Category Archives: Moving Tips

Family Growing Pains: When it’s Time to Find a Bigger Home

A move to a more spacious place is usually a welcomed problem. Once finances are in order, moms and dads adore the opportunity to make a larger home their very own. Here’s how to identify whether it’s your time to move.

The Kids Sleep Together

Some couples save room and money by having brothers or sisters share a room. It’s especially cute when having twins. It’s even advantageous when an older brother can lend advice to a younger brother or an older sister can show her younger sibling how to maintain long hair. A third sibling, however, makes things crowded. It’s tough to pull off a three-child bedroom unless you want the young occupants to feel cramped and grow weary of one another.

The Infants are Getting Bigger

Infants are demanding but in a different way than children aged two and above. Once your children get older and become able to crawl, walk, run, etc, it’s time to find a larger area. What you thought was a cozy two-bedroom nook can start to look rather confining if you have one or more children aged two and over. Even those with a small basement, yard, or nearby outdoor park feel the need to gain space once the kids get older, bigger, and faster.

The Time to Invest in the Future

Buying a larger home is an investment. A growing family is one that needs a mom and dad to begin to invest in the future. That means thinking far into the future when the kids will want cars, to go to universities and furniture for first apartments. It’s time for making sound investments and smart money decisions versus living out of pocket or relying on immediate income alone. Seek online resources or personal counseling from a bank or financial advisor.

The Nearby Traffic is Growing

Often, couples meet in urban settings flooded with young singles. After some time, the couple moves in together, gets married, and has children, though of course not necessarily quite in that order. It’s a likely story for many but urban settings are not always best for having children. Couples that loved going to bars and clubs 10 years ago now prefer better school systems and a number of parks with swing sets. Also, urban populations grow over time, which means added traffic and danger for little ones. For many couples, an aging child or children often means finding safer suburban or rural settings.

The Best Schools

In some cases, the best schools are public and free but require parents to live in particular area codes. The thought of capitalizing on great school systems is enough for some to move to a new and larger area that has premier elementary, middle, and high schools. Competitive colleges notice top area codes throughout the country. For a talented young person, the right high school is a gateway to getting into the best colleges. Seek government data along with online stats providing the best school systems in the nation.

Your Career Has Taken Stride

Young professionals are faced with huge debt and limited jobs. Those who get great positions, however, hit a stride in their late twenties and early thirties. As long as you didn’t make really poor financial decisions in previous years, you may be in a great position to make a present home purchase. If you find you have more money in the bank, don’t start spending on takeout, designer shoes, or short yet expensive vacations. Move your family to a larger home and make each day a vacation. Contact quality home movers for competitive, state-to-state prices.

The Gang’s All There

You may have friends with kids who are a bit older. As with your current circumstances, your friends chose to move to different area codes that could accommodate a growing family. Not to incite feelings of ‘doing as your friends do,’ but there’s nothing wrong with the thought of living in a larger home surrounded by friends who have children of the same age living just down the road. As long as the move is affordable, it makes sense to want a larger home in an area filled with friendly faces.

 

Moving Day Mealtimes: Smart Strategies for Packing Up Your Home Kitchen

As you approach moving day there is so much to think about that there is bound to be something you’ve overlooked. One item you don’t want to neglect is the all important issue of food. On your first night in your new home (and, just as important, your first morning) will you be able to find the food you need to celebrate the start of your new life, and to keep your family’s spirits high through the transition?

Plan and Communicate

The best way not to find yourself in a flat panic on moving day is to plan ahead. Waiting to the last minute is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. Start thinking early about what you are going to need immediately before and after the move, and plan what you are going to do with everything else.

If you are using long distance movers, keep lines of communication open with them, so you are clear about what time (and which day) they are going to arrive, and what they will do. It is a good idea to keep your estate agent up to speed on every aspect of your move, and they will often be able to give good advice. If you are in the Cardiff area you would get a lot of friendly support from Taylors in Mermaid Quay.

Who Is Packing?

If you can afford the extra money to use the removal firm’s packing service, things are really much easier for you. Providing you have chosen a firm with a good reputation (world of mouth is usually the best judge), they will do an expert job of storming through your kitchen and packing everything the day before the move. Their contract terms will not normally accept liability for breakages of things you pack yourself, unless you can prove negligence.

Even so, you will want to set aside the things you need for breakfast and supper on moving day, and breakfast the next day. In plenty of time go through your cupboards and set aside items for your ‘UNPACK THIS FIRST’ box – enough plates, bowls, mugs, glasses and cutlery for everyone; a couple of saucepans and a frying pan; kettle; salt and pepper; tea, coffee, milk; and whatever ingredients you need to cook a couple of meals. Don’t forget to include something to celebrate with. Put all this in and take the box with you in the car – you don’t want to have to search for this one.

Packing Your Own Stuff?

The ‘unpack this first’ box still needs to be ready, but in addition you will be planning all the rest of the packing. Starting to assemble and organize at an early stage is the secret for the day.

Sort through all your cupboards and set aside those things which really ought to go out. There will be foods that are past their use-by date, and things you know you will never eat anyway. Either throw them out or set them by for a splurge on your last couple of meals before you move. You will discover pans and appliances that you had forgotten about in the back of cupboards – if you haven’t used them in the last couple of years, now is the time to chuck them.

Even if the removal guys are doing the heavy lifting, you will still have to do a lot of shifting of boxes when you arrive, so make sure the boxes are small. Put only a couple of heavy pans in each box, and fill the space up with lighter items.

Protect the Vulnerable

If your budget stretches to rolls of packing paper or bubble wrap, it will make your life much easier. If you want to save the money or dislike the waste, you will find packaging materials among your clothes, towels and bedding. If you come across a pack of paper plates, these can be used to go between your china plates. Newspaper also does the job, but it is mucky.

Kitchen appliances need to be taken apart as much as possible and the fragile bits wrapped separately. If they have movable parts that can’t be removed, they can be secured in place using clingfilm.

Enjoy the Move

Moving days are among the most exciting and the most stressful of most people’s lives. At the end of that day, if you can sit in your own kitchen, and prepare and eat (in relative comfort) a plate of your favorite comfort food, the excitement may just outweigh the stress.

Isobel Quinn has moving house down to a fine art. Growing up as an army brat she had lived in 9 houses by the time she was 16, and she hasn’t had a settled home life as an adult either! She shares her tips and tricks to keep calm, and sane, on moving day.