You pick up the phone one day and your husband says ‘honey, the company wants me to move to _______." In most cases the first reaction is ‘hell no and heck no and NO WAY'. You give reasons that seem concrete "But we just got the yard re-done! But Billy likes his school! But I can't move away from my parents!"…..and you are met with either silence or facts about the new location. After a few weeks- it becomes a reality, and believe it or not and against your protests you are INDEED MOVING. In your heart you know this is best for your husband's career and ultimately best for your whole family. And when you are SAHM you really can't use the argument ‘but my work is here'. Nope. YOUR work is wherever your family lives. And that family is MOVING. So accept it. And get busy…you have a lot to do.
Get the house ready to list. Now this painful but you need to take down all those perfectly framed photos of little Billy. And the wedding photos? Yeah those need to go too. New buyers get subconsciously depressed thinking they will be moving into SOMEONE ELSE'S home. Make your home void of any ‘personal touches'. Make it look like a model home. Bare minimum furniture. Bare minimum accessories. And no personal photos. NONE.
Clean like crazy. Not just the kitchen, but also the porch, the yard, heck it is even time to degrease the driveway. Clean = NEW in most buyer's minds….so the cleaner your home looks (and smells) the more comfortable the new buyer will be with ‘turn key' move-in.
Start packing NOW. Get rid of absolutely anything that you can do without. Move it into a POD system or a storage unit. Even the garage is better than having in the house. Yup, that means the giant lazy-boy rocker you knew was too big for the family room but you had to have it…it needs to go. Rooms get bigger with every piece of furniture you move out.
Be available. None of this ‘call for appointment to see home'…nope- you want to be open for business from 8:00am to 6pm. Allow your realtor to put a lock box on the house. Afraid someone might see the house when there are dishes in the sink? That is okay. It is better than them not seeing the house at all.
Get Organized. You can research and locate everything you will need in your new life online. Dry Cleaners, Daycares, Doctors etc. And don't forget have all school and medical records sent to your new choices. The more you can do before the move the better off you will be.
Smile. Moving can be a huge opportunity for you and your family. You are now able to make new friends, see new places and enjoy each other like never bef
ore. Enjoy it. Moving can be a huge blessing in so many ways. Is it stressful? You bet. But it gives you an opportunity to show yourself and your husband how you can bend and not break. Just think how impressed your family will be when you take it all in stride. You can do this. Yes you can.
Photos courtesy of this site. Which offers some great moving advice.
Marcy Massura writes weekly for Blissful Buzz. She has moved (cross country) four times in 10 years. She also has done several years of home staging for realtors. So moving is in her bones. You can find her daily at The Glamorous Life Association. She encourages you to come visit no matter where you live!
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I've moved cross-country four times in the past three years, and I am currently holding my breath to see if my husband's company is going to move us internationally before this baby is due in December (NOOOO, PLEASE!!!) I wonder if I should eventually blog about my moving to-do list that has evolved to such detail that I even have my refrigerator staples replaced within 24 hours after a move.
Great overview of a move! I'll definitely Stumble this.
I've never left my zip code.
This was my mom's life. We lived in 6 different places from the day I was born until the day I left home. Every time we moved it seemed like exactly the wrong time for me. When I was twelve. When I was sixteen.
OTOH, for me and my family…we moved once, and I grieved and mourned losing my wonderful home and city and friends. But as it turned out….I ended up loving where we moved. And it was a great thing for our son (he entered 3rd grade in the new school). And it was a great new career change for me, and a wonderful career move for my husband.
so you never know.
Any chance we could become neighbours???