Piece of cake, we thought. The best tip someone gave me first time was to always be packed by professionals. We have now moved houses seven times and always use the same excellent company. We got a lot right this time: the redirection of post; the room plans with furniture to scale; the decuttering and cleaning before being lovingly packed over two days. Our dogs stayed with friends. We packed a suitcase as if for an overnight stay. Then we were in the new house, unloaded in only an hour and a half, with no lightbulbs and walled in by boxes. I wept in the darkness, alone, listening to my husband trying to escape from another room. This is what I would do differently:

Tip One: Pack as if you're going camping. Have changes of clothes for when you are soaked. Include rubbish sacks, some ready meals and bedclothes. And lightbulbs. Keep it all with you, not the van, plus something alcoholic, obviously.

Tip Two: If your new house isn't big enough to have a spare room for piling up boxes, plan where every box should go and make sure you can get into each room to unpack them. I include the kitchen, with cupboards labelled. Make sure every unpacker has his/her own stanley knife for getting into boxes. Don't let anyone start randomly pulling stuff out of boxes, or you'll end up moving in twice.

Tip Three: All the advice says you should first make the bed but you can't if it's in bits, so keep a tool box handy for reassembling it and anything else that is hanging off the walls.

Tip Four: Also keep with you whatever you need for online banking, chargers, paperwork and important phone numbers on speed dial.

Tip Five: Ask the previous owners to leave picture hooks in place. They won't be in the right place but it's instantly cheering to get something up on the walls and the minute we did, it felt like home.

Then sit down with a good book!