At first sight, relocating could be quite stressful and tiring. Our team, however, has decided to look at it from a different point of view, offering you useful advice on how to actually have fun while preparing, packing, and moving your belongings. Often changing home, city, or country, involves your whole family; you shouldn’t forget about your partner, nor about the little ones. The goal of this piece is to offer advice on how to achieve easy and fun family relocation.
First and foremost, consider the strong sides of everyone
Family relocating mostly means teamwork. You should be clear about what are the strong sides of every family member: who is good at organizing, who would manage the right contacts and who would be the one to find the proper packing materials. Often the moving stress can take over and desperation prevails. In such times, it is important to have someone to count on. Imagine your family is a team of superheroes chasing one goal: a fun and easy family relocation.
We advise you to show everyone that you are counting on their help and that you are grateful for their efforts. This way, you would guarantee yourself enthusiasm and lack of annoyance and conflict during the whole process. A task plan, prepared in advance, is the best starting point for your family relocation. It will help for every member of the family to have their own task to focus on, and it is advisable to ask what everyone would like to take on instead of forcing certain tasks upon them. Here are the separate steps for successful family relocation:
- Start with a clear plan of action
- Discuss the strong sides of every family member
- Define roles
- Create a proper atmosphere
- Show mutual recognition of your efforts
- Allow yourselves to receive small awards
- Remind yourselves of the common goal
Easy family relocation by making a plan
Relocation requires careful and timely planning. The latter is especially important when several people or a whole family are involved. Clear planning will give you a structure to follow, it will help you navigate better in time and detail every activity necessary for a successful family relocation (even the most insignificant ones).
The plan will push you to discuss with your close ones the most important aspects related to the relocation and conform the separate tasks according to everyone’s schedule and preferences, and not last, you would save yourself the chaos, conflicts and pressure. In case you decide to create a plan, make sure it is available to everyone: put it somewhere visible, or upload it online with easy access for every family member. This way, you guarantee clarity of the necessary actions, and even specifics when it comes to set times and third parties with whom communication would be required (moving company, insurance brokers, landlords, decorators, etc.)
Easy family relocation by defining a specific role for everyone
As we already mentioned, defining roles in the process of relocating would help the whole organization: to save time and reduce stress, as well as to allow every family member to do the best they can in what they feel most certain in. Some of the roles they could acquire are:
- Organizer: the person navigating the whole process, and thinking about all necessary actions and their continuity in detail
- Information seeker: a family member who would get detailed information about the different aspects of the moving process (packing hacks, necessary documentation, specifics of the country where you are moving, or specifics of the new accommodation)
- Third parties communicator (such as moving company or traders): the person who would synchronize the dates and deadlines related to the relocation according to the schedule of all parties involved
- Person in charge of all the necessary materials: a person purchasing materials such as boxes, tape, safety paper, markers, and other supplies needed not only for the move itself, but also for moving into a new home (such as furniture, supplies for a smaller apartment, etc.)
- Person in charge of the physical part of the move: a family member who is physically strong and can take on activities such as moving furniture, lifting and carrying heavy boxes
- Person who is good at sorting belongings for packing: it is usually the family member who organizes the home, is aware of the location of individual belongings, is organized and keeps clean
We're sure that if you've already had to organise a move, more potential roles will pop into your mind. Closeness within your family is your biggest trump card in this case, as it allows you to objectively assess who is good at what.
Family relocation in a nice atmosphere
You can also ensure a happy family relocation by creating a fun and upbeat atmosphere. You can do this in a number of ways. Here are some of them:
- Select interesting music: you can choose some of each family member's favourite songs. Music definitely gives energy. And what better reason for positive energy than a family move?
- Choose colourful packing materials: they would surely delight the little ones. The boxes you normally stash your items in for moving can become a drawing space for more artistic children.
- Rely on nutritious meals: although fun, family relocation can be tiring. Of course, it all depends on your pace of work, the time you have and the tasks at hand, but fatigue usually leaves its mark. Varied and delicious food would help you and your family feel more fulfilled as you prepare to move into a new home.
Turn family relocation into a game
This step would require a dose of creativity on your part. It is particularly suitable when it comes to moving with small children. With the right approach, a fun family relocation is far from impossible. We advise you to add a playful element, for example by presenting the whole process as a competition involving daily goals. Among them you can include:
- Children sorting their clothes by type or colour
- Sorting different types of belongings
- Separating with unnecessary ones
- Preparing everything needed for your pet
- Creating essentials bags that include the items most needed when moving (toiletries, electronics, clothing and bedding, documents)
- Helping you fold the boxes to carry your belongings
By turning the family move into a game, you allow children to show responsibility while having fun and completing some of the planned activities. To boost their enthusiasm, you can even include small gifts or interesting prizes.
Step by step closer to the finish through small prizes for the whole family
Apart from being an obligation, the moving process can also be seen as a good opportunity to spend more time with your loved ones. Often, in the hectic daily routine, family activities are neglected, and we get carried away with our own commitments. The time you plan to devote to moving could actually improve communication with your family members. Apart from the common end goal and teamwork, seemingly small activities can also be cohesive and allow you to take a breath of fresh air during the relocation. You can reward yourself for tasks well done along the way of the move:
- A 5-minute break with a fresh drink: for example, homemade lemonade to cool you and your family off in case you are packing on summer days.
- Board game: board games are a great way to celebrate small team victories such as successfully sorted items, packed clothes, dishes or books.
- A movie to watch together: an endeavour suitable at the end of the day when you can not only take a break from the work of moving (involving physical exertion), but also mentally shake off the overall planning and coordinating. Plus, movies are a great way to have fun creating shared memories with your family.
- An outdoor activity: for example, an afternoon picnic, a home-cooked spring dinner or lighting a flying lantern in the late hours of the night.
These types of "small rewards" will help the family relocation feel less like a necessary obligation and more like a chance for fun, communication and new memories.
Easy family relocation through a mutual appreciation
Last, but not least, make sure you express your appreciation to every member of your super family. Whether it's seemingly simple activities like signing over boxes for example, or more laborious ones like successfully moving a large piece of furniture, words of gratitude would surely motivate everyone to be more dedicated in the process and even initiate certain activities themselves. Encouragement would also be especially uplifting for the youngest members of the family, as it would give them confidence and even joy in a job well done.
In case conflicts do arise during the move, you get discouraged, or you don't feel that everyone is putting in enough effort, remind yourself of the common goal: a successful family relocation. It would serve as the best motivation despite the tensions.
We believe that with the right preparation and organization, your family will make it through the family move with super swing. But in tense moments, even superheroes have their sidekicks. Movega Removals, a relocation company with extensive experience in Europe, will help you take care of every relocation detail. Get in touch with us now via our contact form or chatbot feature and take the opportunity to get a free consultation.
