Another question from me, since we're in the throes of moving right now: What are your best tips for moving? And, just out of curiosity, how many times have you moved in how many years on the field? For us, I think it's 7 times out of almost 12 years on the field, so a little more than once every two years.
Also, if there is nothing in this space next week, that will be because my family has moved, but hasn't gotten internet set up yet. Tuesday Topics will be back soon after that (if you send me more questions
).(If you have a “Tuesday Topic” question, please email it to me at fylliska@gmail.com. Provide your blog address if you would like to be linked to, or specify if you would like to remain anonymous. Thanks!)
Thankfully we've stayed in one place on the field, but moved around a bit in the US!
ReplyDeleteMy tip would be to label the boxes according to rooms. When a little bit of everything is in every box, makes it much harder.
Check out my Missionary Mom's Packing Planner! http://www.scribd.com/doc/130198762/Missionary-Mom-s-Packing-Planner
ReplyDeletei've stopped counting - but except for one stretch were we actually came to the same house on two successive furloughs and lived in the same house for the term between (and even that period of 6 years included three moves... we've moved more than 15 times in almost 19 years of marriage.
ReplyDeleteand my best tips - 1)don't accumulate a lot of stuff and in the rush, 2) make sure your family helps according to their skill set. my 8 year old can sort legos and organize... but i can't ask him to fold clothes or blankets... and i just end up frustrated and redoing his work if i do. packing when moving, i've found, is not the time to teach/parent new skills for my kiddos. in some ways, that feels a bit like a failure b/c i love to teach through simply living life, but that particular season is already stressful enough... 3)start early - even if it is just the sorting/labeling side of things.
We've moved 13 times in the last 7 years... does that count as nomadic even though we don't take our house with us? With that kind of record, and no promise of it changing, the best 2 things we have done is rent furnished places and homeschool our kids. Oh, and it helps to have extroverted kids :o) Especially when you yourself are not.
ReplyDeleteWe've moved four times in our five years on the field (five if you count the move back to Costa Rica after our home assignment, but we moved back into the same house that time).
ReplyDeleteI am not sure if this is a tip or not... but I have learned that it goes a long way to invest some time into making your new place home as soon as you move in. There have been a couple of times that we haven't done that and those places never felt like home to us b/c once we were back into our regular schedule, there never was time to do it.