We moved into our first house almost a year and a half ago. Crazy!! We are loving it so much and we are so happy with how everything has turned out. When we were looking for homes, we had just moved back to Arizona (our home state) after my husband graduated from BYU in Provo (yes, we’re mormon), and we were living with my parents. We had an 18-month-old son and a baby on the way. The point is that we had a crazy-but-probably-pretty-typical situation that we found ourselves in once we finally did find a home and were ready to move in.

TIPS FOR KIDS WITH KIDS TRANSITIONING FROM SCHOOL TO REAL LIFE

1. Don’t feel weird if you have to live with someone while you find a place of your own or while you finish school. It is veeeerrry normal even if it’s not ideal.
2. Going from living with your spouse and kids to living with relatives can be very hard. Be sure to spend quality time with your spouse and kids without others around. Don’t forget how to be yourselves. Even if that means seeming kind of rude by shutting yourselves up in your room for a couple of hours or going out to dinner without inviting anyone else. Do not compromise your new, little family relationships because of lack of personal space.
3. If you do have to live with in-laws or your own parents, don’t waste your days being the guest. We were with my parents for 7 months and I wish I would have made myself a better schedule, helped with the house more, did more cooking, crafting or something. It is hard when you don’t have your own place to organize and create in, but there are still a lot of things you can be doing (speaking mostly to stay-at-home moms). I might need to do a whole separate post about this topic.
4. When you finally move out be sure to give a proper thank you to whomever you were staying with. One idea is to get a bunch of household items that you may have used up while living there. My brother and sister-in-law did this for my husband’s parents after living with them for a few months. Cute right?

THE ACTUAL MOVE

5. If you can, once you have found your place, seriously try to decide where you want everything to be put when you start moving things in. I thought, to make things easier for the movers, that I would have them put the miscellaneous boxes and stuff just anywhere or all in the front room so that I could sort it out myself. (I mean, we hadn’t seen our stuff for 7 months and I couldn’t quite remember how I packed everything.) Big mistake. Once I decided where everything went I couldn’t move anything big because I was a pregnant wimp at the time and my hubby was at work all day. Just have things put as close as possible to the spot that you want them to be while you have strong men helping you out.
6. Designate someone to watch any kiddos you have during the move. And preferably away from the new home. Moving day can be dangerous.
7. Do any serious painting or other projects before the big move. And ask people to help. I’m a big asker of help. (Thanks to all my peeps who helped us out. I won’t start naming names because we had so many people helping us I know I would forget someone.)
8. Window coverings and shower curtains are very important to have for your first night in your new home. Don’t forget them!!
9. We reeeeealllllly really really liked having our carpet AND tile cleaned before we moved in. A fresh start is the way to go, especially in the bathrooms.
10. Take the time to deep clean the bathrooms and the kitchen, too. You just never know what previous owners have left behind. Get it all out before you move your own stuff in.

Here are some more tips and tricks from fellow bloggers and the great wide web:

Buzzfeed.com

Babble.comNourishing Joy