5 Days of Moving Madness- Blog Hop (day 5- Welcome Home)

Welcome Home!  Can you believe it...we have arrived at our new place?  Just a few more steps and you are on your way to settling in to your new place.  I have a few more tips we have learned along the way to finish up your journey.  Pull up a camp chair and let's begin...

Ahhhhh, yes, speaking of the camp chairs...I hope you brought a few!  oops, I think I forgot to remind you of that.  Since we are likely not to see our furniture for a few days we setup camp chairs for a while.  Sitting on the floor gets old.  Assign everyone a buddy!  We pair an older child with a younger one.  This is their person to keep up with during the furniture delivery day, help with unpacking each other's boxes and entertain.  Next task, set up sleeping arrangements.  Everyone to their rooms!  We have them set up their sleeping bags where they think they will want their beds to go to see how it feels. Now is the time to get out the box you marked bedrooms and divide up the sheets.  The morning the movers come, it all goes in the closet and then...the minute the beds get set up in each room the beds. get. made!  There is nothing like a made bed to make you feel one step ahead of the game.  Not to mention in a few hours when your eyes are rolling to the back of your head with exhaustion you will not be searching for sheets and such! Next, put toiletries in the bath room and hang the curtain liner.  See, now don't you feel better?  Plus, the bathroom is almost done. Set up that crock pot!  On moving day, put some chicken in the crock pot, pour a bottle of barbecue sauce on and by the evening you will have an easy dinner ready.  Try to discourage the movers from drooling over it all day. Speaking of movers...have them stack as many boxes in the garage as possible!  You do not want this-

to be in your home.   One- the less the movers bring in, they less they track in.   Two- the less they bring in, the quicker they are done and gone!  At this point, I just want them gone!   Three- at the end of the day you can shut the garage door and be DONE for the night!  No tripping over boxes, no danger of little ones having boxes fall on them and no mounds of boxes and papers driving you crazy. We ask that most boxes are stacked in neat rows with all of the labels facing the same direction and not so high that I cannot reach them.  *note- you may have to repeat these directions several times, but in the end they are thrilled with less back and forth and fewer steps to navigate! Put things in their place- now, not later!  We have found that when you unpack things to where they belong instead of piling things around to come back to later things get done faster.  Otherwise piles grow and get ignored because of the seemingly overwhelming task.  It helps when you have scaled back before you move, read more about that here, and when you know before hand where you want things to go.  You know, that old saying about everything in its place thing.  It works.  Same thing with pictures.  Get them on the wall now.  Don't wait or you will still be looking at them leaning against the wall a year later.  Can I get an amen?

Keep all the broken or damaged things in one box labeled broken.  This is important if you have hired a moving company.  It also keeps it contained and out of the way for the time being.

Yes, that use to be one of my favorite platters.

Take an occasional break from unpacking.  We work HARD the first two days.  But after that I try really hard to designate certain times for unpacking and certain times just for fun.  Make the effort to find the local park, get an ice cream or just explore.  Everyone needs a break from the stress, I promise!

Get back into your routine as soon as possible.  Those who know me know I love a schedule.  Like -on a chart, we are not flexible- schedule. While you might not be that particular, I am here to tell you that we all function better when we are in some kind of routine.  Find your groove and get back to it.  You will be glad you did and it will make you feel at home much faster.
Then, before you know it you are done and settled in!  Welcome home!  Until the next move, at least! ;) ********************************************************************************* I have loved blogging this whole week for you but man, am I tired!  If you missed the first day I would love for you to pop back and read my 10 Commandments of Moving.  Thanks for sharing in the fun, I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have.  If you are new to Family, Faith and Fridays let me say welcome and thanks for joining us.  We try to have a lot of fun, impart a little wisdom and love each each other in between.  Hope you'll come back! Blessings, 


89 other wonderful women joined me on this journey!  I hope you will take some time to read some of what they had to say on every subject under the sun.  They will bless your socks off!  I, for one, am finding a cozy place to curl up in this weekend and read away!