Planning a move can be difficult and planning a move with children can be ten times harder. Moving is never easy and getting everyone on board and on the same page is crucial to planning a successful move interstate. Hundreds if not thousands of families move to another state every year, circumstances change, family priorities change, maybe you’ve accepted a promotion, feel the need for a sea change, seeking better work life balance or looking at options for the family home. The hardest part is planning the move and telling the kids. Children and especially young teenagers can find it extremely difficult to cope with a situation of this magnitude. Change can bring on anxiety, the stress of losing friends and making new ones, moving to a new school and totally new environment can be very daunting indeed. Fortunately, there are some ways to plan for a successful relocation and ease the transition when moving interstate with children.
Open Up a Family Discussion
The sooner everyone is aware of the plans, the more time the family has to absorb and understand the size of the change. Be truthful and honest when discussing the decision to move to another state. If it is because of a job opportunity or a promotion, express how excited you are and explain what it means for the family, why you chose to accept it and how it will impact the whole family. Encourage everyone in the family to express their opinions, how they feel and raise any concerns that they may have. Ensure you attend to any concerns they may have especially if this is their first moving experience, tell them about your first moving experience and let them know that you will need their help to plan for the move.
Get Them Involved in Finding a New Home
Finding a new home is always an exciting process, once you have a list of homes shortlisted, get the children involved and allow them to provide feedback. Show them photos of the home and the local surroundings to get a feel for the neighbourhood. Ask them what they like about each home and let them know that you’ll be taking their opinions into consideration when making a decision. Have a celebration with the family when you have locked in your new place.
Time For a Garage Sale
Moving can get expensive when you have to move all your belongings you have collected over the years. A great way to help with the expense is to organize a garage sale well before the move, children are great when it comes to a moving sale so start gathering all those items that you don’t need or are too bulky to move, it will be way cheaper to buy it than to move it.
Book in Some Airfares
It is often a hot topic when moving interstate; one of the dilemmas of moving over a long distance is whether to choose to fly and find a company that does interstate car transport or to drive the family car interstate across borders to your new home. Children, especially young children do not have the patience to sit in the one position continuously for an extend period of time, on top of this you will need to take into consideration meal breaks and additional expense in accommodation during your travel as well as costly fuel and wear and tear on the vehicle. The safer option would be to simply take a domestic flight on sale and get to your destination within hours for peace of mind knowing you won’t have to put your family through an extensively tiring journey.
Pack For Your Move
Dispose of what you don’t need and donate to charity what you cannot sell is a great way to give back to the community. Now begin packing things into moving boxes that are durable enough to last the distance. The last thing you want is to have the contents fall out at the bottom of a box not designed for moving. Label boxes and organize items according to the rooms they belong to, that way you are not spending hours at your new home trying to find what you need.
