I have generally shut up the cats in the laundry room or someplace like that that I have cleared of anything I want the movers to take. Put a sign on the door telling people not to open it. (In my father-in-law’s case, put another sign saying that he is included and if he wants to wash his hands, he can walk the three additional steps necessary to do it in the bathroom instead.)
Once the house is clear and the movers have left, let the cats out to run around and discover that the house is empty. Then crate them up and take them to the new place (with whatever stuff of theirs you left in the laundry room, like their litter box). If the movers are there already, do the same thing of shutting them in the laundry room (or a bathroom, or a closet - somewhere isolated) with a sign on the door. If not, they can explore for a bit before you confine them while the movers unload. But once they have both seen the “old” house without their stuff, and the “new” house with their stuff, they usually adapt quite quickly.
This has always worked well for our cats, who have now been through four moves.
We moved in February, but only about 20 miles. We had had Pudding for about two years at that point; I had adopted her as an adult from a shelter. She’d been in the shelter for 5 months, had a bad respiratory infection, and lost an eye. The shelter had a problem with ringworm, so the cats were confined to individual cages and given antifungal dips twice a week. Sigh…
Anyway. Pudding originally was a one-person cat, and when my fiance (now husband) moved in, she wouldn’t tolerate being near both of us at once. No family sofa time, no family snoozefests, and days when we tried to clip her claws were Very Bad Days.
On moving day, we got up early and my husband stuffed her in her carrier before she had a chance to notice that we were stressed out. He drove her to the new house and shut her in a large closet there, with food and litter. We didn’t open it until the movers were done unloading late in the day.
Leaving the old house, where she had gotten in the habit of being shy and overstressed, has turned her into a completely different cat. She sleeps on the bed with us every night, she gets on the couch to watch TV with us, she’s constantly in the same room we’re in. For Pudding, the move was A Very Good Thing.
A couple of weeks ago my husband cut her claws just by sitting beside her on the sofa and sweet-talking her. I could hardly believe it.
It might turn out to not be a problem at all. The last time we moved, our older cat seemed to completely “forget” what Outside was. When we finally opened the back door for him, he was all, “What? I don’t want to go there!! AGH!” and so now, he’s an indoor kitty strictly by his own decision.
Heh, everytime we’ve move I’ve always smeared a dab of butter on top of the cat’s paw. I thought it was to encourage them to do a bit of impromtu self cleaning, which also helps them self soothe in the new setting.
I agree with the laundry room/bathroom sign technique. Once I did just take the cats to the groomer’s so they were minty fresh when I picked them up and brought them to the new house.