Our new house is starting construction in 2 weeks (YAY!) but we close on the current house in 2 weeks also...and let's be honest, houses don't build themselves overnight. So, we had to get creative. Some people think we are crazy, some think we are genius...either way at this point I don't really care because we are....
MOVING INTO A CAMPER!
Yes...You heard me correctly. We bought a 35 foot camper trailer and we have it set up in my mother-in-law's backyard (she lives in the country...on a decent amount of land...we're not talking backyard in a city property, just to clarify).
To answer the initial questions we always get, here goes:
Yes, we have electricity in the camper.
Yes, we have running (hot) water in the camper.
Yes, we have air conditioning and heat in the camper.
Yes, we know...we're going to be living in a camper, with 2 kids, and 2 dogs...we get it.
1) We are too big of a family to live with family.
With 2 kids, 2 adults and 2 dogs, there's really nobody who can house us all for the 3 months it will take for our house to be built. Not to mention we want our family to still love us when we move out so even if they had been willing, we probably wouldn't have accepted because we're a lot to take on :)
2) We didn't want to rent.
Not only is this option SUPER difficult to execute (requires month-to-month renting, must allow dogs, must be cheaper than our current mortgage) but it is also extremely expensive. month-to-month leases are even more expensive than regular leases which are already incredibly expensive compared to a good 'ole mortgage.
Plus, renting means packing & moving twice, which I realize we sort of already have to do...but not in as big of capacity.
3) This is financially smarter.
Yes, we have to pay a larger sum up-front to purchase the camper, however, our plan is to sell the camper in the spring for essentially the same price that we paid for it. If all goes according to play we will have basically lived for free for 3 months which is the perfect way to save up for those little extras for the new house!
So here's where we are at with this whole deal.
The camper is purchased and is sitting on my mother-in-law's land.
Our house is ehhhhh partially packed up.
We have a storage unit that we are renting where we are moving all of our furniture and belongings that won't fit in the camper (which by the way is almost all of our belongings except absolute essentials). We'll keep everything in storage until we close on the new house at which point we'll transport everything via U-Haul to our new home.
Which brings me to the point of this posting...moving with kids.
I thought selling our house with kids would be difficult...no way. That was a walk in the park.
PACKING with kids? Whole different story.
See, Mason is an expert at un-packing boxes and Emerson no longer sleeps her days away...not to mention, I'm back at work full-time and Steven's work season is in full blown over-time mode.
I honestly shouldn't even dole out advice at this point because I'm so over packing it's not even funny.
My only advice is to either hire someone to do it, or just don't move. HA!
But seriously, it's really difficult to pack up a household for a family of 4 while you're still living in it.
One piece of advice we would give is to move out BEFORE your closing (if you can). This is obviously not a viable option for some.
Our closing is set for July 31st but we will be completely (fingers crossed) moved out by the 26th.
We planned it this way because we know that honestly we probably WON'T have everything out by the 26th, but at least all major furniture and boxes that require U-Haul delivery will be and then we will have that extra week to clean the house and move any last minute items out.
Also, pack the items you don't use everyday first.
This might sound obvious, but honestly when I started thinking about packing my first instinct was to organize and pack the things that we use every day because I know those items are in the house and have to be moved!
We were blown away by discovering all of the crap that we have stored in our downstairs guest bedroom, play room and under the stairs storage. By packing that stuff first you also can get rid of a ton as well as the kids don't notice stuff is packed up because it's stuff they didn't even know you owned!
Second thing to pack is boring stuff. Kitchen pots & pans you don't need every day, cookie sheets (if you're me and literally never use them except to cook bacon in the oven...mmmmmm), basically pack everything the kids don't use first. We haven't even begun packing up Mason's toys (with the exception of the toys we put in storage during staging...which still live in storage).
Finally, organize the chaos.
I HATE clutter and guess what gets created times 1,000 when you move? Clutter. Everywhere.
What we did was to clean out our 3rd garage stall (which primarily houses bikes, outdoor toys, etc) and used that as a box dumping ground. As soon as a box is packed and taped up it goes to the 3rd stall where it will sit until we take a trip over to the storage unit. The more you can move things out of the house as you go, the better, because then it doesn't feel quite so overwhelming and you can get a better grasp on what is actually left to load into boxes.
Alrighty...next up will be some updates on trailer living! We've already moved a few items out there and this coming week/weekend will be when we really start to get settled in.
For now we need a nap...moving is exhausting!
Laurel