Helping Your Kids, and Having Them Help You, Prepare for Moving Day
Preparing your kids for a move can be very difficult, as they may hesitate to actually pack up their items, not wanting to put things in storage or get rid of things even if they no longer use them. To get your kids ready for a moving day and to ensure they're also helping the family prepare for the move, note a few tips to keep in mind.
Talk money
Your kids may be more willing to part with unused items if they see that they can make money. Kids may know more than you how to list things for sale online, or you might choose a day to have a family yard sale. Help them go through things and put price tags on them, keeping prices and expectations realistic; however, just seeing those tags with dollar amounts can encourage them to let go of more items.
Start with impersonal items
Younger children especially may hesitate to pack up items like teddy bears and dolls, as they often think of these toys as having feelings and needing to stay safe. Putting a teddy bear in a box might actually worry a young child! Start with impersonal items such as out-of-season clothes, school supplies they won't need until after the move, and the like. Leave personal items and toys they still play with until the very last minute, as much as possible. This can make children more comfortable about packing before the move itself.
Set the example
You may be eager to get your child's items packed before moving day, but they may be more eager to help if you set the example and pack your own items first. Even young children can help to put things in boxes and bins, and older children can help roll up your out-of-season clothing or put away books and other such items. If they see the parents packing away their items, children may be more willing to do the same with theirs.
Ask them to organise
Children might be more skilled at organising than you realise; if you ask them to organise the sporting goods in the garage or their school supplies into boxes and bins, they may be more willing to do this without you micromanaging the process. Tell a teenager or preteen that you're going to leave this job to them and, while you might find that they do the job a bit differently than you would, they may accomplish a lot of packing when you let them make their own decisions about how to get it done.
For more advice on packing, contact a removalist business such as Price's Removals.