Comment: Bespoke removals packages offer all the options - at a price

Moving used to be easy – we’d hire a van, or, if we were feeling flash, a van with a bonus man – and we were sorted.

Then we got older and accumulated loads more stuff, including children; all three come complete with bulky things like beds and wardrobes, and, when combined with the many more demands on our time and patience (children again), we started looking at 'proper' removal firms.

These guys offer a luxury service - wardrobe boxes you can hang your stuff straight into and padded covers for everything from pictures to pianos.

Then there's the fleet of branded Lutons and lorries to transport your worldly goods to their new home. They also offer a team of pro packers to manage the most tedious part of your move. It's pretty impressive.

But naturally, none of this comes cheap. When we got the first quote back and it was in excess of £2,500 our reluctance to get involved ourselves changed quite dramatically.

About £500 of the quote was just for packing. Surely we could do that ourselves?

A friend suggested booking the pros to pack just the kitchen, as individually wrapping all those glasses and bowls is notoriously the biggest faff.

But our kitchen's small so we decided not to bother. How long was it going to take? Surely nowhere near £500-worth of time?

Smaller amounts of money can quickly become meaningless when viewed against the price of a house, but £500 is still a solid chunk of cash.

What price the stress of the DIY approach, though?

Only now, when we've started chipping away at our bookshelves and realised just how much packing is going to be required, have we begun to consider that pro packers may have been a worthwhile investment.

Maybe we should have splashed out on a bespoke moving package designed with our collective sanity in mind?

Only time will tell if not doing so has been a false economy.