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With Nick’s job, we move a lot. Every summer we move to a different place in the country, and leave our family and friends back in Utah. We’ve also moved from apartment to apartment to house a lot in between. We counted our moves recently, and they have totaled 12 since we were married 5 years ago. In between all of those moves we’ve learned some valuable lessons about all sorts of things moving related.

I wanted to create a series of blog posts centered around moving, talking about all different aspects, and helpful tips and tricks. I’m planning on including things like: tips for packing, tips for the day of the move, adjusting to living in a new city and meeting new people, and in this post I’ll be talking about saying goodbye to family and loved ones. If you have any other suggestions of aspects of moving to discuss, please let me know!

Disclaimer: We’ve only ever moved impermanently, so it hasn’t ever been as hard for us as it will be for others. But we have had to be away from family/friends for half of the year every year. These are our tips from this background, however, they should be applicable to all moving situations.

Make sure to schedule time around your move to say all of the goodbyes you want to: I would suggest to start saying your goodbyes as early as a couple weeks before. If there’s a friend that you can’t see as regularly, plan a get together a couple of weeks before. Then space out your other goodbyes. I typically save family for last, so that I can give them the last goodbye, and we can spend the most time with them. Nothing’s harder than trying to squeeze all of your goodbyes in in the last couple of days when you are packing and already very overwhelmed.

Don’t put too much pressure on the goodbye: Your family might be having a rough day, your friends might be having a rough day, your kids might be having a rough day, you might even be having a rough day. Don’t put too much pressure on the goodbye; just spend time together and make sure they know you love them.

Just say goodbye “for now”: Saying goodbye is so much easier if it doesn’t seem like the end of your relationship as you know it. Plan a time to visit family/friends, or have family/friends visit you, even if its a year from now. Having something to look forward to, and get excited about will make the transition more of a “goodbye for now,” rather than a “goodbye forever.”

Plan a time to call/Facetime often: If you are the type of person that has a hard time remembering to FaceTime loved ones, plan a time each day, each week or each month, where you can FaceTime them and have time to reconnect and catch up. This will ensure that you sustain your relationship, and it’ll take the guesswork out of when to call.

Do you have any tips on saying goodbye to loved ones?? Or any moving blog post ideas that you’d love to see discussed? If so, let me know in the comments!