We have moved a LOT with the military. We have moved up and down the East coast. We have moved from the East to the West and back to the East Coast. We have moved 4 times in an 18 month span. We have moved into new construction, old condemned housing (go Navy!), and most recently into an antique house. I have learned a few things from all of these moves…

Never paint in the same room as your spouse, especially when trying to accomplish the task in a short amount of time.

Don’t panic if you walk into your daughter’s new bedroom to find her climbing IN the window…really, she’s just looking at the stars from the porch roof (steel bars on windows added to the honey do list).

When the moving company tells you it’s a four day pack out, don’t let them try to do it in one day.

You can always repaint a room so forget the neutrals and paint that pink room with the black polka dots.

Don’t forget to spackle behind the pictures on the wall before your spouse sees the 16 holes you punched to get it just centered. 3M Velcro strips are my friend.

Use towels and sheets to pack fragile items.

Color code boxes by room so when you are feverishly unloading two 40-foot trailer trucks in 8 hours, you don’t have to think about reading boxes.

Set up the kids bedroom first and fully. They need to know their stuff made it and have a safe space to decompress from the excitement.

Probably best not to tear out your front door the first weekend you move into your neighborhood, not realizing there are covenants to follow and approvals needed. Howdy neighbors!

Put screws into baggies and tape them to the furniture they belong with.

Just know that all those mismatched socks that you thought you would surely find the matches to when you moved will remain single. Where the heck do they all go???

But the number one thing I have learned from each and every move is that what makes a house a home is not the decor nor the paint on the walls, but the love that fills it.