Moving with kids How to make them help

MOVING WITH KIDS

There’s no doubt about it, moving house can be a stressful time. All that sorting and packing, cleaning, moving and unpacking. It certainly doesn’t make the job any easier when you’ve got kids to look after too! Not to mention the general chaos of moving can be quite disconcerting for them. However, you don’t have to do everything yourself – the kids can help. Not only does this reduce your workload, it can also give them a sense of ownership and control over their situation, helping reduce their anxieties about the move.

Little Kids (3-7 years)

Young children can help pack items that don’t require too much careful handling, such as: • Clothes • Soft toys, blocks, plastic dolls • Towels, sheets and linen.

Clothes and manchester can easily be placed in a suitcase. Toys can be stuffed into a box, bag or laundry hamper. Don’t forget to keep their favourite soft toy and a change of clothes aside for moving day. School aged children can help sort through and declutter their belongings. Ask them to pick their top 10 toys or books to keep. Then sort through the remainder together and divide into ‘keep’, ‘donate’ and ‘discard’ piles. This is a great opportunity to teach your kids about giving to charity.

Tweens (8-12 Years)

With a little guidance, children this age can help you in a number of ways: • Decluttering their personal belongs • Packing non-delicate household items • Writing packing labels while you pack • Cleaning.

Start by giving the kids one space to work on at a time, such as their bookshelf or top drawer. Have a bin handy for throwing out broken items, then get them to divide the rest into keep and donate piles. Once again, you can get them to choose their top 5 or 10 items for each category that they definitely want to keep. Tweens can also help with household packing. Work on packing a box or two together, then get them to do a few boxes on their own. Give them a defined task, such as packing the bathroom cupboard. Make sure they label what’s in each box!

Tweens can also help with general cleaning, such as vacuuming or weeding the garden. Give them a set task that’s not overwhelmingly big and show them how it’s done. A reward such as choosing their favourite takeaway dinner can help with motivation (and bonus, no cooking for you). Once you have moved, let tweens unpack some of their own things into their room. You might need to guide them with this, starting with something like unpacking all clothes into drawers. They can also help unpack household items such as the cutlery drawer, towel cupboard etc. You can finesse it later.

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Give this age group the responsibility for sorting and packing their own possessions and let them make decluttering decisions for themselves. If asking them to simply sort out their stuff is too overwhelming, break the job down for them. For eg: • Pick one category of possessions and pull everything out. • Discard anything that’s broken or incomplete. • Sort the remains into ‘keep’ and

‘donate’ piles. • Donate anything clothes that they have outgrown. • From the ‘keep’ pile, choose a top 5 -10 items to definitely keep. • For old schoolwork or collectables, provide a tub or binder, and only allow them to take what fits. • For everything else, consider discarding anything that hasn’t been used in a year.

Teenagers can also dust their possessions, wash their clothes and clean their own room after it’s packed up.

Teens can help with the household packing, heft bags of goods to charity, clean up rooms, and do some household chores. You might think of an incentive to their being extra helpful during this time, such as being allowed to choose new bedding or furniture for their new room.

Once moved, allow teens to set up their own room - you may need to set deadlines and provide incentives for this to happen! They can also help with tasks such as sorting household bedding into the linen cupboard.