Packing Kids' Stuff

Moving with kids is always a little challenging, especially if they are resistant to the move itself. The trick is to prepare them for moving then get them involved. By staying involved in the process, they'll feel they're part of a team and more in control of a situation where they sometimes feel helpless.

Where to Start?

1. Prepare Them For the Move:
   • First, tell your child about the move. Try to explain why you're moving and how it will affect them. Read more...
   • Prepare them for moving. Get them involved; hold family meetings; have moving discussions. Read more...
   • Purchase or loan books from the library to help kids move. Go Here For a List of Titles

Gather What You'll Need

Remember throughout this process to remain sensitive to how your child is experiencing this move. Moving is traumatic, so children will feel scared and uncertain.

1. Take a Trip to an Office Supply Store or Craft Store

   With your child, visit a craft store or office supply store and check out some fun materials for them to use to pack their stuff, such as:

   • Colorful stickers
   • Markers
   • Special Box: This is where they can keep their essentials - the things they'll need for the trip
   • Fun Labels: To decorate and identify their boxes
   • A Journal or Diary: to record the move event
   • Address Book
   • Scrapbook: to keep photos and memorabilia of friends, school, and achievements

2. Get Packing Supplies
   • Medium and Large-sized Boxes (4-6 cubic feet)
   • Packing Tape
   • Bubblewrap
   • Blank Newsprint
   • Marker to Label
   • Plastic bins For Donations

Determine What to Pack

1. Go Through the Child's Room With Them

   During this step, be aware that children will try to hold onto their things a little more tightly than they usually would. Moving is all about change and the more their lives are changing, the tighter they'll hold on to the things they can. Children often feel like their losing so many things they love when they move - school, friends, teachers, playgrounds, a home they love - that they'll want to keep that old doll or ragged sweater - things that make them feel secure.

   • If possible, provide older children with a blueprint or room dimensions of their own space. Describe what things their room will hold or if new furniture may be needed. Try to get them to imagine their new space and start to design how they'd like their new room to look - talk about colors and designs, storage ideas, work spaces and reading spots. This will help them sort and select the items they want to keep for their new spaces.

   • Children 0-6: Go through their toys, books and clothes with them to determine what belongs in the "keep pile" and what belongs in the "sell or donate" pile. You may also want to decide at this point which pieces of furniture will be moved. If a child is starting to out grow a bed, think about selling it then purchasing a new one after your move.
   • Children 7-11: Go through their room with them, giving instructions on what needs to be sorted, the rules around why something gets moved (do they use it or wear it?), and ask them to make their own keep and donate piles.

     Provide them with plastic bins where they can store the things they want to sell or donate. Try to get children excited or interested in donating their items to a local charity or selling them in a garage sale.

     After they've made their piles, go through both to ensure they're giving away what's appropriate and not keeping things they don't need. Make sure you remain sensitive to what they're asking to keep: because moving is traumatic and sometimes children feel like their losing everything they once loved, they may try to hold onto their things a little tighter.

   • 12 and Older: For kids this age, allow them to do as much of the sorting and packing as possible. Feeling in control of their own spaces is important at this age, specifically if they're feeling that the rest of the move is out of their control. Try to be tolerant of their decisions and respect their spaces. Again, provide them with keep and donate bins so they can sort their things accordingly.

Get Packing

1. Prepare the Essentials Box

   Their essentials box should contain all those things they'll need for the trip to the new house and for the first few nights. This box won't contain clothes or toiletries, but items that they want to keep them occupied or to remind them of their old home. Most children pack a few books, activity books, puzzles, address books, diaries, MP3 players or handheld computer games. Encourage children to think ahead and to have things at hand to keep them occupied.

2. Packing
   • Pack the clothes, shoes and practical items they'll need first. Make sure you include enough supplies for the trip and for a few nights at the new place. This will allow time for the moving truck to arrive and/or for unpacking of boxes.
   • Depending on your child's age, you may need to do most of the packing. Even if you have a very young child, you can ask them to label or decorate the packed boxes or help seal them with the packing tape.
   • Older children can do a lot of their own packing - just make sure they have instructions on how to pack things, making sure you're close at hand for questions or concerns.
   • Make sure that all liquids are properly closed or emptied before they're packed. Squirt guns, chemistry sets and paints all need to be checked before being packed.