Once upon a time there was a not so young pregnant maiden who found herself surrounded by boxes in a move that was way to close to the holiday season. While everyone was enjoying spooky pumpkins and Halloween festivities. She was in a nightmare of her own packing, sorting and preparing. With Thanksgiving and Christmas right around the corner this maiden was about to be the hero and conquer another move. Here’s her tips to surviving a scary move and creating another chapter in your own happily ever after.

Survival is key. When I found out my evil villain landlord wanted us out by the first of the year all I could think about is how am I going to have a holiday season that is special when we are living out of boxes. I cried. I pouted and then I sucked it up. I had to. I didn’t stop until I found a great house, with a great neighborhood, for a reasonable price. I didn’t want to leave my perfect Snow White cottage. As a mother and a wife I knew it was my responsibility to fight and figure it out. The memories and holidays depend on me. Here are some of my favorite tips and tricks to moving survival.

Money makes a move…. Save your butt and save your money!

Long story short, before the evil landlord kicked us out in the beginning of the holidays we were saving. Saving for Christmas, saving for baby number 3 and saving for a home of our own. And thank God we did because moving was super expensive. We had to pay first and deposit. We also paid for a cleaning service for our beloved cottage. We also had to pay for movers to move our big furniture. Let me just say this always try to save. If you would have asked me this summer if I was moving I would have laughed and said we aren’t moving til we buy. Then the unthinkable happened. I was glad we had money to throw at our problem.

Holiday moving SUCKS!!!!

When we moved it was during Halloween…like the day of Halloween.  (Talk about a scary nightmare!) I played master of distraction. I put a few decorations out but planned for holiday activities outside of my home. We went to Disney Halloween events, trick or treated away from our home and I made sure I had plenty of sweet treats to make my sweets happy.

Delegate like the queen you are!

Pregosaurus-rex  was very much a thing in this move. Not only was I a beginning be a giant prego I also couldn’t do much. I had to learn to delegate. Most of this went to the king in my life, my great husband. I also had my kids help me a ton. I had to learn to ask and rest when I needed to.

Drink water… and wear plenty of deodorant

The universal you won’t fail is drink water and wear deodorant. No one wants to smell how hard you worked. I can feel how hard I worked even more if I am not properly hydrated. I feel like the blow fish from the Little Mermaid without H20. I also suggest eating well, but that’s a given.

Dolly Good, Hernia Bad

When I was not-so-pregnant I was able to lift and do more it was up to my husband to do all the heavy lifting. I felt like when I was moving people around me would tell me “stop, you’re pregnant.” (As if I didn’t know.) I tend to over do myself a lot but not on the expense of my unborn child. Save yourself and your back use a dolly to move all those heavy boxes.

Make more friends before you move

Whether I have the most successful friends and family that are just way too busy and far too important to help move or they simply didn’t want to. I felt like this move had very few friendship helpers no matter how much beer and pizza I tried to entice them with. I don’t blame this moving stuff sucks. So by or next move I intend to bulk up our friendship list and maybe even friend some movers as well. LOL if only! (I may be only half joking on this!) My tip here is don’t rely on friends, hire movers…save your friendships and stress level.

PIVOT! PIVOT! PIVOT!

Okay, everything is in your place in boxes now what!!! Time to arrange your house into your home. Cue Ross in the TV show yelling PIVOT! PIVOT! PIVOT! This is so me. To save your back and sanity map out where your your furniture is going to go before hand. Most of the time I do this in my head. Except in bigger rooms which then I map out on paper. I go into my house and mentally place everything from my couch to where my future Christmas tree will go. Remember this is a move and this too will pass.

So those are some of my pregnant, mommy, wifey tips for trying to save my sanity during a stressful holiday move.

With love and motivation from Pregosaurus-rex who survived a move during the holidays.