If your last household move took place when it was just you (or you and your spouse) to worry about, the prospect of moving with both pets and young kids can be overwhelming. Between listing your old house for sale, packing, finding a new home, and moving, all while managing your jobs, school schedules, and other hassles of everyday life, you may wonder how you'll ever get everything done. Fortunately, there's plenty of advice and wisdom available from those who have been there and done that (successfully). Read on for some tips and tricks that can make moving a household that includes both young and furry family members much less stressful. 

Plan Before You Pack

When you're single or child-free, losing track of things like your entire stock of kitchen pots and pans due to poorly-labeled boxes isn't the end of the world; you can simply take advantage of this as an opportunity to sample from some take-out restaurants at your new location. 

However, once your household has grown larger and more complex in its needs, this type of laissez-faire attitude toward pre-planning your move can leave you frantically digging through boxes or going out to purchase duplicates of items you know are already somewhere in your new home. You may want to make a list of "must have" items that should be the last to be packed (or kept with you in an overnight bag, like medications, phone and computer chargers, your child's favorite toys or blanket, and other items that can't be easily or conveniently replaced) to ensure you don't find yourself scrambling to unpack.

You may then want to focus your packing efforts on a single room at a time. Too often, it can be easy to get distracted by spreading your packing efforts across multiple rooms, leaving you with a mess of half-filled boxes. By tackling a single room of your home every evening after work or making a go of it on a free weekend day, you'll be able to make tangible progress without feeling like you're spending all your free time arm-deep in moving boxes. 

Schedule Your Move

While it can seem obvious that you'll need to arrange a time to pick up your moving truck (or to have movers actually physically haul your belongings from one home to another), many homeowners don't have much more of a schedule than this, which can make the process far more hectic than it needs to be. 

In addition to placing your moving day on the calendar, you may find it helpful to set a number of progress points along the way, which can ensure you'll be finished in plenty of time and won't be hit with extra costs or fees if your move runs a bit later than anticipated. 

Delegate What You Can

There are so many moving parts to the moving process, it can be tough to get everything done on your own. By delegating certain parts of the moving process that can be performed by any professional (like packing, loading items into the moving truck, and unpacking), you'll be able to free up your own time to handle closing on your home sale, looking for new homes, and filling out lease or loan paperwork. 

Some estimate that, in any given year, as many as 15 percent of all Americans move to a new home; this type of volume means that it's easier than ever before to engage a full-service moving company to help you through this process. For many, the money spent on a moving service can be far exceeded by the money saved on purchasing duplicate items or replacing items lost or broken in transit, paying additional lease and storage fees if your move runs beyond its scheduled time, and absorbing the other costs that can come from moving a complex household.