In my previous post I mentioned that we had moved quite a few times. Sometimes big moves like across the country and sometimes smaller moves around town. The last move was by far the easiest and it was not because I had much time to prepare. We went from having a conversation about looking for a new house to actually signing the papers in just 36 days!!!! It still feels very surreal to even say it our loud. It happened so fast that we didn’t even tell our friends initially because I needed time to process it all before everyone else started asking me questions about it.

So how did we manage to move a family of 6 into a new home, during the holidays, with almost no notice, and not lose our minds in the process you ask? Honestly, not everyone reading this will appreciate this answer. The most real answer is that God clearly guided this process. It was not perfect. We worked hard. This was our 10th move, and while I will happily share the tips I have learned along the way that I do think are super helpful, I would be remise to think that they were what made everything happen so easily.

That being said there are some tips that I think make a huge difference when packing and moving especially for a family.

Here are my favorite ones.

• Get packing materials- Get a stack of boxes that are all the same size, sure you can use some different sized boxes but packing and moving is so much easier when most of you boxes stack easily.
• Use paper towels between dishes and kitchen things- This was so quick, cushioned more delicate items, and as I unpacked I just put them into an empty box. Then I used to clean the new house.
  • I used styrofoam cups for my china and glasses. While I try to avoid waste this made packing china so quick and easy. And I knew everything was secure and safe. I put the glasses into larger styrofoam cups and they were not going anywhere.
  • Pack things together that go together. This might sound redundant- but instead of trying to pack a box until it is completely full by filling every area with whatever fits try to pack things as they will need to be unpacked. Pack all your cups in one box, pack all your dishes together. When you open a box, you can put 90% of it away in one place. Lower the amount of “extra” brain power needed by having to think about where 15 different things need to be homed in different places as they come out of a box.
  • Make sure to pack a suitcase of essentials-my family each had a small suitcase of everything they would need for 3 days. Shoes, toiletries, outfits, medicine, a towel, and essential entertainment for kids. Not “having to find something” right now made it much for relaxing to unpack.
  • Leave clothes on the hanger. And gently put them into a box. You don’t need huge wardrobe boxes unless you have professional clothes that can’t be wrinkled.
  • A giant roll of moving plastic wrap can be amazing. Wrapping up furniture to protect the edges and finishes. Wrapping “open storage” so everything stays put. We have some rolling carts that we just wrapped and moved without boxing. we even wrapped a large (think 5 foot metal shelves) rolling shelf from the garage and rolled it directly on the moving truck. It was awesome.
• And one of my favorites- Remind your family out loud that moving can be tough, we are probably a bit stressed as everything is changing so lets remember to be extra gentle with our words and give each other break. Sometimes calling out this reality makes all the difference.