her screenname here) post at the CCM list about blooming where you're planted.
i wouldn't worry too much about the kids. our kids are sad that we moved but since their primary attachment is still to us, their parents (even for my 14 yr old), it really cushions the blow of not seeing friends all the time.
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stef
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: Anyone else moving?
