We are moving 1 week before Christmas!!!!!

[fruitstick]

Apart from 'Don't' which appears to be everybody else's advice, please give me any advice on how to make move less stressful and still manage a magical Christmas for dcs.

We will have 3 full days with DH and I off work and dcs at childminders.

No pressure obviously!

um, do you have any friends you can rope it to help you get children's rooms set up etc?

i would try and get as many helpers as possible and get it all in place, then decorate the front room

get an artificial tree or something that you can put up quite quickly?

My SIL moved a year ago on 21st December and lived to tell the tale :)

She may well see this as she posts here :)

Good luck. I would arrange for all the xmas stuff to be kept safe (pref at a relatives) then set up the DCs bedrooms and main front room. Put Pics up and make it homely.

It could actually work in your favour because you actually have less clutter floating around and house will look tidy.

FIL can help but all friends have small dcs so probably have enough on their plates.

Think we will try to pile everything on spare room and sort it later.

Sister has already made it quite clear that I cannot expect any help from her at such a stressful time of year. She has table decorations to make

Love your sister (Twat )

• Book any pets into 'care' for a few days - including the day before and day after the move.

• Put any comforters the kids have somewhere very safe.

• Put wine/beer/glasses/snacks handy in the car.

• Lots of packing boxes/tape/marker pens.

• Label every single box with rough contents as well as which room it is for.

• Load your car with stuff you want accessible. Toys for the kids, kettle & tea/coffee making things, snacks etc.

• Label the Christmas Decorations In BIG letters and put BATHROOM for the room (easier to find).

• Put CD player/Ipod/whatever - with Chrismtas Music in a well labled box.

• Put clean covers on the duvets, then put them and a set of clean sheets for each bed, in a big black bag and label which bed it's for (easy to make them up then).

• Put all the 'fixings' of the beds in a bag (one for each bed) and tape the bag to the bed.

• Put all Christmas 'treats' in one box, clearly labled.

• Organise a Christmas Tree - artificial is easier of course, but personally I have to have a real one

When you get to the other end:

• Guide all boxes into the appropriate rooms

• Make up all of the beds

• Unpack the tea things/wine

• Put up Christmas tree

• Unpack all Christmas stuff

• Set up Christmas music

Unpack what you NEED
Organise Christmas
Unpack the rest later
x

Thanks chippin.

I have cut and paste to my todo list

we did a rush move a couple of years ago and rather than hire expensive packers and unpackers, i booked 4 girls from the cleaning company in london i use to help pack (£7ph) and used the same girls to help me unpack the boxes they packed back into the same furniture etc (and clean) at new house... a few hundred pounds well spent! so if you can afford to hire the help, i would!

Oh and make sure the TV/FVF player is up and running as well, it's the perfect babysitter distraction for a few hours minutes

Are you moving far?

Are you looking forward to being in the new house?

Yes, hunting down a Sky engineer is my top priority.

I am looking forward to new house, in between panic attacks.

I mainly just want a clean start to the New year, hence ignoring all advice to put it off til then.

I tend to think that stress expands the available space, so may as well do it all in one go.

Are you buying/renting/CH?

I think you might as well move ASAP - you are right about the stress, but also, you'll only spend more time faffing at this end, you might as well have the time at the other end and get organsied for the New Year & new start :)

Are the kids moving schools etc (or are they too young?)

What condition is the new house in? All lovely or in need of some TLC. (not relevant to your thread at all - just nosey interested :)).

No should be all stress free from that point of view. Same area, same school and we have a few days cross over between house we are buying and current rental.

Just the physical move and hoping the DC don't play up too much. I'm hoping the excitement of Christmas will compensate fir upheaval.

Go to someone else's forxmas dinner
or book a restaurant

Nah - stay at home for Christmas dinner - chill out, have fun with the kids, don't stress.

It all sounds like it should be fine - a few days cross over (so no hassle with getting out on time/cleaning etc), local area - no other big changes - all great.

we recently moved so it's all still fresh! It wasn't half as bad as i thought it might be. Make sure you/the movers TAPE the remote controls to the TV and label the boxes well (ours just wrote "odds and sods", "misc" and "this and that" on a lot of boxes which added a little extra frisson to proceedings when it came to unpacking! ;-)

Can echo what others have said re setting up DC's rooms as soon as you arrive. Maybe get one of those pop-up, ready-decorated, pre-lit Xmas trees so you're good to go as soon as you get to the new house? Perhaps order a grocery delivery for the evening you arrive? Bring some Xmas dvds just in case TV won't work (long story, but basically, the bloody Sky man didn't turn up for WEEKS!) and get a pre-charged internet dongle for similar reasons! Enjoy it - it will be wonderful to settle into your new home together just before Xmas!

I abandoned the tought of moving until January as I just couldn't do it all ( dh is crappio at things like packing) so I wish you all the luck in the word my it all go smoothly and pack the corkscrew next to the wine and glasses ......

We moved last weekend so have had a bit longer to get adjusted, we did it all in one day, my parents took our 4dd's for the day so recoils crack on.

I had a box with cereal milk and drinks in so they were to hand.

Yay it's not just me then! We're moving on Monday

That's a great list ChippingIn I will be following it slavishly.

Grumpia, are you in as much denial as me?

You are not alone! We moved in to our new home on Friday. Removal company have warned us that they may not be able to deliver our stuff on Monday due to the weather - but we have heating, light, airbeds, clothing and Sainsburys round the corner.

We will survive!