The first one is unavoidable. Death is the only sure thing in life, aside from taxes.



The second one, if you knew my ex-husband, you would see as one of life's unfortunate necessities. If I hadn't divorced him he would have become a statistic of the first variety.

However, when it comes to the third most stressful thing in life - moving house - now this can be helped in many ways. There is no need to make it any more stressful than it needs to be with careful planning and delegation.

Delegation when it comes to moving in something my sister is a great believer of. A week before moving day and she hadn't packed a thing using the excuse that she was heavily pregnant. I say 'excuse' because whoever met a pregnant woman who didn't have a nesting instinct? You'd think she would be in some sort of a hurry to get settled!

Oh no, not my sister! She waits until the last minute, goes into labour and spends a week in hospital while the rest of us pack, scrub, move, scrub again and unpack for her. However, this is not the standard method of easing a house move.

One of the first steps to take when faced with a house move is to employ the expert knowledge of a removal company. Most people have a story about a dodgy removal company, broken vases, disappearing furniture, late arrivals, all manner of things that can and do go wrong.

However, this no longer needs to be left to chance. Just as you can get a mortgage broker to find the right mortgage company for your needs, you can also employ the services of a removal company 'broker'. Once they have assessed all your needs, they can narrow down a list for you to choose the right removal company for the job.

They will ensure the removal company are registered with the organisations that remove the worry for you. You know exactly what you are getting, you know exactly what sort of service they provide and you can tailor the service to suit your budget.

A removal company of any worth will not charge to assess your needs and to give you a firm price. This allows you to build the costs into the whole moving house finances. They can provide boxes or packing crates of all sizes and strengths. They can even help you organise a 'things to do' list.

Remember, these are the experts. Unlike us, they move house every day. A removal company will know the short cuts that are good to take and the ones that are simply not worth it.

You can liase with the removal company and ensure your move goes as smoothly as possible. They can come in and pack your possessions if you so wish. Some of them will even clean your property when you leave. They can move your home contents at a time convenient to yourself and some even have storage facilities for those items you don't want delivering straight away.

An efficient removal company will also unload and even unpack if you so request.

All these things are there to make life easier and your house move less stressful. And if you can get through this without killing your other half or divorcing him then you're onto a winner!