Give me all your tips for moving house with a 2 year old.

Pack up her room last & set it up at new house first. I bought a few books for my then 2 year old in hope one would make sense to her. I recall the Danielle Tiger book being more age appropriate. Most of all act super happy about the change. I know moving is stressful but they will take your feelings about it to heart. Also if she has a most prized possession make sure you bring it in your car for the drive.

My 2yo has the "Moving House (First Experiences)" Usborne book which is pretty good for explaining the concept.

With my LO I would start talking about how she would like her room decorated, a box of "special things" for toys which will be kept with her throughout the move, maybe even act it out with dolls. We're not looking to move so I don't have any experienced advice, but I've found she's really good at dealing with anything I explain and role play with her (doctor, dentist, school, etc) and bad at dealing with things I haven't (hairdresser).

Mine honestly didn't care. I kept a bag of her favorite toys out and that was it.

She thought the empty house was cool AF.

Our drive was roughly 10 hours. We left at 6am. I kept her occupied with movies on the tablet.

we moved cross-country twice, once when my oldest was 1.5, and again when he was 3.5. Honestly, both were pretty uneventful. The important things - mom and dad, the cats, his personal stuff - were the same, despite the location being different.

on the 2nd trip, we did have my wife and son fly while I drove with the cats, to reduce the stress of the car trip on all of us.

Have her pack her favourite things in a box/bag, and pack her room separately so you can set it up first when you get to the new place, and she can have her stuff around her from first

Have one room empty and place a baby gate on door. Place the curtains up in this room for naps. Have her most important must have in here. Diapers, some toys, food, change of clothes, and bottles. That way she can explore the the new room with nothing to get into trouble with.

Make it an exciting adventure. She may worry that she won’t get her bed and toys back but will understand that the moving helpers need them in the boxes just for a few days. If you have a picture of her room keep it posted. We also put up color strips for painting the new room.

Moved states with a 3.5 and almost 1 year old. We arrived a few days before the moving truck and opted to stay in the empty house and treat it like a camping expedition. The kids had a blast.

I packed about 5 boxes of immediate essentials and marked them with stickers to unpack first. Kitchen basics, a few sets of silverware, 2 or 3 pots pans, a few days of clothes, towels for everyone, favorite toys and books. That made me feel much less pressure as all our immediate needs were covered.

Take any help you can get! We were lucky to have the in-laws visit about a week after the move. They watched the kids for a few hours every day and gave us time to unpack. And don't feel bad about letting the little ones spend a little more time than normal watching an IPad while you are getting it all done.

Receipts: Twin mom of 4.5 yr olds. Lived in Georgia, Florida and now California. DIY moves with box trucks.

Baby gate her in her baby safe bedroom. Keep all boxes is an area safe away from baby being able to crawl on them. Pack baby stuff last. Keep out favorite blanket, toys, cups/dishes for uninterrupted daily use. This will help with baby’s comfort. Tablet during travel with favs downloaded if you don’t have a DVD player in the car. If you’re able split trip up and stop halfway. Take pressure off yourself when you can. You need sleep and you need to stay safe.

Label and keep boxes as organized as possible. Buy boxes if you can. Having same dimensions helps tremendously with stacking. Hire loaders and unloaders if you can or have friends and family help. Set baby’s room up first so they have a safe place with you unpack. Save a big box or two and you can sit baby in there with crayons. Keep them occupied while you take a break.

The first time we moved mine were 2yrs and 8months. We made a big deal out of saying “Thank you” to our old house and hyping up the new one. It was super cute and made me emotional.

Doing new different fun things at the new house will help them get comfortable and settled. A good way to look at it as parents is baby will be able to do more things developmentally as she grows and with warm weather coming sprinklers and a kiddie pool will be new and fun.

Good luck!

Our son was 3.5 when we moved to a nearby town. We told him weeks to months in advance about moving, and when it would happen, and mentioned it periodically and how we'd move all our stuff to a new home and live there from then on, and how some other people would move into our place and live there. We made an extra appointment to visit the new house after we had an accepted offer and made it a point to show him his room in advance, and mentioned that all his stuff from his room would be moving there, and that mom and dad and their stuff would also be moving. We stressed that us being together was the important part, not where we lived. And he managed the move very well, aside from a brief teary-eyed mention that he wanted to go home to the old house the first evening (I'm sure everything was just very new and different and a bit overwhelming). And we explained again that the main thing was that we were all together. He seemed to adjust fine after that; heck, a month or two after moving we managed to finish the potty training we'd deferred due to chaos around the move. So the right thing to do probably varies based on your kid's personality, age, etc, but that's what seemed to work for us.