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Although you will want your children and pets to feel at home as soon as possible, its worth having them looked after for the bulk of the moving day.

You will be stressed and have 101 things to do, and the last thing you will want to deal with is entertaining children, or worrying that they (or your pets) are going to get hurt etc.

Have someone look after them until you have at least some of your new house looking like your home, and then get them back!

Depending on your child, you may want to unpack their bedroom(s) first so that they feel at home as soon as possible, or they may prefer to be a part of this themselves. Whatever you decide, I would definitely advise leaving at least their box that they packed up (see tip #10) for them to sort out, as this will make them feel a part of things.

Getting your kids involved as much as possible. For the younger ones make a game out of it; like who can pack their toys the fastest. Labeling the boxes can be fun too. Take them to a dollar store, craft store or teacher supply store and let them pick out fun stickers that they can put on the boxes to represent it is theirs. They can also pick out other stickers to help mark the boxes for the rest of the house.

So heres a summary of what are some very useful moving tips (from Calgary movers) :

I am not an advocate of off site storage, as it usually ends up costing money to store all the things we really dont need but when it comes to moving house there is good reason to use it under certain circumstances.

Often we want to do work on our new house pretty soon after moving in.

If this is the case with you, then why not consider moving some furniture etc.. into storage to make redecorating / re-carpeting etc.. easier?

You could use a storage company**, or your removals company can often store your items for you on a rolling monthly basis, which can ease the strain of having to move everything around to accommodate trades people etc

I always suggest going around your home and taking photos of your valuables and breakables before they get packed up.

If for any reason things get broken, damaged or lost during the moving process, at least you have a record of them. (Just quick snaps on the camera on your mobile phone will be good enough).

TIP Its worth doing this anyway for things in your house, as it can help with insurance claims if you get burgled or theres a fire etc. I use the home inventory in my Home File for this.

In a similar vein to packing a special box for each child, you should also think about packing a box for you on the first night.

Consider adding things like:

Corkscrew you will probably want to raise a glass in the new house!
Batteries
A torch
Tea / Coffee / Milk
Snacks
Radio
Screwdriver set**

basically anything that you feel you will need pretty much immediately on arriving at your new home.

This will make the first night a lot easier.