MOVING house is one of the most stressful times in your life.

As a cause of anxiety, it's said to be right up there with losing your job, divorce or the death of a loved one. Over the top? I used to think so. However, four weeks after moving house, I still feel traumatised.

So why did we do it? After all, we'd lived happily in our old home for 12 years, in a friendly neighbourhood where the kids all played in the lane and in each other's gardens.

But our garden was tiny, we were on a main road and I had put up with bikes in the hallway for too long. So our requirements were: a semi or detached bungalow that we could extend to make the layout suit our needs; a project that would allow us to put our stamp on the property. The fact it also needed to be within walking distance of the tennis club and school meant a small and restricted radius, but we persevered.

After missing out on a lovely (but probably uninhabitable) property with rising damp and rot, I got a bit distracted and put in an offer for a 1980s townhouse. It was accepted and after a moment of delight, doubt set in: the house did not meet many of our requirements and, more importantly, my husband hadn't seen it. Two weeks later we managed to get him to view the house and although he was happy I was anxious - it looked so different in daylight.

A month before the move, the packing began. For convenience, we decided to dedicate one room to boxes so moved our youngest daughter in with her sister. That move provided the first bouts of stress with the kids taking ages to settle down at night then waking up an hour and a half earlier in the morning than usual.

Having procured dozens of boxes, I began packing away items that we could live without. Then it got tougher. Why I wasn't I prepared to throw out my mountain of books, my minimalist husband wanted to know. "These are books I want our children to read!" was my reply. Why did I need to pack eight pairs of black trousers in three different sizes? "I am still trying to get down to my pre-baby weight."

But at last, we are in our new home. We certainly got the "project" we wanted, without having to build an extension. The layout is family-friendly, and with three levels, it's possible to forget the noisy kids and the mess that goes with them. Now comes the fun part where we live, breathe and dream ideas, so we can inject our personality into this blank canvas.

It makes sense to take your time making the new house feel like a home, rather than rushing to make changes immediately. In the meantime, however, you have to live in that blank canvas ... and with your predecessor's choice of decor.

You may also, like us, face a few months of chaos if you plan a new kitchen, bathrooms and redecoration throughout, so it's essential you have somewhere you can relax, ponder paint charts and plan the next phase. A few simple inexpensive changes can make all the difference.

We have a lot of artwork and after two weeks of living with random pieces on picture hooks left by the previous owners I spent a few hours hanging as many pieces as I could. This immediately felt more like home and it's safer to have the art on the walls rather than stored in another room or cupboard. Although we will have to re-hang these after decoration it is well worth the effort.

Our kids' bedrooms are really dismal so I bought some colourful paper spheres to hang which will give the rooms instant cheer. Try Paperchase for interesting paper globes. These, with a string of fairy lights, will do the job nicely.

Fabric or paper bunting is another way to distract attention from unappealing decor. I have brightened up my kitchen and dining area with a slash of summer floral flags and now it doesn't feel quite so bad that I have no oven or dishwasher.

Scented candles also have their uses. With the lights off, a bath full of bubbles and scented candles providing an atmospheric glow and lovely perfume, I can almost forget I am among a 1970s avocado suite with matching shag pile running up the side of the bath. This trick works well in any room: dim the lights, light some candles and your dated surroundings melt away.

I am now at the stage of buying tester pots by the dozen. It is important to think carefully about the overall look you want and to research paint and paper choices before steaming ahead and making expensive mistakes. So my final tip is to use the discarded remains of all those tester pots to decorate plant pots for the garden or window sill. Then you won't feel quite so bad you bought so many.

Lisa McLaughlin, Ollaberry, 146 Busby Road, Clarkston, G76 8BH. www.ollaberry.com

Pain-free packing

Use packing up your belongings as an opportunity to go through everything and decide what your really need. Even if you love it, if it's chipped, cracked or torn then bin it.

Use professional movers and get a recommendation. Local social media sites are a good place to do this. Make sure they visit your house before providing a removal quotation; mine did not as they had moved my neighbour a few months earlier, which resulted in a horrendous atmosphere when they said we had more to move than our neighbours and demanded more money.

Don't underestimate how many boxes you will need. Buy rolls of brown tape in bulk, source "Fragile" tape and have a few pairs of scissors along with a number of marker pens. Mark boxes "immediate", "urgent" and "non-essential". As we have lots of work to do to the new house, we had a large quantity of boxes that went straight to the garage and which won't be opened until certain rooms are decorated and storage systems put in place.

Write on the boxes what is in each one. I did this in detail as not everything in one box was always for the same room. For example, I used cushions from one room to help pack breakables from another.

Unless you travel light, you won't be unable to unpack everything in the first day so it is worth deciding what you might need easy access to soon after you cross the threshold of your new home.

Before moving day, prepare an overnight bag for the family - I used one of our suitcases which had a change of clothes, nightwear and toiletries.