How to Motivate Family to Help Move Home

Fancy a trip to a fantasy world where the whole family works as a cohesive unit to reach a common goal?

Yeah, yeah, I know, trying to get the kids to pick up their school bag off the hall floor is hard enough, and as for dragging your spouse away from their favourite TV programme ….. well!

But you have a home move on the horizon and what better way to bring the family together, to generate some excitement, to build a sense of anticipation, than if you all got involved in the home moving process?

And of course, that would relieve all the stress of the home move being piled upon you.

So how do you make moving home more fun, to get the whole family motivated to help with the million and one home moving tasks? Moving home with a family, fun, motivated – not words that would normally be associated with each other, but let’s see what we can do….

A great planning tool is a home moving calendar to help you allocate tasks to each family member. We have already populated a downloadable and printable home moving checklist for you. All you need to do is write the name of the person who is completing that task alongside each entry.

Sounds easy enough in theory, right? But you are going to have to be smart about how and who gets each task. And don’t forget that everyone’s safety should be paramount, so keep the tasks age and ability related.

Declutter the Home

This is one of the most vital home moving tasks and is something that the whole family can get involved in.

The idea here is to reduce the amount of items that are no longer of use to you, and so can be disposed of.

This will reduce packing time and costs and will reduce removal expenses as you will have less to transport.

You should separate the things that you want to keep, sell or donate. Try to be as ruthless as possible, if you have not used the item in the past year, are you really going to ever use it again?

You may like to read: The Ultimate Guide to Decluttering for a Home Move. Here we look at decluttering every room of the home, with useful tips on not how to physically declutter but mentally declutter as well. This is an invaluable guide to help you save money on your moving costs.

Here are a few ideas on how to divvy up this task amongst the family.

• Older kids can declutter their own rooms.
• Everyone can thin out their own clothes collection. (See Bonus Home Move Game #1 later in this guide)
• Encourage the youngsters to donate any unwanted toys to a hospital or charity. Then give them the task of sorting out those unwanted toys.
• Your spouse is likely to have a preference for decluttering the shed or the kitchen. Just don’t let them linger too long reminiscing over long-forgotten tools or cookery books.
• Partners can work together to sort through places like the loft so that you can decide together what stays and what goes, as some of the items are likely to be of sentimental value.
• If you are having a car boot sale to get rid of your excess of items, how about getting the teenagers to organize that?
• The younger kids could make signs for the car boot or yard sale.
• Teenagers can post any items online that they want to sell or donate that way.

How about incentivizing the family to get the home decluttered by suggesting that any proceeds from the sale of unwanted items go towards a family treat like a takeaway or a day out?

How to Make Moving Home Easier and Less Stressful for the Family

The main focus here is on how to make moving easier emotionally for the family whilst coaxing the family into helping with the packing for your home move.

You will find ways to make moving fun for kids and adults alike, ideas to turn packing into a game, ways to make the best use of the skills your family have, and get the home move packing finished together, as a family.

• Announce the move to your fantastic new home as soon as you can to the whole family. Try to find fun ways to announce the home move, and make an event of it. Call a family meeting, have a family favourite meal, and reveal all the amazing new things about your new neighbourhood, as well as all the advantages of your home move.
• Have the children make a home moving calendar, much like an advent calendar, making it a big occasion for each morning countdown to moving day.
• The more fun ways to move home you can find, the less it will seem like a chore, so everyone will be more willing to help.
• Use more small rather than large packing boxes. These will be easier for the family to pack, handle and unpack.
• Someone who is usually really organized could label all the cables for the electrical appliances so that you know how to reconnect them.
• For anybody that struggles with manual tasks, how about getting them to label the moving boxes.
• If one person is particularly good on the internet give them any internet-related tasks to do, such as change of address, selling unwanted items, and keeping documents organized.
• If another person needs a constant flow of work to keep them motivated, give them a time-consuming task like packing fragile items.
• Take regular but short breaks, with a few family favourite treats or snacks.
• Vary the tasks. So if someone is packing in the morning, they can clean in the afternoon.
• Give incentives to get tasks done. The kids can go to Aunty Jane’s on Friday for the day if they finish packing their bedroom. That gives the kids a treat and you a free day to do tasks that the kids cannot help with.
• Having the radio on or creating a playlist of favourite songs will create a happy atmosphere.
• You will probably want to pack any fragile or valuable items yourself, but somebody could assist by making up the boxes for you.
• Teenagers could pack their own rooms.
• Younger children could label their own moving boxes.
• Kids can pack linens, bedding, towels etc. Anything that is not challenging, sentimental or fragile.
• An older teenager could complete the change of addresses as the majority of notifications will be via email. Just ensure that the list of companies or people to contact is comprehensive and is on the change of address checklist so that you know exactly who has been notified.
• Have someone take plenty of photos of the whole family during the moving process so that you have a photographic record of your home move.
• Spend family time researching fun and interesting places to visit in your new neighbourhood.
• If you have children who are too young to help with the home move, alternate babysitting duty between yourself and your partner or older teenagers.
• Plan to throw a home warming party which will give the family an event to look forward to in the new home.
• Let the kids help you design their bedroom layout or décor.
• Help the children to create a moving home scrapbook. It could include things like contact details for their friends, photos of the home they are moving from, and pictures or lists of places to visit in their new neighbourhood.

Motivating the Family to Help Move Home

Throughout the home-moving process try to keep a positive outlook as your family will pick up on any stress and negativity you are feeling.

Incorporate as many ways to make moving fun for the whole family, and also to create a sense of adventure into the home move, as you can.

Games and small rewards will keep the youngsters happy. And don’t forget that you need motivation too, so set a goal, and when you reach it, reward yourself with a treat.

Sometimes though the reluctance to offer a helping hand when moving home may signal more deep-rooted problems, especially if it is your spouse. ‘I want to move home but my partner doesn’t’ is quite common but together you can work through the issue and come to an amicable solution.

You may like to read: My Partner Wants to Move – I Don’t – Now What? This guide is dedicated to finding compromises when one of you wants to move home and the other does not. With lots of sensible and practical advice, it could offer the solution you are looking for.

Motivating teenagers to help pack for a home move, or even to generate some enthusiasm for the home move, may prove to be a challenge.

You know your teenager best, so find a task that will keep their interest, or you can offer an incentive such as if they declutter their room, they will have space for a make-up table or a play station in their bedroom in the new home.

You may like to read: Tips for Moving Home with a Teenager which includes plenty of tips from how to tell your teenager you are moving home, to how to help your teenager cope with moving away from friends and family.

One last home-moving trick or indeed life skill, that will bond the whole family and help the family cope with the emotional effects of moving home, is to use some stress relieving techniques.

Even the most perfectly planned home move can be stressful and there are plenty of things that could go wrong on moving day, but with a positive and relaxed attitude, coupled with a robust moving day plan, all will end well.

Essential Reading:  How to De-stress after the Stress of Moving Home. In this guide, we offer some ways to help relieve all the stress that is often associated with a family home move.

5 Bonus Ways to Make Moving Home Fun

Bonus Home Moving Game #1:  This game will ensure your home is thoroughly decluttered: During the decluttering process if one person struggles to decide on what to keep or throw, have a pile that can be for a family vote. At the end of the day turn it into a family game. Keep or throw. The person with the most items left that should have been thrown out, as voted for by other family members, buys the rest of the family a treat.

Bonus Home Moving Game #2: How to make packing home fun: In the guide to choosing the right boxes for your home move, which is below, you will find some trivia on the humble cardboard box. Why not let the family read all about the history and fun facts of cardboard boxes, then turn it into a family trivia game? Each correct answer could earn a small reward.

How to Choose the Right Boxes for Your Home Move. This is a super practical and fun guide. Not only does it include some invaluable information about which boxes are best for packing certain items, but it contains lots of fun facts about cardboard boxes.

Bonus Home Moving Game #3: Moving to a new neighbourhood: Compile a list of fun things to do, places to visit, interesting historic facts, the best cake store, or anything else in your new neighbourhood that would interest the family. Give each person a copy of the list to study, then hold a family quiz. Or omit certain details from the list then get the family to fill in the missing details.

Bonus Moving Game #4: How to unpack quickly after moving: Hide pieces of a jigsaw puzzle in boxes that the children will be helping to unpack, such as their bedroom boxes. As each box is emptied, a piece or two of the jigsaw will be found, and the unpacking should take no time at all as the kids will be keen to complete the puzzle. The same trick might work for your spouse by hiding treats, or getting out of chore vouchers, in each box (a slip of paper with ‘no washing up for you on Tuesday’ for example).

Bonus Moving Game #5: Fun with cardboard boxes: Let the children use the emptied packing boxes to build a fort, play den, car or dragon. Or why not have a competition to see who can make the most creative thing from a cardboard box?

We hope you found this guide useful and if you have any great ideas for motivating family during a home move why not drop them in the comments below?