How to Keep Your Furniture Protected when Moving

To keep your furniture protected when moving you need to pack it properly.

Proper packing will ensure the safety of your items during a house move.

There are many things that can go wrong during a house move – from falling victim to moving scams to getting injured on moving day or having your belongings damaged during the transportation. The relocation process is difficult, stressful, and risky and may easily result in great headaches and lots of wasted time and money. Yet, if you’re careful and well-prepared, you have a good chance of preventing most of the possible problems – you can research your movers and find trustworthy and experienced moving professionals to help you relocate, take effective measures to ensure moving day safety, provide efficient protection to your items so that they arrive at your new home intact and unscathed, etc. Accomplishing this, however, is not an easy task – you need to know exactly what to do and how to do it in order to achieve success.

When it comes to ensuring the safety of your items, you need to know how to properly pack them for moving. Safe packing will help you prevent damage to your belongings and keep them in excellent condition throughout the move. Protecting your smaller items is fairly easy – all you need to do is wrap them in packing paper and bubble wrap and put them in sturdy moving boxes, with plenty of cushioning between them.  Keeping your larger items protected, however, is a much bigger challenge. Furniture pieces, in particular, are extremely difficult to pack – due to their great size and weight they need special packing supplies and special handling. To make sure that they will survive the move safe and sound, you need to have appropriate protective materials and know how to wrap furniture for moving the right way.

Here is what to do in order to ensure the safety of your furniture during the arduous relocation process:

Step 1: Plan and Provide

The first thing to do when you start preparing your items for moving is to decide which of them you’re going to take to your new home and gather the necessary packing supplies. In regards to your furniture, you’re advised to:

  • Consider the value of every individual piece – Is it functional and comfortable? Is it high quality? Is it durable? Is it in good condition? Is it expensive? Is it a favorite of yours? Is it a family heirloom? Is it an antique or vintage item? Is it stylish and beautiful? If the answer to any of these questions is “yes”, you’ll probably want to keep the piece and move it to your new home;
  • Measure your furniture and find out if it will fit into your new residence – You need to assess the layout of your new house or apartment, measure the available space and the entryways, doors, height clearances and stairways of both your old home and your new one, and measure your furniture (don’t forget to take into account any protruding parts and odd shapes) to find out if it will fit through the doors and into the room where it is supposed to be located – if it doesn’t fit, there is no point in bringing it along;

    You need to use protective wrapping for furniture to ensure its safety during a move.

    Moving blankets are your best friends when packing furniture for moving.

  • Ensure moving help – Once you know which of your old furniture pieces you’re going to relocate, you need to find an efficient way to transport them to your new home and ensure some help, as you cannot possibly lift and carry around your heavy furniture by yourself. You have two options – either rent a moving truck and ask reliable friends to help you load and unload your furniture, or hire professional movers to do the job for you. If you have a lot of large furniture or some very valuable pieces, you’re strongly recommended to go with the second option – the moving experts have the right equipment, rich experience, and professional know-how required to safely relocate your cherished furniture and guarantee your successful moving experience;
  • Gather the necessary packing supplies – To provide efficient protection to your furniture during the move, you’re going to need appropriate packing materials – moving blankets, bubble wrap, plastic wrap for furniture, packing tape, sheets of corrugated cardboard, sealable plastic bags, and mattress covers. A set of hand tools (to disassemble the larger pieces), personal protection gear (to avoid personal injuries), and some furniture pads (to move your big furniture across the floors safely and easily) are also a must-have.

Step 2: Prepare Your Furniture for Moving

Before you start packing your furniture for moving, make sure you:

1) Remove all the items from your furniture to make the large pieces lighter and safer to manoeuver around your home. If you are moving short distance, you may leave small clothing items or office supplies in their drawers, as they are not very heavy or susceptible to damage (just make sure you wrap the drawers with plastic wrap to keep the items safely contained inside).

2) Clean your furniture as the accumulated dust and debris may scratch the delicate furniture surface during the move. Besides, you may not have the time and energy to give your furniture a thorough cleaning immediately after arrival – dusting and wiping the pieces in advance will ensure that you won’t introduce any of the dirt or bacteria from your old home into your new one.

3) Disassemble the larger pieces to reduce the risk of damage to the furniture (and to your property) when taking it out of your old residence and into your new one:

  • Remove cushions and furniture covers, as well as any knobs, handles, and/or casters from your furniture;
  • Remove any detachable parts – legs, wheels, seat backs, arm rests, shelves, doors, storage compartments, etc.;

    Your disassembled furniture will be safer and easier to relocate.

    Dismantle your furniture as far as it will go.

  • Put all the hardware parts (screws, bolts, etc.) from a furniture piece into a separate zip-lock plastic bag. Tape the bag securely to the corresponding item to prevent losing the small parts;
  • Disassemble the furniture as far as it will go – remove extension leaves, take out box springs, dismantle headboards, take apart furniture frames, etc.

Good to remember:

  1. When dismantling a furniture piece, refer to its manual or find instructions online to make sure you’re doing things the right way;
  2. Take pictures of your furniture before you start taking it apart and at several points during the disassembly process so that you can reassemble the item quickly and easily afterwards;
  3. All detached parts should be carefully wrapped and properly labeled, so that you can easily find the ones you need when reassembling the pieces.

Step 3: Pack Your Furniture for Shipping

The best way to protect furniture when moving is to wrap it in protective coverings and provide as much extra support as possible:

  • Cover up the more delicate furniture parts (intricate decorations, protruding elements, furniture legs that cannot be removed, etc.) with bubble wrap;
  • Fold clean pieces of corrugated cardboard around the corners of your furniture pieces and tape them securely in place (be careful not to use packing tape directly on painted or polished surfaces as it may leave a sticky residue);
  • Wrap the entire piece in moving blankets. Consider paper or cloth padding for additional protection whenever necessary;
  • Secure the protective coverings in place with plastic wrap.

Moving blankets, bubble wrap, and stretch wrap all provide excellent protective wrapping for furniture. Yet, there are a few specifics you need to be aware of in order to ensure the best possible protection to your furniture during a move:

  • Use special mattress covers to protect your bed mattresses against moisture, dust, and dirt;
  • Apply wax on fine wooden surfaces to protect them against scratches;
  • Do not use shrink wrap directly on wooden or leather furniture – moisture may be trapped underneath the plastic wrap and result in warping or mold growth. Besides, high temperatures can cause the plastic to melt and adhere to the leather or wood, damaging it irreversibly. Always wrap leather and wooden furniture in paper padding first, then use plastic wrap to keep the wrapping in place;
  • Cover glass elements (tabletops, showcases, and others) with a piece of cardboard (consider taping a giant “X” across the surface first, so that it is less likely to shatter if the glass breaks), then wrap them in packing paper and bubble wrap, and secure the bundle with packing tape. If the glass elements have been removed from the furniture, place the safely wrapped bundles in telescoping cardboard boxes and label them “FRAGILE” and “HANDLE WITH CARE”. If not, secure a sheet of corrugated cardboard on each of their sides.

Step 4: Take Your Furniture out of Your Home in a Safe and Easy Manner

To reduce the risk of damage to your furniture and your property on moving day, you need to take some efficient precautionary measures:

You need to find a way to manoeuver your furniture safely put of your home.

Manoeuvering your furniture safely out of your home is just like a sliding blocks puzzle game…

  • Ensure a safe way out of your home – Clear obstacles out of the way, remove leaves and debris from the path between the moving truck and the entrance to your home, and take away anything that might cause you (or your hired movers) to slip, trip, or fall while carrying a heavy furniture piece. Consider removing the doors from their hinges to provide some extra inches of free space and help avoid damage to the doors and/or to the furniture;
  • Reduce the risk of damage – Cover the floors with plywood sheets, cardboard pieces, old towels, or other appropriate materials to protect them against scratching, scuffing, or denting and ensure a “softer impact” in case your furniture is accidentally dropped on the floor. Cover the stairs with protective, anti-slippery coverings and wrap the banisters in thick blankets. It may be a good idea to use corner guards and install foam paddings on the door frames as well. Never drag furniture directly along the floor – use furniture pads or furniture dollies to take the furniture pieces out of your home safely and easily;
  • Ensure personal safety – If you’re moving without professional assistance, wear personal protection gear and get familiar with the proper lifting and moving techniques in order to avoid personal injuries and property damage during your move. Keep kids and pets away from the moving chaos!

Step 5: Secure Your Furniture in the Moving Truck

Proper packing will go a long way toward keeping your furniture protected during a move. Yet, you should make everything possible to ensure a safe transportation as well:

  • Line the floor of the moving truck with moving blankets to add some extra protection against vibrations and create protective padding in case some of your items accidentally topple on the floor during transit;
  • Make a wall of tightly sealed heavy boxes across the back end of the truck for added stability;
  • Place your regularly-shaped furniture (dressers, desks, etc.) directly against the boxes;
  • Use strong ropes to secure your furniture to the hooks or paneling on the inside of the truck;
  • Move in your mattresses next – place them upright and put flat fragile items such as paintings or mirrors between them;
  • Arrange your oddly-shaped furniture in the remaining space – place some moving blankets or cardboard pieces between the items for added protection;
  • Make sure you put only lightweight, non-breakable items on top of your furniture in the moving truck (or even better – nothing at all).

Now that you know how to protect furniture when moving, you should be able to relocate your cherished pieces without any problems or mishaps. Yet, make sure you check them for damage upon arrival – if you find any, inform the moving company immediately (depending on the kind of valuation protection you have chosen when hiring the movers, they may be liable for the full cost of repairs). If you have transported your furniture yourself, you’ll be the sole person responsible for its safety and may need to pay for the repairs yourself (depending on the kind of insurance you have). Either way, make sure you find experienced and trustworthy furniture repair specialists in your new area to restore the good condition of your pieces – you need them to be taken care of, so that you can enjoy them for many more years in your new home.

About Clean Master

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