Moving to rented with two littl'uns. Any tips?

[julietbat]

We have just sold our property and were planning on moving into our 'dream' house until we got gazumped. So, we'll now be moving into rented until we find somewhere to buy.

We have two children; 2.11 yr old dd and 1.4 yr old ds. The thought of moving with the pair of them in tow fills me with such dread but obviously lots of people have done it so it can't be impossible?!

Please does anyone have any tips for how to make this experience a slightly less horrific one than I'm anticipating?

Thanks.

Rent somewhere slightly scuffy?

We looked at a couple of place while the DSs were pre-school. One was pristine and looked like a show home, and the other was "tired". We went for "tired". The agents were really nice at the end, charged us for a professional clean only as the landlord was having the place painted when we moved out.

You might be renting for longer than you think, so don't put stuff in store assuming you will have bought somewhere before you need your winter clothes (this is a tip from my mum!)

Then we used the tenancy to improve our buying power. We had a 12 month lease we could end at any time after 6 months on 2 months' notice. We found a house and offered to exchange quickly, with the seller able to pick any completion date on 1 month's notice, as long as completion was on or before the last day of our tenancy. This put the seller in an effectively chain-free situation, and meant he accepted our offer rather than a higher one. It was at the top of the market mind you!

We rented with 2 kids and agree with pp that it is good to go for something livable in but not pristine! Often landlords with this type of property say no children in any case!

We found buying lots of plastic storage boxes was good for organising the kids toys and it saves on having to sort out cupboards properly etc.

We also got a few tester pots of magnolia paint or the closest we could find so scrapes and bashes could be tarted up a bit without having to redecorate.

My thing was that we had to have a halfway decent bathroom - even when renting the thought of having to bath the kids in a squalid bath was undo-able for me!

Good luck - will put you in a much stronger position when you find the right house to buy as I'm sure you know!

We did it for almost 2 years - the twins were just 3 when we moved into the first rental house and we had a new baby part way through too. We had two rental houses, both were newly decorated - cream walls, cream carpets, pristine condition. I couldn't have lived anywhere that wasn't like that - the thought of having a new baby in a house that wasn't clean and where the carpets were tatty etc would have been a definite no no.

We just had to adopt a few more rules - shoes off at the door, we bought a runner for the hall to minimise the dirt on the hall carpet, were careful when we did messy activities - painting, glitter etc (put plastic sheeting down etc), only ate / drank at the table to avoid spillages, always had the hoover out etc! There is also a product called Magic eraser by JML or something like that which removes little scuff marks off walls etc. We also did the same with the little match pots to paint over a part of the hall wall where it had got bashed and marked. We didn't have professional cleaners at the end of the tenancies, but we did have a babysitter for a day each time so we could blitz the houses to ensure they were sparkling. In any tenancy there is (or should be) a provision for fair wear and tear - if you're living in a property for a year or more, they can't expect it to look exactly like it did before - yes, if you've damaged something / stained a carpet / broken something then its fair you replace it / pay for it, but you still have to live.

My top tip would be to put everything you're storing in numbered boxes - and write a list of everything in each box (i.e. Box 1 - childrens books, Box 2 - baby monitor, steriliser etc) and then store the boxes in number order. We were very good with the first part, but then just piled up the boxes in a random order in the cellar. We spent hours in the cellar trying to locate "Box 76" or whatever - arghh!

Thanks for your messages. The tips are great. I can see that 'scruffy' would be a good idea over pristine - especially if you've ever met my ds. We don't need to live in luxury while we're renting, in fact we really don't want to be spending too much money so we'll be looking to downsize a little while we're looking to buy. But smashingtime you're right, clean is really important, especially in the bathroom (and kitchen and bedrooms, etc!).

fridayschild thank your mum for me - I hadn't even thought about seasons of clothes but who knows how long this will take...?!

And Mandy your suggestion of numbering boxes is both very very sensible and at the same time terrifying that I'm going to have to try to be that organised instead of throwing everything into a heap which is what I'd love to do instead!

We're in rented at the moment while doing up our house - DS2 was 18 months and DS1 4 when we moved in.

Downsize where you can with their toys etc. Definitely number everythign you're storing and if poss write what is in the box on the box.

And get someone to do the packing and moving for you - if you can get someone to help look after the kids on moving day so you can focus on moving the stuff so much the better.

Its fine though - we'll be moving back into our house in April so have it all to go through again...