Moving house - logistics

We are moving house !

Has anyone moved with a toddler or baby?

Whilst Mr 2.5 years old is excited about it, I am worried about the logistics of the move.

Luckly on the move day, he will be in daycare but I am wanting to ask for any tips or tricks in making the process as smooth as can be.

Also, on the cleaning.....would you pay for a professional cleaner, i have a quote of $360 to do the inside of our house and between working 4 days a week and being a mum, im wondering if everyone thinks this is reasonable. Trying to fit in a 'vacating rental property clean' is doing my head in!
roll eyes

I can sympathise. We are moving in 10 days for the second time in 4 months!!

Last move, my husband stayed at the house and dealt with eveything and I took our then 18 month old to her friends house for a while. We only moved 30 minutes away and the guys were done by about 2pm so then we just went home to the new house and set up DD's room first thing.

This time we are moving 2 hours away so I am taking DD and the dogs to my mum's house the night before and then going back to pack her room up and then help on the day. It will be the first time DD has stayed away from us but we think it's best this time.

Regarding the cleaner, I badly wanted one last time (it was a rented house) but my mum, sister and I ended up doing it a few days after we moved. Must have done well, we got the bond back smile

I am no expert but I think just try and keep things as normal as possible and as your son is in daycare on the day then that should be fine. He'll just have a new house to explore when you take him 'home'.

ill be watching this topic closely. Lol. I have a move coming in around a month.

With cleaning I usually move everything out of the house then clean. Takes me a day tops then get someone to do carpets. But I never did it with a child before. Im planning on having a family member watch dd when I need to clean.

Good luck.

We moved when I was 7 months pregnant and I had a baby also what I did when I packed up that room I cleaned it before moving on to the other but I had time cos we had brought our own place and when we got the keys for the new place for about a week I spent cleaning the new one with bub with me but moving day I really didn't do much as dh and his mates did it all he even cleaned the rental place from what ever mess we had left behind that day

Only thing I did was take the clothes out and kitchen stuff cos I needed to know we're every thing was and organized my way

It was hard as I didn't have any one to look after her to but I can say as I planned out what to do and would tick off when complete

It depends if it's easier for you and less stress I'd get the cleaners I think we do enough as it is as mums


Good luck With your move

Just to add
I packed what ever we didn't need or use first
Then I packed stuff we needed but could live with out till we moved
And I labelled all the boxs
And the night before their wasn't much left I packed them
So moving day only the furniture had to be moved

For me it meant on moving day I just gave direction of we're they went

We've moved a couple of times with the kids.
I also paid a cleaner to do my house as I just didn't have time with the move and kids.
$360 seems a little high to pay but how big is your house. Does that include windows and carpets? If it does then it seems reasonable because windows are about $100. You could always call other places for quotes.

As for the move try to get everything into your DS room first and try to set it up just the same as it was at your old place. This way things still feel familiar to him so he won't have a massive freak out with all the change. That's what I did with mine and they took to moving really well.

Good luck, I know it's a stressful time.

$360 sounds great to me! We've moved and wanted our old house to be cleaned professionally as we were placing it on the market and it cost us $1000. That was a full bond clean including carpets and curtains. That was for a two bedroom house one bathroom with a granny flat which is just a room and a bathroom. (and you may not believe me but that was the cheapest we could find and we are not dirty people, in fact the cleaners didn't do a crash hot job and I had to do stuff they missed, but in my defense I had rotten morning sickness at the time and couldn't stand chemical smells and fumes)
As pp have said I found what helped was keeping the routine as close to normal as possible. Unpack their room first. If they are really young use the bed sheets they had before the move so their new room has a bed that smells familiar for the first night. Good luck and grab that cleaner ... Without moving you already have heaps on your plate. Give yourself a bit of a break, you'll need it for the move! wink