Moving House 101

[scrappydappydoo]

Right..
Dh has new job.
We need to move.
We two dds aged 2 and almost 4.
I have spent countless hours on rightmove and think I've found the area just not the house. I'm beginning to feel very overwhelmed with it all. Just the pressure of finding a house, a good school and then my head starts exploding about how to deal with telling the dd's and the actual practicalities of a move. We've only moved once pre-children across town, with a van and some mates and now we will be mid-chain, proper removal approx 2 hrs away. wibble
What are you top tips for moving (especially with preschoolers)
TIA

It's not going to be as bad as you think.

Schools are priority. Once you've found the school, go and walk as much of the catchment as poss. When you look for the house, don't just look at houses. Walk around, find the nearest shop, nearest park, nearest bus stop, main road, pick up the feel of it, have lunch in a cafe. Kerb crawl if you have to! Spend a whole day or two days. Stay in a travelodge or something.

Get your moving company to pack everything -- that way it's all insured.

Don't worry about the children. They'll be fine, more than fine, if you are!

Designate a room in the new house as dump room for six months.

I am in the process of moving with a 5 year old and an almost 2 year old. I am with you - it is immensely stressful. Hope it goes smoothly for you. At the moment I am finding it so miserable that I just want to give up.

From the last time I moved, I second getting your movers to pack for you. Made our life much easier last time.

Also, your four year old will like to pack her own box with special things and the two year old will like to copy.

Get them a new baby suitcase each and a fun box each and the four year old will really love that.

Once you know the area is for you, visit all the local estate agents to tell them exactly what you're looking for, and ask them to call you as soon as they hear of suitable houses. It'll save you hours of trolling through rightmove, and means you get first pick (sometimes it takes the agents days or even weeks to upload the details). It also means you're less likely to view unsuitable houses, because things can look different on paper than they are in the flesh, and the agent will have seen the house so you can grill them before making the journey.

Make the first enquiry in person because they're much more likely to remember you then, but make sure you call weekly too, so they know you're still looking. Be very nice to them all along, they're your new best friends!

If you can stomach renting then do, gets a really good feel for an area but also the roads on which to live and which ones to avoid.

We relocated and we were lucky but now know which roads are problematic re parking, teenagers hanging out, the people who have all the parties, and the parents who let their kids run riot

If not then I agree with probono, walk around, talk to people, dog walkers are very friendly and informative.

Be careful living too near any school as sometimes it is chaos parking wise at drop off and pick up. The police regularly patrol near my son's school, mainly because for a primary it has 650+ pupils and so parking on the streets around the school is awful. Has to be seen to be believed.

I agree about the dump room, also get the removal people to pack (trust me I have literally just moved house)

For a bit further down the line, designate one box that holds a couple of mugs, kettle, some tea/coffee and sealed container of milk. Pop in a couple of juices for the kids and a pack of biscuits. And loo roll!

Please rent for a bit, when we moved area's we found a lovely new build 5 bed detached in our price range all was lovely, thank the lord we rented it for 6 months first to get to know the area otherwise we'd have been screwed.
We had one neighbour up on attempted murder of us wife and on the other side an alcoholic who beat his kids.
It all looked so different on rightmove.