Moving to Austin--It's A Family Affair

By Julie DeLong, A-1 Freeman Moving Group 

Small Children

Toddlers and preschoolers are not loads of help, but they are so wonderfully entertained simply by unfilled boxes, rolls of tape, and also bubble wrap that you really will not mind. Give a four-year-old free rein with packing supplies and you can plow through their things before they get bored and commence eating the packing peanuts. In all seriousness, provide your youngest kids a box and a little tape and go to work. Find out which playthings they would like to give away to friends or share with different youngsters they don't know--it is a minor item that assists them to feel like they've got some say in the proceedings.

Elementary Age

If you have kids in this age group, they're in the sweet position--old enough to be helpful, however, not so old that they've got solid points of view. Here are a few tasks a third grader can readily complete.

· Sort through their belongings and decide items to give away.

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

· Put giveaway items in bags and boxes.

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

This is an excellent age group to talk about donating gently used toys and games to charitable organizations, as well as to explain why you select the ones you do. In the event the non-profit you choose possesses a thrift store, take your youngsters in and allow them to see exactly what it looks like.

Junior High School

Pre-teens and also teenagers are hypothetically able to truly pitching in, but it may take some creativity to make that happen. These children are departing from friends, sports, and school, and may be more interested in small-time sabotage rather than actually getting in the groove and packing up the basement. If you need to use bribery to get them agreeable, it truly is sort of a modest expense to invest.

· Offer to permit them to pick the shade and pieces of furniture for their new rooms.

· Acquire their feedback on what they'd really like to have in a new home. Definitely, they need to be realistic, but make sure they know their views matter. Ask about back yards (trees, playhouses, area for a putting green), basements, rec rooms, along with other items that could be on their wish lists. When you look at houses on the internet, show them what you prefer as well as what you don't--and talk about the reasons why.

· Advertise old things and divide the proceeds. Try various selling places to determine which of them are the most effective. Most websites require that sellers be 18, thus you will have to set the profile up and control the sale listings, but your teenagers can take the pictures, upload them, and compose the product descriptions.

· Go the yard sale option and permit them to organize the tables and put price tags on things.

High School and College

These are the tricky years--it can be not easy to move at any age, but it is extremely rough for high schoolers. The good thing is that while they're fairly sad, they're old enough to accomplish a little heavy lifting while they pout. Here are some things your teens can do to pitch in.

· Help with taking apart household furniture.

· Smile and allow them to embellish their bedrooms precisely like they desire. They may be moving out soon enough, and you could always paint over their selection.

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

· Drive loads of things to the second hand stores or even the dump. Cover their gasoline and junk food in the process.

· Organize excursions back to see close friends or go ahead and plan for friends to come visit.

· Permit them to sell their own items on the internet should they be more than 18 and keep the profits.

· If you hold a yard sale, permit them to manage the cash and the online sales.

Be truthful--if you have kids attending college, it may be entirely likely that you've already turned that bedroom into a workout room or even an office. When your university students are home on a break before you move to Austin, be sure they sort through all their old boxes of stuff--you are going to still have to move them, but perhaps they can purge enough to cut down on the quantity.