Moving with a Baby in the House

2013 has brought some serious changes to my family and in the last week we moved from Utah, where it was 0 degrees, to sunny San Diego. We spent last week packing and loading up our U-Haul truck so we stayed very busy.

Moving is always a lot of work (although well worth it in our case) but our move was complicated by the fact that we have an 8 month old baby in the house who wants to be held 24 hours a day.

I’ve moved with kids before but never with a young baby. This time around the process of packing and moving has been completely different and I’ve had to take multi-tasking to an entirely new level.

Here are few of the tricks we’ve learned along the way to make moving with a baby just a bit easier:

Accept Help – Whenever you move, I’d always encourage you to accept any help that is offered. That goes double if you have a baby. My little one has figured out that there is something new going on and decided that she wants to be held every second of the day so she doesn’t miss out on anything. I’ve had to recruit baby holders so I can get any packing done at all.

Use a Good Baby Carrier – Babywearing gets me through most days because I can carry my baby while still keeping my hands free. It’s been a lifesaver while moving though because I was still able to make some progress on our move even when I didn’t have an extra set of hands available to hold my baby.

Hire Loading/Unloading Help – It’s hard to carry boxes with a baby on your hip and loading the truck is one area you don’t want to put half your effort into.  We used Moving Help to help us load and unload the truck and those guys were a lifesaver this time around.  Having professional help did so much to alleviate the stress of the move and they did a much better job loading the truck than we could do on our own and, for the first time ever, we arrived at our new home without any damaged furniture.

Have Baby-Safe Areas – My baby isn’t quite mobile yet so I assumed we were safe having her hang out on the floor while we worked. Then we found a Lego in her mouth, despite the fact that we had already looked over the area to make sure it was safe. The process of packing up all your things means you are pulling out all kinds of things with small pieces – especially as you get to the odds and ends stage. Have a few baby-safe areas where you can put baby down for a few minutes at a time worry-free. Putting a port-a-crib in the middle of the room we were working and filling it with toys to occupy the baby helped me get so much done and I knew baby was safe.

Pace Yourself – I’m often tempted to work at a project straight through until it’s done, but that doesn’t work well when you have a baby who wants attention. I could always tell when I was putting too much time into packing and organizing because the baby would clearly let me know she wasn’t getting enough attention. In the middle of our move, she suddenly stopped sleeping through the night, which made it really hard for me to focus during the day. If you pace yourself and take frequent breaks, you’ll find that you’ll actually get quite a bit more done . . . and you won’t lose your sanity in the process.

What are your tips for moving when you have a baby in the house?

In compliance with FTC Guidelines, please note that this post has been sponsored by U-Haul.  I received services to facilitate my review. I was not paid for the review and the opinions are my own. Visit U-Haul for more advice on simplifying your move.