Free Printable Moving Checklist + Changing Smoke Alarms

*This post is sponsored by First Alert. Check out all my policies here.*

Can I be honest? Moving with kids is nuts. Just plain nuts. The last time we moved, the twins were babies. Which was hard… but while babies get in the way, they don’t UNDO what your’e working on. And there’s so much more to think about. While you can be without dishes- PIZZA! Babies need those bottles and kids need their toys. Did I mention those kids you love so much unpack the boxes that you just packed?

Today I’m excited to be partnering with First Alert to share a free printable moving checklist of ten things that you might not remember to do during your move. Because if you’re anything like me, you forget a lot of things when life gets crazy! And there’s some things that you really just can’t forget… for safety’s sake!

If you want to download this list as a free PDF- you can grab it RIGHT HERE!

Here’s the list:

1. Meal Plan from your freezer BEFORE your move. Because it sucks to pack coolers of things that you didn’t know you had and probably could have saved you a couple trips to the grocery store last week.

2. Re-Direct your mail. I don’t know about you… but I never get to changing my address with everywhere that I need to… especially not before I move. Give yourself a break and re-direct your mail for six months. Deal with it once you’ve got your kitchen unpacked.

3. Then change your addresses. Like… once you’re eating real food again, you know? To make it easy on yourself, keep a list by your grocery list of all the places that mail you as they come in.

4. Change your smoke alarms. And your carbon monoxide detectors. Did you know you should do this every time you move? Like before you unpack your boxes, friends. Because 80% of fire deaths are due to fire alarms that weren’t working properly. There’s no point in risking that. If you don’t know how old an alarm is, experts suggest to replace the alarm entirely. We’ve actually done this in every place we’ve ever owned. When we bought our first apartment, my aunt gifted us a little safety kit of a First Alert smoke detector and fire extinguisher. We still have that First Alert fire extinguisher and we’ve been using First Alert ever since.

The only thing that bugs me about smoke detectors, you guys is that you have to replace their batteries every 6 months and I can hardly remember to buy birthday cards for my kids once a year. So now that First Alert has come out with 10 year alarms (YES 10 YEARS!), you can skip that and just press the button to test that they’re still working. That’s my level of commitment ;) Also- this mama is excited to have no more low battery alarms during nap time. I’m not the only one who’s had that, am I?

More smoke detector tips? Have one on each floor and if you have multiple wings of your house where people sleep… put one in each. And don’t forget the carbon monoxide detector! The new 10 year one we got from First Alert is totally sleek too. Which is great because you NEED one of these things. Carbon Monoxide is totally invisible so a detector is the only way to know for sure that your family isn’t at risk. Side note… check out Windsor’s hair, you guys. As soon as the big kids are in school, this kid changes into their clothes (he’s wearing all Emmitt’s clothes here) and asks to use Aubrey’s hair goodies. He’s hilarious.

5. Think about home security. This is another one of those safety items! I honestly didn’t give this much thought until we had kids. I wrote a little about what we’ve done in this post here, but there’s tons of options so it’s just something to think about. We also added locks on all the kids windows so they couldn’t open more than 6 inches. It takes less than 5 minutes per window so it’s worth the time during a busy move.

6. Have a ‘Move Day’ box with essentials. I can’t remember who gave me this genius tip but OH MY GOODNESS. Life saver. Have all the things you NEED for that day one in a box. Whether that’s baby bottles and formula or one toy for each of the kids and toothbrushes… you get the idea. We actually gave each of our kids one small box to pack and we labelled it really clearly so it was waiting for them when I brought them after Shane had moved all our stuff. It had all the toys that they wanted right away and kept any tears away. I can’t believe we actually had zero tears about the move… but I think these boxes helped a lot.

7. Schedule phone and internet service moves. Saturdays book up fast, friends… so think ahead! This girl loves her internet… and her TV so this was one that we planned way out! Ha!

8. Get those locks changed! So I KNOW that you got every key from the old owners, but really, it’s impossible to know for sure. We always change our locks right away.

9. Set your new thermostat. We do this right away too because chances are your schedule is totally different than the last owners. And if everything else is different, it’s awesome to have the air feel the same.

10. Clean the tub before a bath. Last but not least! This is the one thing we really scrub before using it. Even if it looks clean… I don’t know. Maybe it’s overkill but I’d prefer to know for sure!

Alright, friends! I’ll leave it at that. If you want to download this list as a free PDF- you can grab it RIGHT HERE!