Moving with young children is a different job than moving without them. The boxes and the furniture are the same. What changes is that you are running the move and looking after small people at the same time, and the small people have opinions about it.
The families who get through this well are not the ones who pack faster. They are the ones who plan the kids’ part of the move separately from everything else. Here is how to do that.
Pack the kids’ rooms last and unpack them first
This is the single most useful rule in this whole article, so start here.
A child’s room should be one of the last rooms packed and the first room put back together at the new house. A bedroom that disappears into boxes two weeks early turns the whole move into something that has already taken their things away. A bedroom that looks almost normal until the last day, then looks normal again by bedtime on the first night, is a much easier thing for a small child to handle.
Practically, that means doing the hard work in the garage, the kitchen and the guest room first, and leaving the nursery and the kids’ rooms for the end even though they feel like the easy ones.
Toys: sort early, pack late
Toys are the part most people underestimate. They are bulky, they are everywhere, and there are more of them than anyone thinks.
Do the sorting weeks ahead and the packing at the end. Sorting is the part that takes emotional energy, and it goes better when there is no deadline attached. Make three piles with your child rather than behind their back: things they still play with, things they have outgrown, and things that are broken. Children are usually more willing to let go of outgrown toys than parents expect, and far less willing when the decision is made for them.
When it is time to pack:
- Use small boxes. A big box of toys gets heavy fast and nobody wants to carry it or unpack it.
- Keep sets together. Building blocks, train track, dolls and their clothes, game pieces. A set split across three boxes is a set that stays unopened for a month.
- Bag the small pieces. Zip bags inside the box, then one box per category. This is the difference between unpacking and sorting again later.
- Label by child, not just by room. If you have more than one, write the name on the box. On delivery day that saves real time.
- Stuffed animals go in a bag, not a box. They are light, they fill space, and a soft bag is easier to carry up a flight of stairs.
Leave out a small handful of favorite toys for the last week and the first night. Those ones are not going on the truck at all.
Cribs, bunk beds and loft beds come apart
Children’s beds are almost always the most assembled furniture in a house, and most of them have to come apart to leave the room at all.
Our crews take furniture apart and put it back together as a normal part of the job, which is the practical answer for bunk beds, loft beds, cribs that convert, and the dresser and changing table combinations that come as one unit. Tell us ahead of time what is in the kids’ rooms so the right tools are on the truck. The general process is the same for any big piece, and we have written it out in taking furniture apart and putting it back together.
One thing worth doing yourself: if you still have the assembly instructions for a crib or bunk bed, find them and keep them with your paperwork rather than in a box. Reassembly is quicker when the original instructions are in the room.
It is also worth measuring before the move rather than after. Bunk beds and loft beds are tall, and a room with a lower ceiling or a ceiling fan in the wrong spot is better discovered on paper. The same goes for getting the pieces up the stairs: see will your furniture fit.
The bulky outdoor things
Playhouses, slides, climbing frames, trampolines, ride-on toys, basketball hoops and sandboxes are their own category. Most of them need to be taken apart, most of them are dirtier than you remember, and all of them take up more room on a truck than their owners expect.
Decide early whether each one is actually coming. A trampoline that has sat in Southwest Florida sun for five seasons is often not worth the space it takes. If something is coming, hose it off and let it dry fully a few days before the move so it is not loaded damp. We cover this whole category in moving patio, lanai and garage items.
Things that ride with you, not on the truck
Car seats stay in your car. You need them that day, and you need them the next day. Do not let them get loaded.
Alongside the car seats, keep a bag in your own vehicle with:
- Diapers, wipes, formula, bottles and a changing mat if you are at that stage.
- Snacks and water, more than you think you need.
- A change of clothes per child, plus one spare.
- Medications, thermometer, bandages.
- Tablets, chargers and headphones.
- Bedding and pajamas for the first night.
A comfort box for each child
Pack one box per child that they help fill and that you keep with you. Their blanket, the stuffed animal that matters, two or three books, a nightlight, a favorite cup. Let them write their name on it and decorate it.
This box does two jobs. On the first night it means their bed can be made up properly with their own things instead of whatever surfaces first. And in the weeks before, it gives a child something concrete to control in a process where they control nothing else. That second part does more good than it sounds like.
Moving day itself
Be honest about what moving day is: strangers carrying heavy things through open doors, for several hours, with a truck in the driveway. It is not a day to supervise a toddler.
The two approaches that work:
Children off-site. A grandparent, a friend, a sitter, a day at school or camp. If you can manage it, this is the easier day for everyone. The crew works faster, you can answer questions properly, and your child gets to skip the stressful part entirely.
One quiet room. If the children stay, pick one room, empty it last, and keep them in it with an adult, snacks and screens. Tell us which room it is when we arrive and we will work around it and load it at the end.
Either way, keep the front door path clear and let the crew work without small people in the walkway. If you want a sense of how the day runs, what to expect on moving day lays out who does what.
The first night in the new house
Set up the kids’ beds before you do anything else. Not after the kitchen, not after the living room. Beds first, with their own bedding and the things from the comfort box.
Then expect the first few nights to be bumpy. A new room has different light, different sounds and a different air conditioning cycle, and children notice all of it. The usual bedtime routine, run in the normal order, is the thing that settles it fastest. Boxes can stay stacked in the hall for a week. The routine should not wait.
Put the nightlight in before dark and walk them to the bathroom once with the lights on so they know the way in the middle of the night. Small thing, real difference.
Talking about it beforehand
Tell children about the move earlier than feels necessary, and in plain terms. Show them the new house if you can, or photos of it if you cannot. Walk the new neighborhood. Point out which room will be theirs. If they are changing schools, visit before the first day.
Expect some regression in the weeks around the move, and do not read too much into it. Most of it passes once the new place stops being new.
We plan around this all the time
Families with young children move house in Naples, Bonita Springs, Estero and Marco Island all the time, and the kids’ part of the plan is something we are glad to build around rather than work around. Tell us what is in the children’s rooms, which room is staying quiet, and what time of day works best for naps and school pickup.
Call us at (239) 231-7050 or request a free estimate, and we will put the day together around your family’s schedule rather than ours.
