Moving with young children: 6 mistakes NOT to make!

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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of CORT. All opinions are 100% mine.

Don’t do it if you don’t have to.

Okay, I get it. You have to. That’s why you’re here.

We also had to move. We outgrew our tiny rented apartment. Renting a larger one in our area is… not worth it. So we managed to buy. Sounds crazy?

It is. We bought a two-family house with additional rental income built in. (This I DO recommend doing.) However, we did not want to find ourselves moving in with a newborn. So we were hoping to close before the baby.

And then something came up and added a week. And then a holiday added another week. And then before we knew it, I was signing power of attorney over to my husband as we scheduled our closing date for three days before my due date.

And then the baby came a few weeks early. So we postponed the move date. And that’s how we found ourselves moving with young children: a three-week-old and a toddler to be exact.

Totally crazy, I know.

6 Mistakes NOT to make when moving with young children:

I wish I could share with you a list of things that went smoothly and why they did.

But the bottom line is, whenever someone asks me “wow, how did you move with a newborn and a toddler?!” my best answer is “I cried a lot.”

However, there were lots of things that came up as we were moving. There were things that made me say “I wish I had done it that way instead.” So I figured that I might as well share those light bulb moments (or rather lightening-with-loud-thunder moments) with you so that you can do better.

1. If you just had a baby, wait as long as you can – seriously as long as you can! What’s another few hundred dollars of rental payments when it’s your sanity at stake? Seriously, I keep asking myself why we didn’t just wait another week or two, giving us more time to pack normally, but even more so, giving me a few more days to recover from childbirth.
2. Pack up for a few days. Another mistake I made was not packing up in advance of the move. Well, I did pack. I just packed for moving day. The next day, everything was in boxes and I had kids to dress, diapers to change (lots and lots of diapers…), and they were nowhere to be seen… (The diapers. The diapers were nowhere to be seen. Somehow, I had managed to hold onto the kids….My wholehearted advice to you is to pack a nice, large suitcase with everything you’d pack if you were going to Grandma’s for a week. That way you are equipped and have things ready even if you choose to care for your children instead of unpacking the moment you arrive.
3. Pack food for a few days. I figured we’d order pizza for dinner, but then the day came… and we were HUNGRY! I mean, well before dinnertime. Especially me. I’m eating for two, remember? Well, 3, at least. My baby eats like a growing teenage boy-monster.Have a day’s worth (and possibly more) of sandwiches, carrot sticks, and non-perishables packed into bags and cooler bags, ready for ravenous souls for moving day.
4. Have your place ready to move into – BEFORE moving day! Breastfeeding a baby with nowhere to sit. Trying to find somewhere to place myself. A cranky toddler without a nap… Those were just SOME of the issues I faced. Not only that, but a lot of my furniture was not going to work in the new place, but we had to drag it along temporarily.
   Had I thought about it, furniture rental would have been a perfect solution. It would have allowed us not to bother moving pieces we’re not going to keep anyway, while giving us a few months to replace it. It would also have allowed me to go right to our new place at the start of moving day and have it already livable. It would have meant a place to sit down considering I was only three weeks after a difficult childbirth. CORT Furniture Rental is the industry leader in furniture rental. You can rent furniture by piece, or furnish your entire place with a move-in-ready package.
5. Double up on cleaning gear. Moving in makes a mess, and it’s hard to live in a messy place. At the same time, you probably want to leave behind a clean place. Having cleaning equipment at both places is so important. I didn’t, and it added so much stress. CORT has cleaning package options as well so you don’t need to buy extras for as short stay.
6. Don’t wait a few weeks before getting a washing machine… Especially if you have two kids in diapers (blowouts, anyone?) My old apartment came with a washer/dryer. Our new house didn’t. We knew we’d need one but figured we can go a week without, and didn’t know what to buy. So we waited. And waited. And as usual, the laundry did not do itself, especially considering it didn’t even have a washing machine to do itself with!Again, had I known about CORT and appliance rental options, I DEFINITELY would have rented that washer and dryer. Instead I hand-washed all those blowouts, and schlepped to a relative once or twice.

What I learned from moving with young children:

Imagine if I could have just clicked a few clicks and for less than the moving company we didn’t hire would have cost us (mistake #7: don’t DIY), we could have had our house move-in ready. A short, quick visit to the grocery store would have finished it off with a stove to cook on, a table to eat on, and a sane moving day. It would have made all the difference.

In addition, since we had just bought a house, we needed to buy some time before being able to afford the furniture we REALLY want. Furnishing it for a year with rented furniture would have helped us avoid having to get cheap temporary pieces while waiting until we can afford it.

Moving is hard. Moving with young children is even harder. Don’t underestimate that, ever.

If I found myself moving with young children again, I would definitely visit CORT and rent a room, or even just those few pieces we were missing. Living normally in a new place from the start is essential when you have young children.

It’s surprisingly common to move either while pregnant or with a newborn. I know two of my sisters did it. I know others who have done it. Maybe it’s not such a surprise – another soul, another bed needed, more baby gear, more space… you see the pattern?

Learning from my mistakes can make moving with young children much, much easier for you.

What are your best tips for moving with young children? Comment below!

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