Removalists, surcharges and spreadsheets: Moving house over the holidays

So deck the halls with piles of boxes and follow these simple tips to avoid packing your children's pageant costumes among the kitchenware.

ACM spoke to a super-mover, who has moved 27 times in the past 28 years, for some of her best advice.

Hellene Berstad's longest move took her from Australia to Norway with two young children in tow, and her shortest move was between neighbouring apartments conveniently sharing a kitchen layout, a move where she swapped the draws of each apartment to avoid packing and unpacking.

Lock in reservations with removalists or truck hire as early as possible as services are less likely to accommodate last minute bookings around Christmas.

Popular removalists have reported bookings until the end of the year are almost full in Melbourne and Sydney.

If you plan to rely on help from friends, save those dates well ahead of time and make a backup plan.

Lock in electricity, gas and internet as soon as possible if you want your Christmas and New Year's Eve lights to twinkle.

Service industry staff deserve to be paid extra for working on holidays, so account for a percentage surcharge when booking around Christmas and the new year.

This charge averages 10% and many removalists also include this surcharge on weekends.

Consider gifting experiences or vouchers to your household rather than cumbersome physical presents and leave the valuable moving space available for more important or sentimental items.

Buy gifts online ahead of time and ship them directly to the recipient and have the store to organise gift-wrapping.

Hellene packs everything she uses infrequently first, making a careful list of every item she packs and cross references with the box number.

She recommends not listing the contents on the outside of the box, opting for large print numbers instead.

"It doesn't matter which way the boxes are stacked, you can always see the number," she said.

And a top tip for parents, Hellene recommends using Lego as a gap filler in any tight spaces.

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Look after yourself. Moving is always surprisingly tiring so don't RSVP to everything until you feel confident your schedule will allow it.

Plan for plenty of rest and recovery, as well as time to settle into the new home.

It is often easier, in the short-term, to throw away half-used packets of food from the back of your pantry but remember to replenish food supplies before the main public holidays.

Keep in mind that most shops and supermarkets close for Christmas, so if you plan to cook at home fill the pantry with what you will need to navigate the day.