'Some people are calling us now who are moving house in December andsome clients are moving tomorrow. You can work with six to eight weeks'notice. It can be chaotic when someone says they're moving tomorrow'

Moving house tests the managing skills of even the most organised, checklist-making type of person. The final few days in the house are likely to be spent strategically packing, labelling cardboard boxes with felt-tip pens and squeezing spare plastic bubble wrap for stress relief.

Movers are sometimes so worn out by the process of bidding for a new home while selling their own that simple things like hiring a removal company are left to the last minute. That's definitely not a good idea, say removal experts.

"Some people are calling us now who are moving house in December and some clients are moving tomorrow. You can work comfortably with six to eight weeks' advance notice. It can be quite chaotic when someone says they're moving tomorrow," says Mr Mark Carey, managing director of Careline, a removal company with offices in Dublin, Galway and Limerick.

In most cases, the removal company will send out a move co-ordinator to your home for a consultation and a more accurate estimate of the cost of the removal and storage. One firm, DJ Hanleys, will e-mail quotes to clients who fill out a detailed inventory of the furniture in their home online.

Prices vary according to both volume and distance, but moving from an average three-bedroom house on one side of a city to the other will cost between €500 and €700. Moving from one part of the State to another will add around €3 a mile, so for a 240-mile round-trip, moving house costs an additional €720, according to Mr Jim Phelan, director of Cara Removals.

If you want a removal company to do the packing of china, glassware and other fragiles and valuables, it will cost about €300 extra. "All risk" insurance cover for goods in transit and in storage can also be arranged through most removal companies.

Storing the contents of an average house costs about €50 a week. This bill can quickly mount up if the client is building a house or waiting for a more suitable property to come on the market. Storage times of six months to a year are not uncommon.

People who are moving abroad will also make longer term use of storage facilities. "If it's a short-term assignment or contract work, they will let their house but still have certain valuable items of furniture that they want to put into storage," says Mr Damian Carroll, sales manager for Cronin Movers, which specialises in international moves for corporate clients.

If the stay in temporary accommodation between selling your first home and moving into your new one extends for longer than you had originally planned, you may find that all the stuff you once thought of as safely locked away in temperature-controlled, airtight containers is now inconveniently out of reach.

"We advise people to keep kids' toys and books and clothes for the change of season in one container so we can keep it in a space that is easy to access," Mr Carey says.

Like many services, choosing a removal company is often done on the strength of word-of-mouth recommendations, but some removers are licensed members of the Irish Road Haulage Association and international trade bodies such as the British Association of Removers.

"When you think of removals, you think of a one-man-and-his- van situation and it can be. There's nothing wrong with that. The initial reaction is to go for the cheapest price, but you are putting your worldly goods in someone else's hands," says Mr Carroll. "You have to know who you're dealing with."