If you are moving house shortly then a major concern for you will be how to make it as easy as possible for your animals. Animals can find mess and stress traumatic, and they don’t like change. You need to make the process as easy as you can for them so that they can adapt to the change in the quickest possible way. Making sure you are organized will really help you make the transition as easy as possible for your animals, so it’s time to give it some careful thought. Here are our tips on how to handle a house move with animals:
Have a Plan
You need to start making a plan about what you are going to do during the move. If you have dogs and cats, would it make more sense for them to go into a kennel or cattery while the move happens? Or if not, could one of your friends help out by having them for a while? If you have a horse then you will need to think about boxing him or her and transporting them to the new house. There are specialist moving companies that can do this for you. Has the new house got adequate stables, gates and fences to keep the horse safe? If not, you may want to think about putting it in livery while you make the changes that need doing. All of this needs to be thought about before you move house, as it will be a lot more stressful if you don’t think about it beforehand. Having a plan in place will make you feel much calmer about the whole affair, and the animal won’t then pick up on your nerves.
Consider Welfare
When making decisions about how your animals will be treated during the move, the important thing to consider above everything else is their welfare. Where will they be most happy? If you have animals which reside in a tank, how can you make the transportation of the tank as easy as possible? Even goldfish need to be taken into consideration – any animal at all needs to be moved and handled very carefully indeed.
Set Aside a Budget
Of course, displacing your animal is likely to cost you some money, so build this cost into your house moving budget. Whether it’s re-homing them, transporting them or buying extra food for them, it will all make a difference to the cost of moving. If you are prepared for it, life will be much easier.
Consult the Experts
It will make you feel better if you discuss your concerns about your pets with the company who are doing your house move for you. They will have dealt with these kinds of issues plenty of times before, and they will be able to advise you on the best way to handle it.
Moving house can be a stressful time, so you need to make sure you limit the amount of stress wherever you can. Having a plan in place for your animals is a great first step.
***
Featured images:
License: Creative Commons image source
License: Creative Commons image source
License: Creative Commons image source
License: Royalty Free or iStock source: http://pixabay.com/en/teacher-drawing-desk-meeting-plan-32747/
This post has been contributed by Abbey James, an employee at Streamline Movers, a relocation service provider in Calgary. As a child she enjoyed spending time with her father and brothers and slowly grew fond of adventure sports.
