Protecting your furniture when moving is not just about avoiding financial loss; it’s about ensuring the continuity and preservation of your project’s aesthetic and functional value. Luckily, with the right knowledge and precautions, safeguarding your furniture—and by extension, your investment—is entirely achievable. In the world of renovations and property development, the old age “It’s better to be safe than sorry” holds more truth than ever, especially when it comes to moving. Whether you’re relocating a single piece of furniture or an entire property’s worth, the risk of damage is significantly higher during the move.
A seemingly minor mishap can lead to substantial damage, transforming prized pieces into irreparable losses. This not only escalates costs but also adds unnecessary stress to what could already be a high-pressure situation.
This guide to protect your furniture when moving is designed to equip renovators and property developers with essential insights on protecting wooden furniture during moves. By the end, you’ll have the confidence and know-how to ensure your pieces arrive in pristine condition, allowing you to focus on the bigger picture of your renovation or development project.
How to Protect Furniture When Moving
To ensure the safety and integrity of your belongings during a move, it’s crucial to learn how to protect your furniture for moving and storing. Below, we share simple yet essential tips designed to shield your items from damage:
Prepare Ahead
Before you start packing your furniture for the move, create a strategy and get the essential supplies.
This can help to shorten the procedure and ensure that you have everything you need to keep your furniture safe during the relocation.
Create a list and take stock of every piece of furniture you plan to move. Assess each item’s size, shape, and weight to decide which pieces of furniture to set apart. This will also help you estimate the amount of packing material and the size of the moving van needed.
It’s a common moving myth that all you need to pack and protect your belongings are cardboard boxes and packing tape. While these are required, you will also need to buy a few more supplies. Ensure to get the tools and materials below:
- Packing tape
- Furniture blankets
- Cardboard sheets
- Screwdrivers
- Markers and labels
- Mattress covers
- Furniture guard/Bubble Blankets
Preparing to Protect Furniture When Moving
Before embarking on the physical move, there’s a crucial but often overlooked step: preparing your furniture for protection when moving.
This doesn’t mean a full-scale cleaning operation but rather a focused effort to ensure your items are ready for transport. The aim here is to remove any dust and potentially damaging particles that have settled on your furniture over time.
A gentle yet thorough wipe-down with a soft cloth or duster is all it takes. This stage isn’t about deep cleaning but ensuring the surface of your furniture is free from any debris that could scratch or embed in the fabric during the move.
Quick and efficient, this preparation step is key to protecting your pieces against unnecessary wear and tear during transportation.
Simplify the Move, Dismantle Your Furniture:
To facilitate smoother transport, begin by partially dismantling your furniture. This not only makes each piece easier to handle but also reduces the risk of damage. Ensure that disassembled parts are wrapped individually, enhancing their protection during the move.
By removing elements like sofa legs, armrests, and decorative details, you decrease the overall size and complexity of moving large items, especially through narrow passages and sharp turns.
Furthermore, for items incorporating glass components such as shelves or doors, it’s advisable to detach these parts and secure them with adequate packing materials.
Utilising furniture wrapping paper, bubble wrap, or even transit blankets can provide the necessary cushioning to prevent breakage, significantly safeguarding your furniture throughout the relocation process.
Keep Screws, Nuts and Bolts in Plastic Bags
When taking furniture apart, it’s crucial not to overlook the small, yet vital, components such as screws, washers, nuts, dowels, and bolts. Place these items in sturdy ziplock bags immediately upon removal. Store these bags in a designated, safe location to prevent loss.
Ensure each bag is clearly labeled with the name of the furniture piece it belongs to. This simple step will streamline the reassembly process, sparing you the hassle of searching for these essential elements later.
Wrap Your Furniture in Blanket
Furniture blankets, often known as moving blankets, are thick, cushioned blankets used to pack furniture for moving. They offer protection against scratches, dents, and other possible harm that may occur.
Before loading your wood furniture items in the moving truck, cover each piece firmly with a wrap and moving blankets. Ensure you cover all surfaces; this will add that extra protection to your furniture.
Then, use packing tapes to secure the removal blankets to the furniture for moving and pay attention to the fragile parts. Avoid applying the tape directly to the furniture, as this could cause damage.
Use furniture guard or removal blankets to wrap furniture and protect it from bumps. Plastic wrap or specially designed plastic sofa covers are used to protect your upholstered items. They can provide additional protection against dust, especially if storing items for longer periods of time.
Once your furniture is wrapped, reinforce the corners of larger items with cardboard for added protection. For pieces like dressers, slide a layer of cardboard under the base, extending it a few inches beyond the edges. Then, fold the cardboard up to envelop the base, ensuring comprehensive coverage and safeguarding against impacts.
Don’t Move Heavy Furniture by Yourself
It might seem obvious, but the temptation to tackle the moving of large furniture pieces alone is surprisingly common. While smaller items like tables and chairs can often be managed solo, attempting to manoeuvre heavier pieces by yourself is not only risky for the furniture and the flooring but also poses a significant injury risk.
For the heavier tasks, it’s wise to enlist assistance. Plan ahead and recruit friends or family to ensure you have the support you need.
Should personal assistance be difficult to secure, engaging a professional moving company becomes a practical solution. For those in need of dependable movers, consider exploring our moving services. Our expert team prioritises the safety and care of your items, ensuring a stress-free move.
Use Moving Equipment
Bulky furniture like pianos, pool tables, and heavy chairs will need specialist equipment for moving. This could involve piano wheels, a dolly or hand truck.
Moving equipment are highly handy for lifting big furniture, such as huge chairs, refrigerators, dining tables, pianos, and billiard tables.
Stack and Arrange Carefully
This is something most people don’t get right. You don’t want to just stack boxes on top of each other. To ensure that your furniture remains intact throughout transit, you must have a smart positioning strategy.
When placing your furniture into the moving van, position the pieces firmly so they won’t fall. Always keep heavier items on the vehicle floor and stack lighter ones on top. Make a wall of boxes at the back of the truck to offer support when you load your furniture later on.
In addition, use webbing straps to hold the furniture well, especially if you’re stacking it on top of another. This will add extra protection and help to prevent gouges or scratches while furniture is on the truck. Remember to be careful when offloading the vehicle.
Rent a Moving Truck
Are you planning on moving into a new home yourself? To make a successful DIY relocation, rent a van with tie-downs and a tail-lift or a ramp.
The rented truck should have a tie down track in it where you can connect straps to keep your furniture secure whilst in transit. This will keep the furniture secure and prevent it from falling or breaking while on the move.
Final Thoughts on Protecting your Furniture when Moving
Protecting furniture when moving doesn’t have to be daunting, but it requires planning and time. Putting in more care and effort into prepping your furniture, will ensure your furniture arrives at your home in the same condition it left.
Ideally, you should ensure your furniture is protected and prepped at least a week before moving day; You can create an inventory, disassemble furniture where necessary and wrap and protect pieces like beds and couches.
Follow the measures above to ensure that your furniture arrives in perfect condition in your new home.
Alternatively, hire a moving company to handle to move for you. Feel free to contact us and let us do all the hard work!
