Moving with toddlers

Let's face it: the hardest people to move with are the littlest ones. Moving can be much more distressing to older, school-aged children, as far as adaptation to the new and missing the old, but when it comes to the physical act of moving your stuff from one place to another, watch out for the babies! They want to be held when you need to pack, they will forswear all naps, they will go to bed at midnight and rise at five, and they will follow you around, unpacking your neatly-sorted boxes faster than you can say duct tape.

Ideas for survival:

1. Get a friend or relative to remove the child from the scene while you're sorting and packing. And cleaning. Above all, cleaning!
2. If that's not possible (it usually isn't), give them a box to "sort" while you are doing the real sorting and packing. They are going to copy you, anyway. Use a little psychology. Get them a toy broom so they can sweep after you (preferably the clean floor, rather than smear your dirt piles around before you can sweep them up). You're going to have to make some kind of tradeoff. If you go into it thinking this, you won't get so worked up when they go to work. Remember the Rubik's cube? You have to mess some things up to solve it. Same with the moving.
3. Consider holding off any other important life changes for the toddler. Like toilet training. (Actually, toilet training while moving is sort of a nightmarish idea. Wait until the new house, definitely!)
4. If you have to pick and choose when you might have childcare, consider saving those precious moments for sorting through the toys. Presumably there are some you'd like to keep (their favorites), and some you'd like to get rid of (the ones they don't care about--until you decide to cart them off). Leave a few toys out until the very end, to take in the car, however. Small kids pick up very well on nerves and change, and keeping things as normal in their part of the world for as long as possible will help them. Besides, the last things packed in the van are the first things out on the other end, which makes things easier on everyone.

We'd really love for any additional suggestions in this category!