Tips on Keeping the Routine When Moving House!
So we did it! We finally moved house! It’s only taken us three bloody years to find the “forever home” and it was under our noses all along. We literally moved 300-400 metres down the road haha. And we’d been looking for ages and kind of given up at the start of the year, making the most of our little town house. I did really love our old house, especially the upstairs. But the downstairs was small and we felt like we’d outgrown it a bit. Onwards and upwards ey. Our new home!
So here we are. We are four days in and little man has been a super star. We’ve had a couple of ups and downs (we are in the threenager stage) but on the whole, he’s been great.
A few things have certainly helped with the move and I will share those with you here on the blog!
Involve your child
Depending on age of course, b is three, but I found it really useful to involve B in the moving process. We told him that we were moving. We explained what was going on and what would happen and we got him involved with packing his toys up. At first he wasn’t so happy but once we explained that we didn’t want to leave the toys behind and we needed to pack them all up, he was fine. And we certainly couldn’t leave his fave toy at the mo!!
Take your child to the new house
We were very fortunate to get on well with our sellers and they invited us around to bring little b. He was really happy to see the garden and take a look at which room would be his bedroom. I really think this helped him settle.
Plan a child-free move day
I know this isn’t always possible but if you can, get someone to look after your child. We were lucky that the move fell on a Monday and B goes to Busy Bees. I dropped him off at 8 and he came home to the new house when I picked him up! He knew something was going on as the removal guys turned up at half 7. B decided this was the perfect opportunity to get out Daddy’s guitar and strum it super loudly while mr D and I were trying to figure out where to put the four cats. Let’s just say it was frustrating and resulted in a whingy toddler!
Get their room sorted ASAP!
For us, we wanted to have b’s room all sorted out before he came home from nursery. In reality this didn’t happen as we just had so much crap important stuff for the removals to unload and B’s stuff didn’t come off the lorry until half 6 or so. Once we had his stuff, curtains went up, bed was made, teddies were out. And fortunately he was shattered and had a good sleep.
Make sure favourite toys and any “home” comforts are nearby
Don’t pack fave teddy at the bottom of the box that gets chucked at the back of the garage behind fifty other boxes. Keep the important bits to hand!
Big up the new house
Moving is typically stressful for everyone – or at least in my experience! The house has been in disarray all week now haha! One thing I think has helped is to keep positive and excited around the little man even when I am feeling less than excited and surrounded by umpteen thousand boxes full of crap important stuff I clearly need.
Keep the routine as normal as possible
For us, moving has been a massive change. It is all little b has known since he was born. And for three of our cats, who are still traumatised, but starting to creep out from behind the sofa. I’ve tried to stick to our normal routine as much as possible where I can – so bed times the same, meal times the same, leaving the house to nursery at the same time etc…paw patrol at the same time.
Touching wood, I think he’s done really well. We had a bit of a blip last night with b up from midnight to 3am. Yawn. He seemed ok and just wanted to play with his Duplo. The cats on the other hand have been a different story. Daphne’s face sums up the general feeling towards moving!
Have you recently moved house? What did you find helped to settle your little one quickly? Enjoyed this post? Don’t forget to pin for later 🙂 Or follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more parenting tips and fun food 🙂
[…] top priority!! We finally moved last week and fortunately b has settled reasonably well. You can read more here about helping your toddler chill out with a house move if you are interested. Now when we moved in, there were some rather large […]
This is really useful as we\’re looking to move next year. #fortheloveofblog
thank you 🙂 and good luck!
Some great tips and so glad the move went well. It must have been tricky with a toddler! We moved when H was still 8 months so she wasn\’t as aware of her surroundings. It came with different challenges but at least she would happily spend a few hours in the buggy too! #forTheLoveOfBlog
it is tough isn\’t it! thank you for reading 🙂 we are a bit more settled now!
Ah these are great tips! My son was 18 months when we moved house, unfortunately we didnt have any babysitters and it was NOT easy! (I was 7 months pregnant too!). We found having his bedroom sorted before he saw it a big help too! Lovely house, hope you\’re really happy there! #dreamteam
aww that is tough! having their room ready just helps them settle a bit I think. thank you for reading 🙂
What a beautiful house! Hope you all settle in well! Great tips here, we\’ll be sure to follow them when we move next year xx #TwinklyTuesday #DreamTeam xx
thank you for reading 🙂 and good luck when you move too! x
Ahhh congratulations on the new house! We\’ve never moved with O either and I\’m not sure how he\’d take it but some of those tips are really good. One day, one day! #DreamTeam
ah well when you do move they might come in handy 🙂 thank you for reading 🙂
[…] atmosphere. We can’t wait to return! Nothing booked at the mo as we’ve been so busy with the house move, but I think once Longleat have completed the work on their new pool, we will definitely be back. […]
This is a fab list and very good ideas! We moved when my stepson was 11 and the littlest was only 3 months…for the 11 year old we did most of the above and really involved him by showing him the house and checking he liked it, and also decorating his room together once we\’d moved in. He is a lot older than toddler stage but I still felt like taking these steps has helped lots in making him feel like it\’s homely. We also talk about it a lot as a home for all of us 🙂 Thanks so much for linking up with #dreamteam – loved reading your post and hope you come back next time xx
I am so lucky that my son was young when we moved house! But these tips are so good and would definitely keep in mind if ever we move again =) #ablogginggoodtime #dreamteam #twinklytuesday
thank you for reading 🙂 and good luck if you do move again!
Congratulations on moving into your new house, after such a long time looking! It\’s funny that these things happen in life that it was only around the corner. This is a brilliant list you\’ve made here to help ease the transition into the new house, and I hope that the tips you give are working for you. I\’m dreading the day we move out of our flat as our little girl will be about 2 or 3, and we will move likely have many challenges of how do we decorate the new place with a toddler in tow. Thanks so much for linking up at #fortheloveofBLOG. Claire x
thank you 🙂 decorating has been tough but luckily grandma has been helping out x
We moved house in October last year amidst a family bereavement, hubby just had appendix out and it also meant our little girl starting a new school. Stressful?… you bet! But we were fortunate ours was also a Monday so she was at school, our cats played ball and went straight in their carriers and actually it all went very well. We made sure that our little girl had her own bedding because it would smell like her. And she also visited our new house which really helped. Glad your move went well 🙂
goodness what a lot you had going on. pleased it all went to plan on the day though 🙂 x
I think this is really important because we kind of forget how much this could possibly affect our children when we get so caught up in the whirl and chaos of moving. I think there are some excellent tips here worth remembering!!
Thanks for linking to #ablogginggoodtime
thank you 🙂 he\’s gone through so much change recently and on the whole he is doing well 🙂
We moved when Zach was 18 months old and he was so excited by his new surroundings! Like yours, he took it all in his stride and he doesn\’t remember where we lived before! Congrats on the new house! Thanks for linking up with #TwinklyTuesday
thanks for reading 🙂 x
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I have twin 20 months old and we just moved. Twin A is doing fine but twin B is fine during the day but cries at bedtime and wakes up numerous times at night which is very unlike him. Any advice? Any idea how long this phase will last.
Nice but i like the way you are telling the story in the blog 🙂 ….wonderful writing skill