There's a practical reason movers ask about kids and pets, and it isn't small talk. An open front door, a truck ramp, heavy furniture moving through hallways, and boxes stacked at toddler height add up to a genuinely hazardous few hours. It's also one of the most common reasons a move runs behind schedule.
The best answer, if you can manage it, is simple: have them somewhere else. A grandparent, a friend, daycare, a boarding kennel for the day. You'll move faster, you'll worry less, and everyone reunites in a house that's already set up rather than one full of strangers carrying furniture.
If that isn't possible, give them one room and make it off-limits to the move. Pick a room we can load last — usually a bedroom or a bathroom — put the kids, the pets, their food, water, litter box, toys and screens in it, and tape a sign on the door. Tell the crew that room stays shut until you say otherwise. We work around it happily, and it beats a cat bolting out an open front door.
For pets specifically, keep them contained and keep their routine. Cats in particular will hide or run when the house fills with noise and strangers. Feed them at their normal time, and don't wash their bed before the move — familiar smells matter more than a clean blanket when everything else has changed.
For young kids, give them a job. Packing their own box of favorite toys, drawing on the cartons headed to their room, choosing which stuffed animal rides in the car — small amounts of control make a real difference to how a child experiences a move. Keep a few familiar toys out of the packing entirely, so there's never a moment where everything they own has vanished into cardboard.
Set up the kids' rooms and the pets' space first at the new house, before the living room and before your own bedroom. A child who has a made bed and their own things in place at the end of a chaotic day settles enormously faster. The same goes for a pet with their bed, bowls, and litter box already waiting in a quiet room.
And expect a rough couple of nights afterward. Disrupted sleep, clinginess, a cat that lives under the bed for three days — it's all normal, and it passes as the new place starts feeling like home.
Moving with a family? Tell us when you book and we'll plan the load order around it. Call MTC Moving at (561) 612-1226 (English) or (678) 964-1358 (Español).