moving house with 16.5m DS

[Ula]

Anyone have advice for moving house with an almost 1.5 year old?

We're staying in the same city, and his daycare won't change. But is there anything I can do to prepare him for the move? Like reading books about moves? Does anyone know of good books?

My other question is the actual logistics of the move. We were thinking of sending him to the in-law's for the day of the move, and the night, and then bringing him to the new house the next day. That would give us enough time to set up his room, and get other things unpacked as well. But that means he'd never say 'bye' to the old apartment, and it would be a big shock to be in a new house.

Am I just overthinking this? Lots of you have moved - any advice on what worked and what didn't?

Thanks!
Ula

[Deb_in_oz]

we moved from an apartment to a house about 40 min away when alex was 15 mo old.  i read her a book about moving house and packed a few boxes a day (and she played in empty boxes- and semi full ones too).  honestly i think they are still babies at that age and she has no memories of the old apartment ...

what we did on the day was take her to our best friend's house and she spent the day with them and napped (SHOCKINGLY IN THEIR STROLLER WHILE AT THEIR SON'S SOCCER MATCH).  we set up her room 1st and then brought her home for the evening and overnight.

good luck - if i remember correctly we had zero adjustment issues

[Brandonsmom]

I don't think you'll have a lot of problems. My best friend is moving 2 states away with a 15 month old and one on the way! What they did was just bring the baby with them when they looked at the house and talked about how this was going to be their new home. If you have any new problems that develope they will probably go away in time. Good idea to get a book about moving. The more you talk about it the better I think. Good luck!

[Erin M]

We moved 15 hours away from our old house (with a 3 week gap between houses where we stayed with my parents and the ILs) when my dd1 was 15/16 months old.  We talked about it a little, though it didn't seem to make a big difference to her.  She played in the boxes and watched us pack everything up.  The one thing we did do was keep her room 100% the same until the day before the move, then we just packed everything up really quickly before she went to bed so she only had one night with her stuff all messed up.  We kept her "special" toys out and made sure she had access to them.  Our stuff was in storage for a few weeks, so it got all mixed up, but since you said it's a local move, make sure that his stuff goes on the truck (car, whatever) last so you can get it off first.  Label all of his boxes very clearly in huge letters so you'll be able to find it quickly.  Unpack his room first and get it set, so things stay as consistent as possible.  LOL, with my dd the movers showed up at 9 AM and I had her room ready for her nap after lunch I was so desperate for things to be normal again.  It sounds fine for him to be at the ILs overnight, just show him where everything is when you move into the new house -- my dd was totally fine with the idea of the new house and she definitely doesn't have any recollection of living anywhere else. 

HTH!

[Sharondp]

As Toby has had 3 different addresses before his 2nd birthday, I'm quite the expert at moving with a LO!

He was 22 months the last time we moved, and here's what we did:
- Went to the library to get a book on moving house - read it lots about a month before the move
- Got Toby involved in packing - usually had to repack his boxes but it made him more involved.
- The day before the move we got him to pack everything he would need for the following 2 days into his own little suitcase, including toys, snacks,  PJ's, day clothes etc.
- The day of the move we waited for the removal lorry to arrive, let Toby see stuff being loaded, then took him to a friends house to play. I went and collected him around 2pm, when all our stuff had been unloded, but we hadn't organised anything
- Toby's room was then the first to be organised - I did that while DH did the kitchen
- Toby then helped us to do the playroom the next day (Sunday) He then went to the childminder as normal the following week whilst we got everything else sorted.

Hope there's a few helpful tips in there for you!

[Ula]

Thanks ladies - that's a lot of great help. I've gotten a book about moving, but he doesn't seem interested in it at all because it doesn't have any flaps to lift

There's boxes everywhere, and he doesn't seem to care at all. He's a bit too young to help pack, but we'll get him to do some boxes with his toys the day before the move.

The movers aren't coming until the afternoon, so we'll keep him home the night before, and send him to the ILs in the morning. Then we can take apart his room and pack it up. He'll spend the night at the ILs and come to the new house, hopefully all set up, the next morning.  It'll be a bit of a shock, I'm sure, but like you all said, it'll likely be a quick adjustment.

Thanks for all the advice. I'll let you all know how it went.

Cheers!

[Deb_in_oz]

Ula - one of the books i have is lift the flap and the girls still read it for fun. It was 2nd hand so i don't know if you can get it but it is called "Little Hippo's new house".