I know what you’re thinking, “Catt, what the heck were you thinking! Moving during a pandemic – and with kids?” My inner voice agrees with you but let me explain.

Our lease was coming up for renewal. The new lease increased in rent by $100 – again! We’ve experienced 3 rent increases in the past 3 years. With 2 kids in private school and 1 in childcare, each rent increase pushed us closer to the living outside of our means status. Moving just made sense.

We were already looking for a new apartment when Covid-19 hit our city. We had no idea we were quickly entering an unprecedented quarantine which left us wondering whether we should reconsider renewing our lease. But, the quarantine was also affecting our finances which meant downsizing was imperative to come out of Covid-19 still above water. We both decided we had to stay the course.

Looking for an Apartment

Looking for an apartment while our city was in quarantine was hard. Leasing offices were closed and realtors/property managers were limiting days and times to show apartments. We were getting discouraged and Covid-19 didn’t seem like it was going anywhere anytime soon. Options were really limited but we were determined to cut a lot of our living expenses. We finally found a decent place. It didn’t have the bells and whistles we were accustom to but it looked better than most we saw in the price range we were looking at.

Informing The Kids That We Were Moving

Informing our kids that we were cutting a lot of our expenses and that we were moving was difficult. We tried our best to explain it was for the best in the long run. We also promised them that we would answer any questions they had as honestly as possible. There was some tears shed but in the end we focused on the positives.

Packing With Kids

This hasn’t been easy. Packing is a chore and for kids it’s also quite the bore. On a positive note, moving is allowing us to declutter. The amount of stuff we’ve accumulated over time is insane. Each time I went to throw something out they expressed some kind of attachment.

Sort, Sort, Sort!

I had to approach moving/decluttering differently. I created 3 piles, keep, discard, donate/sell. Once I had my throw away pile I held up 2 items and they had to choose which one to keep and which one to throw away or donate. I sneakily did two rounds of this reducing the pile by 75%.

Full mom disclosure, there was also a secret pile that I disposed of after the kids went to bed. Broken crayons, old textbooks, unfinished sewing projects, trinkets and toys that looked like members of the misfits – all thrown away.

Provide Incentives

With my 5 year old son decluttering his clothes was easy. However, my 10 year old needed some swaying. She had a closet full of clothes that didn’t fit but she refused to part with. I had to get creative. My daughter was afraid of being without clothes but I had to explain that a closet full of clothes that don’t fit is pretty much the same thing. I gave her an incentive to purge her closet by telling her we’d go clothing shopping after the move but we first have to see what she actually needs. She was game after that and things went a lot smoother.

Make it Fun

Our last night in the old place we all camped out in the same room and shared our favorite memories.

Here’s to new memories in the making.