10 Ways to Stay Sane (with kids) While Packing

1. Let your children write all over the boxes. Who cares if you won’t be able to read where the box goes?
2. Give your children boxes to pack, too. Repack them after they are in bed.
3. Allow your children to have whatever they want while you’re packing. You can clean up the mess later.
4. Never pack anything that is part of the kids’ normal day. Anything that is theirs must wait until the morning of the move to pack. Otherwise they get really weird and start bawling.
5. Throw stuff away. If you don’t remember why you have it, how to use it, or don’t have room for it – toss it. Don’t try to have a garage sale, that’s even harder.
6. Allow yourself a little time to reminisce when you pack up something with special importance.
7. Be generous – give away as much as you can. Clothes, baby stuff, toys – just because you have it, doesn’t mean you have to move it if you don’t need it.
8. NEVER open an old box you haven’t looked in for a while in front of your children. They will inevitably find something in there that they want to keep or play with – even if its trash. Then you have MORE stuff lying around!
9. Find someone with a truck that you can borrow for a week to take stuff to the dump at your leisure. We haven’t found this friend yet. The garage is now a landfill.
10. Stop when you are tired. Otherwise you find yourself standing, turning in circles looking for things to fill the box so you can tape it. It’ll still going to be there tomorrow!