I used to be a serial mover. At the height of my mobility craze, I moved eight times in nine years. Four of those moves were to new cities, two across an ocean. At the time I was single and child-free, and I did everything by the seat of my pants. Now that I have a partner and three kids, moves need to be much more organized and strategic. Here are five resources to pin down locally as soon as the family makes a move.
• Doctors Our most recent move was only 22 miles, but I ended up switching my own general practitioner, the kids' pediatrician and the dog's vet. By keeping things local we cut down on travel time and last minute office visits are faster and easier. I never wanted to think twice about getting medical attention for fear of getting stuck in rush hour.
• Markets Look past the megamarkets to find the best that your new community has to offer. Between a few locally owned grocers, farmers markets and a nearby Trader Joes, we quickly found our rhythm to source quality food pleasurably, efficiently and affordably.
• Pharmacy Make friends with your pharmacist! A great one will go beyond filling prescriptions and help families choose the right OTC solutions.
• Hardware Store Whether your home is a fixer or in turnkey condition, you will need various bobs and bits and answers to some weird, random questions. It pays to build a relationship with the staff at the local hardware store.
• Hairdresser Breaking up with a stylist can be hard, but it's harder still to schedule an appointment around school, naps and long drive times. Instead of postponing the inevitable, minimize bad hair days and find someone in your new neighborhood.
These are just a few starting points for finding your way around a new neighborhood. What are your priorities when it comes to easing your family's transition into a new community?
(Image: Flickr member hjl licensed for use under Creative Commons)
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Ours has always been (1) to visit, spend weekends in the new area as much as possible before the move. Get the major roads and transitions down. (2) Plot on your own Google map where everything is, collab-share with your spouse/domestic partner. You can access this by mobile phone to navigate. (3) Pre-move and set up some familiar toys before the move so that when the kid(s) arrives, it's already like home.
my two big moves: find the job, find the schools, find a credit union, find the grocery store, find the mall and post office, find a drug store and find WALMART. Children are very flexible, but you are right, having the toys and their bedrooms set up first is comforting to them. Babies don't care, they want comfort of parent(s), and depending on age, a blankie, binky and bottle, the 3 B's. With GPS's now navigation is easier then it used to be. Map of city gives one a good idea of lay of the land. It is also helpful to have a friend who lives in the area you are moving. Friends are a great help with navigation.
I'd love to hear more tips about moving overseas--- We have minimized as much a possible and now we will be embarking on our journey in less than two months. This will probably be one of many back and forth movings, but since it's our first...we'd like to hear form the experts.
So far our home is under contract, and we have sold all but one car. We have sold/given away all of our furniture, but still will be shipping our child's toys and other non-furniture items. We have gotten several quotes for port-to-port deliveries, but have not settled on a moving company yet.
When we arrive we will be renting for a month before settling on a permanent home, and interviewing American schools for our child. My husband is actually moving back to his "home" country, but I've only visited a few times. Any suggestions on how to adapt?
Emedarwash - are you by any chance moving to India? My family moved to Mumbai three months ago and it's been great. Furnished apartments are plentiful, and online shopping (though mainly COD) is reliable and selection is good. Not much of a problem finding all our favorite foodstuffs and replenishing our toy collections. A really important thing to do is hook up with some other expats, who give constant and invaluable advice, as well as a social outlet! I'm a member of this expat family group and it's helped me a lot:
http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/mumbaihoppingbunnies/
If you are not moving to India, well then... disregard my message. :)
I'm moving from one end of the metro area to the other...TOMORROW. O.o I've yet to find a good hardware store, so I just suck it up and go to the hardware store with the condescending jerk employees.
My tip is to find the places your kid likes: In our case, it's outdoor playgrounds (done!), frozen yogurt (done!), indoor playgrounds (getting there), swimming pools (no idea), and a creek/river/lake/reservoir (two in the area, haven't visited them yet).