Packing With Children in the House

Packing a house takes thirty to fifty hours for a family home. With young children, those hours arrive in fragments, late in the evening, when you are already tired.

A few things make it manageable, and a few make it kinder.

Just-In-Time Moving is locally owned and works throughout Washington and Washington County.

Start earlier than feels necessary

The main adjustment. Where somebody without children can compress packing into a fortnight, assume you cannot.

Begin six weeks out with the things nobody uses: garage, loft, seasonal items, decorations, books. Twenty minutes an evening genuinely adds up, and it is the only way this gets done without a crisis at the end.

Pack their rooms last, and briefly

A child's room emptying is the moment a move becomes real to them, so leave it as late as you can and do it quickly rather than over a fortnight of gradual disappearance.

Let them choose a few things that stay out until the last day and travel in the car with them. Not negotiable items you pick, things they pick.

Whatever is part of the bedtime routine stays accessible until the final morning.

Involve them where it is genuinely useful

Not everywhere, which is slower and frustrating for everybody. But a child with their own box to decorate and fill with their own toys is engaged rather than displaced, and it costs you nothing.

Older children can pack their own room properly with a bit of guidance.

Do the sorting away from them

Practical rather than unkind. Deciding to dispose of toys and clothes in front of a child turns a five-minute job into an hour, and things get retrieved from the pile.

Do it when they are out, and be reasonable about what genuinely matters to them, which is often not what you would guess.

The essentials box

Nappies, wipes, formula, medication, a change of clothes each, snacks, and the comfort item. Plus a nightlight and the bedtime books.

Packed last, in your own vehicle, never on the truck.

Moving day itself

Arrange for them to be elsewhere for the hours a crew is working. Doors stand open, a truck is outside and there is equipment everywhere.

Then set their beds up first at the new house, made with their own bedding and familiar things visible. A finished bedroom on the first evening does more than any amount of progress elsewhere.

If the schedule slips

Book the kitchen, or the whole house. It is the sensible purchase at this point in life.

Call (435) 862-3080 or email office@movingjustintime.com.