Help us move without too much chaos!
November 30, 2013 10:30 AM Subscribe
We are making a local move (less than a mile) to a new house. When my husband and I moved into our current 4-bedroom house 14 years ago, it was the two of us coming from a small two-bedroom apartment with not much stuff - I packed it all, had movers, and it was done in a day. This is not that move. Please share your tips and tricks for moving a big, complicated household!
Over the years, we've added three children (10, 7, and just about 3), a house full of furniture and all the stuff that comes with both, a significant advancement in career for my husband, and, well, you know. There's just a lot more STUFF and complication.
The house we're moving in to is brand new and a very different style than our current home. It is also about 1500 sf bigger, and has another bedroom and bath. Because a good deal of our current furniture is beat to hell and wouldn't suit the new house, we aren't moving it. We are taking all bedroom furniture, all our personal stuff, kitchen equipment including the fridge, a piano, outdoor furniture and sporting equipment (mostly bikes). We close on December 6, and I'm tentatively planning movers for the 19th - we want to be in, at least camping-style, by Christmas. We do NOT have to move everything out of our current house by then, as we are converting it to a rental, so I have all the access I need, but I do want to do the bulk of it in one day so as to minimize back-and-forth between the houses.
How do I make this as sane as possible for all involved? I've been trying to purge stuff, but if I don't do all the packing, what's the best way to tell movers I want them to move this but not that, without standing over them? Has anyone used FrogBox for packing materials? What am I not thinking about that I should be? Money isn't so much an issue as family harmony and me not losing it at the holidays. I can hire whatever help I need, but I can't expect much, if any, help from my husband or kids, for reasons I am perfectly OK with.
Suggestions on how to help kids deal with moving from the only house they've ever known are also welcome - we'll be in the same general neighborhood, they aren't changing schools or anything else.
Over the years, we've added three children (10, 7, and just about 3), a house full of furniture and all the stuff that comes with both, a significant advancement in career for my husband, and, well, you know. There's just a lot more STUFF and complication.
The house we're moving in to is brand new and a very different style than our current home. It is also about 1500 sf bigger, and has another bedroom and bath. Because a good deal of our current furniture is beat to hell and wouldn't suit the new house, we aren't moving it. We are taking all bedroom furniture, all our personal stuff, kitchen equipment including the fridge, a piano, outdoor furniture and sporting equipment (mostly bikes). We close on December 6, and I'm tentatively planning movers for the 19th - we want to be in, at least camping-style, by Christmas. We do NOT have to move everything out of our current house by then, as we are converting it to a rental, so I have all the access I need, but I do want to do the bulk of it in one day so as to minimize back-and-forth between the houses.
How do I make this as sane as possible for all involved? I've been trying to purge stuff, but if I don't do all the packing, what's the best way to tell movers I want them to move this but not that, without standing over them? Has anyone used FrogBox for packing materials? What am I not thinking about that I should be? Money isn't so much an issue as family harmony and me not losing it at the holidays. I can hire whatever help I need, but I can't expect much, if any, help from my husband or kids, for reasons I am perfectly OK with.
Suggestions on how to help kids deal with moving from the only house they've ever known are also welcome - we'll be in the same general neighborhood, they aren't changing schools or anything else.
A color coded tag system. Give each room in the new house a color, and then tag each item with a piece of tape, so each item will end up in final room. Untagged items stay behind.
posted by florencetnoa at 10:43 AM on November 30, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by florencetnoa at 10:43 AM on November 30, 2013 [2 favorites]
What we've done in the past is designate one or two rooms of the house as "stuff that's not going with the movers" (whether it's things that aren't moving at all, or things that we want to move ourselves). Then just make it very clear to the movers: NOTHING in that room goes, EVERYTHING ELSE goes. Keep the doors shut and a sign on them. That system has worked very well for us. If you have a ton of large and heavy furniture that's not going, and it's spread all around the house, I suppose this could be less effective. But maybe you can consolidate it into a couple of rooms that would require a minimum of shuffling. Worst case, use this system for small stuff, and put signs on big stuff that's not going. I've done that for a few things and it did work, but you need to be a bit more vigilant.
posted by primethyme at 10:43 AM on November 30, 2013
posted by primethyme at 10:43 AM on November 30, 2013
If there are any boxes you have left from your last move that haven't been opened since then, discard them without opening them.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:51 AM on November 30, 2013 [7 favorites]
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:51 AM on November 30, 2013 [7 favorites]
take this opportunity to purge. Purge items like it reminds you of your most hated ex boyfriend(or whoever you loathe the most). If they aren't useful/valuable enough to overcome that loathing toss it out.
No wasted trips. If you are not carrying something every time you move from room to truck or especially up and down stairs, you are doing it wrong and wasting valuable energy.
spread out a flat sheet on the floor or bed and put all the soft stuff-hanging clothing, bedding, towels and so on you can carry at once in in (don't take anything off hangers). Tie opposite sides of the sheet together and then carry it like a messenger bag. Extra bonus if you have enough sheets to carry two at once (and it makes balance easier). When you get to new house, repeat in opposite order. It is amazing how fast and handy it is. You shouldn't even need to refold anything if you packed it well.
If it is in a drawer that is moving, remove the drawer full of contents and move that like a little moving box. You can also put extra stuff in the drawers to unpack at the destination. This is really good for toiletries. It also makes the furniture significantly lighter.
Buy a couple of dollies (or rent them from the moving truck place) and use the judiciously. You can carry several time the weight you can lift with a dollie and it saves a lot of time just moving stuff around. Professional movers have ramps they put up over stairs (not a full floor stairs, but just the two or three steps up from the sidewalk/curb or the stoop of the house). If you can manage something similair it will save tons of time and wear and tear on you. 2x10 lumber nailed together can do this.
Get a couple of heavy duty milk crates and use these to move the breakable kitchen stuff in relays. Plates/bowls/platters are heavy and milk crates have handles and aren't too big to fully load and then move. Especially on dollies.
and lastly, if you can, hire professionals for at least the big stuff. They can move it in way, way less than a day. and you move all the small, soft stuff that just takes time,not expertise/muscles.
posted by bartonlong at 11:17 AM on November 30, 2013 [1 favorite]
No wasted trips. If you are not carrying something every time you move from room to truck or especially up and down stairs, you are doing it wrong and wasting valuable energy.
spread out a flat sheet on the floor or bed and put all the soft stuff-hanging clothing, bedding, towels and so on you can carry at once in in (don't take anything off hangers). Tie opposite sides of the sheet together and then carry it like a messenger bag. Extra bonus if you have enough sheets to carry two at once (and it makes balance easier). When you get to new house, repeat in opposite order. It is amazing how fast and handy it is. You shouldn't even need to refold anything if you packed it well.
If it is in a drawer that is moving, remove the drawer full of contents and move that like a little moving box. You can also put extra stuff in the drawers to unpack at the destination. This is really good for toiletries. It also makes the furniture significantly lighter.
Buy a couple of dollies (or rent them from the moving truck place) and use the judiciously. You can carry several time the weight you can lift with a dollie and it saves a lot of time just moving stuff around. Professional movers have ramps they put up over stairs (not a full floor stairs, but just the two or three steps up from the sidewalk/curb or the stoop of the house). If you can manage something similair it will save tons of time and wear and tear on you. 2x10 lumber nailed together can do this.
Get a couple of heavy duty milk crates and use these to move the breakable kitchen stuff in relays. Plates/bowls/platters are heavy and milk crates have handles and aren't too big to fully load and then move. Especially on dollies.
and lastly, if you can, hire professionals for at least the big stuff. They can move it in way, way less than a day. and you move all the small, soft stuff that just takes time,not expertise/muscles.
posted by bartonlong at 11:17 AM on November 30, 2013 [1 favorite]
I'd never moved in my first 19 years of life. Then I moved 11 times in 6 years. Spent almost ten years in that house - and then moved almost 2 years ago, knowing that almost all of our stuff was going to be in storage for an indefinite amount of time. (It is SO much fun when the landlord gets foreclosed on... but that's another thread.) That is the only move that my kids (ages 17, 15, 13, and 11) really remember.
Rather than using stickers like labels (they like to come off), I use index cards, cut in half, taped on with packing tape. They stick better. The colored-tape idea would work, too - especially with the variety in duck tape easily available these days.
Marking the tops of boxes is useless to me; I mark the ends, the two opposite sides most likely to be sticking out when the boxes are stacked.
If you're moving a washer and dryer, and those are a priority to install (they are in my house!), then they're a good place to stash bedding and/or a set of bathroom towels. Pick somewhere to have a stash of favorite toys or books, too, so you don't have to go off hunting at bedtime, playtime, naptime, etc.
Mark every box with who it belongs to/ the room it goes to. Since you've got some leeway, you can have DONATE and DECIDE LATER or STORAGE boxes, too. (Storage ones around here usually have additional markings, like CHRISTMAS, on them, so I can easily sort those without going through them.
In regard to the kids - if they're not changing schools or even neighborhoods, it's probably not going to impact them much other than some slight "things are weird" feelings. If they have some close friends that lived near enough that they were in and out of each other's homes, and your move is just far enough to disrupt that, I'd suggest making a point of keeping that friendship connected. (This may or may not be a factor - for us, we moved about four miles, we homeschool, all of our community activities remained the same, the only real change was a near-neighbor family that we still really, *really* miss being two doors away from!)
That said, they're going to take a lot of their cues from you and your husband - are you happy or mopy about the move? Excited about all the new space, a different yard? Ooh, forgot about that til just now. Compare yards, see if there's something they're going to miss about the old one that isn't available in the new one - sometimes kids can fixate on something like that.
The littlest one will likely need reassurance that his/her stuff isn't going gone, that it'll be in the new house, and so will the whole family.
And if the kids aren't going to be helping on moving day, then have them be somewhere else. You don't need to be worrying about the three-year-old wandering outside, and not-helping 10 and 7-year-olds are just going to be in the way.
That said, though - you might want to check and make sure that they don't want to help, especially when it comes to their stuff. In my experience, kids tend to prefer to have a hand in doing it - and so when younger, I'd mark and tape their boxes, remove anything that needed more careful handling, and let them have at it. (This last move, all of my kids packed their own stuff... and my oldest did most of the kitchen.)
posted by stormyteal at 11:23 AM on November 30, 2013 [1 favorite]
Rather than using stickers like labels (they like to come off), I use index cards, cut in half, taped on with packing tape. They stick better. The colored-tape idea would work, too - especially with the variety in duck tape easily available these days.
Marking the tops of boxes is useless to me; I mark the ends, the two opposite sides most likely to be sticking out when the boxes are stacked.
If you're moving a washer and dryer, and those are a priority to install (they are in my house!), then they're a good place to stash bedding and/or a set of bathroom towels. Pick somewhere to have a stash of favorite toys or books, too, so you don't have to go off hunting at bedtime, playtime, naptime, etc.
Mark every box with who it belongs to/ the room it goes to. Since you've got some leeway, you can have DONATE and DECIDE LATER or STORAGE boxes, too. (Storage ones around here usually have additional markings, like CHRISTMAS, on them, so I can easily sort those without going through them.
In regard to the kids - if they're not changing schools or even neighborhoods, it's probably not going to impact them much other than some slight "things are weird" feelings. If they have some close friends that lived near enough that they were in and out of each other's homes, and your move is just far enough to disrupt that, I'd suggest making a point of keeping that friendship connected. (This may or may not be a factor - for us, we moved about four miles, we homeschool, all of our community activities remained the same, the only real change was a near-neighbor family that we still really, *really* miss being two doors away from!)
That said, they're going to take a lot of their cues from you and your husband - are you happy or mopy about the move? Excited about all the new space, a different yard? Ooh, forgot about that til just now. Compare yards, see if there's something they're going to miss about the old one that isn't available in the new one - sometimes kids can fixate on something like that.
The littlest one will likely need reassurance that his/her stuff isn't going gone, that it'll be in the new house, and so will the whole family.
And if the kids aren't going to be helping on moving day, then have them be somewhere else. You don't need to be worrying about the three-year-old wandering outside, and not-helping 10 and 7-year-olds are just going to be in the way.
That said, though - you might want to check and make sure that they don't want to help, especially when it comes to their stuff. In my experience, kids tend to prefer to have a hand in doing it - and so when younger, I'd mark and tape their boxes, remove anything that needed more careful handling, and let them have at it. (This last move, all of my kids packed their own stuff... and my oldest did most of the kitchen.)
posted by stormyteal at 11:23 AM on November 30, 2013 [1 favorite]
Last time we moved, we did a quick walk through with the movers at the start of the day. The furniture we didn't want them to move they stuck a piece of bright green tape to. We also took the miscellaneous items that we weren't taking (books, assorted cruft) and put them in the bathroom and shut the door. They marked the door with tape so there was no question about what was staying and what was going.
posted by tealcake at 11:31 AM on November 30, 2013
posted by tealcake at 11:31 AM on November 30, 2013
We did this earlier this year, so I have a couple of quick tips.
We hired movers and did all the moving while the kids were school -- guerilla-style. For some reason, doing everything during the work-week made the process smoother. That way, when we picked them up from their after-school program, we just brought them to the new place. Most of the hard part about our move was getting everything out of the old place, but that was because it was a rental and we had time constraints.
We also made sure to set up all of our beds first. Make sure everyone has a 'GO' bag too .. toothbrush, toilet paper, other necessities, etc.
HTH !
posted by duckus at 11:39 AM on November 30, 2013
We hired movers and did all the moving while the kids were school -- guerilla-style. For some reason, doing everything during the work-week made the process smoother. That way, when we picked them up from their after-school program, we just brought them to the new place. Most of the hard part about our move was getting everything out of the old place, but that was because it was a rental and we had time constraints.
We also made sure to set up all of our beds first. Make sure everyone has a 'GO' bag too .. toothbrush, toilet paper, other necessities, etc.
HTH !
posted by duckus at 11:39 AM on November 30, 2013
I've always used one of my old trunks to create a "Open First" box. In it, we put everything we'd need in the first few days: toilet paper; plates, cups and silverware; at least one cooking pan, one skillet, and one serving container for drinks; light bulbs; duct tape; a tablet, pencils and pens; my address/phone book; a set of sheets for each bed; dish soap, sponges and a couple of kitchen towels; paper towels; bath towels and washcloths; toothpaste (we each carried our own toothbrushes and other bathroom essentials separately); spray cleaner; napkins; salt and pepper; dog food (enough for a couple of days in a ziplock bag) and the dog's water bowl; several pre-measured ziplocks with laundry detergent; dryer sheets; a couple of dishwasher detergent pods; ziplock bags; change; the base/charging station for the landline phone; an alarm clock and about $50 in small bills. You'll think of other things that are specific to your household that you might need immediately. Put a BIG label on it that says "DO NOT PACK" so the movers don't take it along with everything else.
Pack this trunk or box LAST into the truck so it comes off FIRST - we put it into the kitchen or dining room - then you can at least survive until everything else is unpacked. Congratulations on your move!
posted by summerstorm at 1:58 PM on November 30, 2013 [7 favorites]
Pack this trunk or box LAST into the truck so it comes off FIRST - we put it into the kitchen or dining room - then you can at least survive until everything else is unpacked. Congratulations on your move!
posted by summerstorm at 1:58 PM on November 30, 2013 [7 favorites]
Check the outlets, you might need to buy some two prong to three prong converters.
posted by thebrokenmuse at 3:12 PM on November 30, 2013
posted by thebrokenmuse at 3:12 PM on November 30, 2013
Had a major move 2 months ago and still shed loads to do, I can't believe what a nightmare it's been.
My tips would be have some way of indicating all the stuff you need for basic living - ie 2x change of bedding, clothes, kitchen stuff.
Have at least one or two pretty empty rooms if possible - one to sort in and one to sleep sanely in.
Have an IMPORTANT box and keep hold of it with all your bill shit/passports/fittings for your beds.
Get your structure in place asap, beds up etc else you can get a bit depressed/crazy
As you're unpacking also start a few bags - dump/charity/bootsale
Clear anything you can out your way (I keep all my cat stuff in the garden shed).. not the actual cat though :)
Brace yourself for a bit of a nightmare.. but remember it's so lovely when it starts to take shape. Good luck - Kids...Ask the older kids to think about colours for their bedrooms etc /make a feature out of "our first meal in our new house etc
posted by tanktop at 4:36 PM on November 30, 2013
My tips would be have some way of indicating all the stuff you need for basic living - ie 2x change of bedding, clothes, kitchen stuff.
Have at least one or two pretty empty rooms if possible - one to sort in and one to sleep sanely in.
Have an IMPORTANT box and keep hold of it with all your bill shit/passports/fittings for your beds.
Get your structure in place asap, beds up etc else you can get a bit depressed/crazy
As you're unpacking also start a few bags - dump/charity/bootsale
Clear anything you can out your way (I keep all my cat stuff in the garden shed).. not the actual cat though :)
Brace yourself for a bit of a nightmare.. but remember it's so lovely when it starts to take shape. Good luck - Kids...Ask the older kids to think about colours for their bedrooms etc /make a feature out of "our first meal in our new house etc
posted by tanktop at 4:36 PM on November 30, 2013
If you can hire the movers to also do most of the packing, the move will be less stressful. We got the packing service for part of our house for our last move. It cost much less than I had expected. In retrospect I wish we had hired them to pack everything.
I also wish I had thought more about where things should go in the new house, upon arrival. If all the bedroom stuff is in boxes labeled "bedroom" and the movers put them all in the bedroom, there isn't room to turn around in the bedroom. It would have worked better to mark the five key bedroom boxes to open first, then have the rest stashed in an unused room (your new extra bedroom, say) to deal with later. This would have helped make the chaos less overwhelming.
posted by medusa at 5:26 PM on November 30, 2013
I also wish I had thought more about where things should go in the new house, upon arrival. If all the bedroom stuff is in boxes labeled "bedroom" and the movers put them all in the bedroom, there isn't room to turn around in the bedroom. It would have worked better to mark the five key bedroom boxes to open first, then have the rest stashed in an unused room (your new extra bedroom, say) to deal with later. This would have helped make the chaos less overwhelming.
posted by medusa at 5:26 PM on November 30, 2013
We didn't pack squat when we moved across town. As soon as we had access to the new house, we took stuff over a little at a time. We took armloads of clothes straight out of the closet, on the hangers, laid them in the backseat/trunk then put them in the closets in the new house. If clothes were in laundry baskets in the laundry room, --into the car they went. Same way with most of the kitchen stuff. The toys/food/bathroom toiletries went into trash bags. Things were sorted and cleaned/discarded after deciding where they went. The big furniture was moved one day by a gaggle of manly friends and a few pickup trucks. I thought it was pretty uneventful since we were running back and forth anyway.
posted by PJMoore at 6:51 PM on November 30, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by PJMoore at 6:51 PM on November 30, 2013 [1 favorite]
For my in-town house move I used Redi-Box, which seems to be basically the same thing as your FrogBox.
Pros: Very convenient, easy to stack. You don't have to worry about filling boxes perfectly, if there's a bit of room at the top that's fine. Movers liked them very much and moved them very quickly. They are very good for books since you can pretty much pack them full and still have a mover-friendly box.
Cons: Not good for clothes, awkward shaped things, or mid-size kitchen appliances, they fill up far too quickly.
Pro or con: Since you have to return them there's a built in deadline for unpacking. But depending on how much else you have going on, unpacking could mean "dumping things out into a big pile on the floor".
I found that a mix of plastic and cardboard boxes works best. Get some really big cardboard boxes for the kids stuff (stuffed animals, balls, toys, etc). That's all pretty low density so you can make big boxes out of it.
Last piece of advice: for my very similar in-town move I did not box any clothes. Just dump the non-hanging clothes in contractor bags from your local home improvement store. Make sure they are contractor bags and not lawn and leaf bags, and just put it out of your mind that you're dumping all your clothes in what are basically garbage bags. It will go so much quicker. For hanging clothes the movers should just bring wardrobe boxes.
posted by true at 8:00 PM on November 30, 2013
Pros: Very convenient, easy to stack. You don't have to worry about filling boxes perfectly, if there's a bit of room at the top that's fine. Movers liked them very much and moved them very quickly. They are very good for books since you can pretty much pack them full and still have a mover-friendly box.
Cons: Not good for clothes, awkward shaped things, or mid-size kitchen appliances, they fill up far too quickly.
Pro or con: Since you have to return them there's a built in deadline for unpacking. But depending on how much else you have going on, unpacking could mean "dumping things out into a big pile on the floor".
I found that a mix of plastic and cardboard boxes works best. Get some really big cardboard boxes for the kids stuff (stuffed animals, balls, toys, etc). That's all pretty low density so you can make big boxes out of it.
Last piece of advice: for my very similar in-town move I did not box any clothes. Just dump the non-hanging clothes in contractor bags from your local home improvement store. Make sure they are contractor bags and not lawn and leaf bags, and just put it out of your mind that you're dumping all your clothes in what are basically garbage bags. It will go so much quicker. For hanging clothes the movers should just bring wardrobe boxes.
posted by true at 8:00 PM on November 30, 2013
Suggestions on how to help kids deal with moving from the only house they've ever known are also welcome
When I was 5 and we were about to move, my parents took the family for a picnic lunch in the new house. While it was many years ago, I still remember running around and exploring the new digs, and how fun it was to eat around a tablecloth spread out on the floor where the dining room table would eventually go. And I remember that we had miniature marshmallows for dessert.
posted by Short Attention Sp at 4:33 AM on December 1, 2013 [1 favorite]
When I was 5 and we were about to move, my parents took the family for a picnic lunch in the new house. While it was many years ago, I still remember running around and exploring the new digs, and how fun it was to eat around a tablecloth spread out on the floor where the dining room table would eventually go. And I remember that we had miniature marshmallows for dessert.
posted by Short Attention Sp at 4:33 AM on December 1, 2013 [1 favorite]
As my dad always says "when in doubt, throw it out." Seriously, purge.''
Here is my super-organized-awesome packing/moving system:
1) First, set up a Google Spreadsheet and share it with everyone who is packing.
Columns are "box number," "room" and "contents."
2) Go buy some white labels and some colored labels. Assign a color to each room (i.e pink for kitchen, green for living room).
3) As you pack each box, put on the top and one side a white label with a number, and also a colored label with an abbreviation of the room (i.e. all the kitchen boxes have pink labels with KIT written on them). Write the contents in the spreadsheet.
4) When you're moving in, you have an easy visual cue with the colored labels as to what goes where!
The spreadsheet seems like OCD overkill, but it has a few major advantages. For one, you don't have to write awkwardly with a sharpie on the side of a box. And if you end up deciding to repack the box because it's too heavy or doesn't make sense or whatever, you don't have to scratch it all out. Searching the spreadsheet makes it incredibly easy to figure out where you packed something, and if something happens and a box gets stolen or damaged, you know what was in there.
posted by radioamy at 11:28 AM on December 1, 2013
Here is my super-organized-awesome packing/moving system:
1) First, set up a Google Spreadsheet and share it with everyone who is packing.
Columns are "box number," "room" and "contents."
2) Go buy some white labels and some colored labels. Assign a color to each room (i.e pink for kitchen, green for living room).
3) As you pack each box, put on the top and one side a white label with a number, and also a colored label with an abbreviation of the room (i.e. all the kitchen boxes have pink labels with KIT written on them). Write the contents in the spreadsheet.
4) When you're moving in, you have an easy visual cue with the colored labels as to what goes where!
The spreadsheet seems like OCD overkill, but it has a few major advantages. For one, you don't have to write awkwardly with a sharpie on the side of a box. And if you end up deciding to repack the box because it's too heavy or doesn't make sense or whatever, you don't have to scratch it all out. Searching the spreadsheet makes it incredibly easy to figure out where you packed something, and if something happens and a box gets stolen or damaged, you know what was in there.
posted by radioamy at 11:28 AM on December 1, 2013
Another great tip is to have everyone pack an "open first" box or bag, where you have your toiletries, a change of clothes, etc. If you have a big kitchen with a lot of stuff, you might want to also pack a box with the kitchen stuff you will want that night and the next morning.
I almost forgot my absolute #1 moving tip: put up shower curtains ASAP. There is nothing worse than moving, being all sweaty, wanting to take a shower, and not having a shower curtain.
posted by radioamy at 11:32 AM on December 1, 2013
I almost forgot my absolute #1 moving tip: put up shower curtains ASAP. There is nothing worse than moving, being all sweaty, wanting to take a shower, and not having a shower curtain.
posted by radioamy at 11:32 AM on December 1, 2013
Pallet tape (also called stretch wrap) is the most under-rated moving supply. So useful! Great for keeping drawers closed on smaller pieces of furniture. We also just wrapped up our dresser drawers and moved them with the stuff in them.
Also, some dressers don't have interchangeable drawers. On our old furniture we numbered the drawers discreetly so it was easy to put them back in.
Sorry, I keep thinking about this, I am in the process of unpacking from our latest move right now!
Also I lovelovelove Short Attention Sp's idea about picnicing in the new house. So much fun! In high school my friends and I had a sleepover at my friend's new house before they moved in, that was also pretty rad (and also involved marshmallows, but I think we were playing chubby bunny).
posted by radioamy at 12:55 PM on December 1, 2013
Also, some dressers don't have interchangeable drawers. On our old furniture we numbered the drawers discreetly so it was easy to put them back in.
Sorry, I keep thinking about this, I am in the process of unpacking from our latest move right now!
Also I lovelovelove Short Attention Sp's idea about picnicing in the new house. So much fun! In high school my friends and I had a sleepover at my friend's new house before they moved in, that was also pretty rad (and also involved marshmallows, but I think we were playing chubby bunny).
posted by radioamy at 12:55 PM on December 1, 2013
Response by poster: Love all these tips!
We close Friday, but I'm not having movers until the 19th. The new house is brand-new construction, so there's nothing to do but have everything painted the way I want it, because if that doesn't happen now it never will. So I'll have time to put up shower curtains and all that important stuff before our first official night in the new house. I'll have the kids pack a bag for the first few nights, and make sure we have all the basics on hand - I already have a box of those things, plus a crate of toilet paper, etc.
Any other ideas? This is "move into dream house" time, so I want to do it right.
posted by Lulu's Pink Converse at 11:36 AM on December 3, 2013
We close Friday, but I'm not having movers until the 19th. The new house is brand-new construction, so there's nothing to do but have everything painted the way I want it, because if that doesn't happen now it never will. So I'll have time to put up shower curtains and all that important stuff before our first official night in the new house. I'll have the kids pack a bag for the first few nights, and make sure we have all the basics on hand - I already have a box of those things, plus a crate of toilet paper, etc.
Any other ideas? This is "move into dream house" time, so I want to do it right.
posted by Lulu's Pink Converse at 11:36 AM on December 3, 2013
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posted by cecic at 10:42 AM on November 30, 2013 [3 favorites]