Moving to Dallas--It's A Family Affair

By Julie DeLong, A-1 Freeman Moving Group 

Small Children

Toddlers as well as preschoolers aren't a lot of help, but they're so fantastically entertained by empty cartons, rolls of tape, and bubble wrap that you really don't mind. Offer a four-year-old free rein with packing materials and you could blow through their belongings prior to them getting uninterested and commence consuming the packing peanuts. Seriously, provide your littlest children a box and some tape and go to work. Ask them which toys and games they want to donate to pals or share with other youngsters they don't know--it's a little thing that enables them to feel as though they've got some say in the process.

Elementary Age

When you have children in this age group, they're in the sweet place--old enough to be helpful, however, not so old that they've robust points of view. Here are a few jobs a 3rd grader can easily accomplish.

· Go through their things and select items to keep.

· Put boxes together, organize packing materials, put color-coded labels on boxes.

· Put giveaway items in bags and cartons.

· Help empty closets and also drawers to get ready for the professional movers.

This is a good age group to discuss giving gently used games and toys to charitable groups, and to explain the reason why you pick the ones you do. If the non-profit you choose possesses a thrift retail outlet, take your kids in and let them see precisely what it looks like.

Junior High School

Pre-teens and teenagers are theoretically capable of genuinely pitching in, but it usually takes some imagination to make that occur. These kids are departing from pals, sports activities, and school, and may be more interested in small-time sabotage rather than really getting in the groove and packing up the storage area. If you need to use bribery to get them on board, it is sort of a small price to pay.

· Offer to allow them to select the paint and pieces of furniture for their new bedrooms.

· Acquire their input on what they'd love to obtain in a new home. Clearly, they must be reasonable, but tell them their thoughts matter. Inquire about yards (trees, playhouses, area for a putting green), basements, rec rooms, and other stuff that might be on their wish lists. When you view homes online, show them what you prefer as well as what you do not--and express the reasons why.

· Advertise unwanted belongings and split the earnings. Consider various selling sites to figure out which companies are the best. A good number of web pages require that sellers be 18 years old, so you will need to set the accounts up and handle the listings, however your teenagers can take the pictures, upload them, and prepare the product descriptions.

· Go the garage sale route and let them organize the tables and put price tags on items.

High School and College

These are the tricky years--it's not easy to move at any age, however it is particularly difficult for high schoolers. The good thing is that while they may be fairly sad, they are old enough to accomplish a little heavy lifting whilst they pout. Here are several things your teens can perform to pitch in.

· Help with disassembling furniture.

· Smile and allow them to adorn their bedrooms completely like they desire. They're moving out soon enough, and you could definitely paint over their choice.

· Get up in the attic space and get items down--teenagers are far more nimble compared to their parents (and the majority of professional movers will not enter the attic space).

· Drive loads of things to the second hand outlets or perhaps the dump. Buy their gasoline and junk food along the way.

· Arrange trips returning to visit friends or go on and plan for pals to come visit.

· Permit them to sell their own things online if they are over 18 years of age and keep the proceeds.

· If you do a yard sale, let them handle the funds and the internet sales.

Be truthful--if you've got children attending college, it's completely probable that you've already converted that bedroom into a workout room or an office. Whenever your college students are home on a break before you move to Dallas, make sure they sort through all their old cartons of stuff--you'll still have to move them, but perhaps they'll purge enough to cut down on the volume.