How to Move Furniture by Yourself

Have you ever thought about how practical your various furniture pieces are? And unless some of their movable parts begin to creak irritatingly, they never complain but stand there in your home and do what they have been designed to do – to serve you loyally and selflessly.

When the time comes for you to move to another home in another city, and you have chosen to move by yourself instead of with the help of a professional removal company, one of the very first questions you’ll probably ask yourself, apart from the relocation price, is how to move your heavy furniture alone.

Of course, alone doesn’t mean that you should prepare and move your furniture pieces entirely on your own – you’re surely going to need at least a few helping hands from reliable friends to pull it off. Rather, alone basically means that you have calculated that moving house without relying on professional relocation assistance will be the more advantageous option for moving furniture in your case.

So, start with careful planning of each step of the furniture moving process, but before that, let’s say a few words about the cost of moving furniture.

How Much Does It Cost To Move Furniture?

Moving furniture pieces to another city is an expensive affair mainly because of their bulky size and considerable weight. And as you probably know, the total weight and sometimes the cubic capacity of the items you have for moving will determine the final moving price.

Hiring a reputable removal company to take care of your precious furniture, including its disassembly, safe packing, transportation and re-assembly, is the only true way of knowing the estimated relocation price in advance simply because you can have a moving expert come to your home, survey your possessions, and give you a price estimate for their pre- and post-move handling and actual transportation.

In fact, even if you’ve already made up your mind to do the move on your own, it’s highly recommended that you request such an in-house estimation of the moving expenses when having your beds, tables, wardrobes, desks, sofas, couches, chairs, bookcases and other pieces hauled to their final destination.

You never know – the price offers you will receive by professional furniture removers may pleasantly surprise you in terms of affordability and moving services included.

When you’re moving furniture by yourself, it’s hard to know the final price in advance, be it even roughly. And the reason for that is that too many additional factors come into play, not to mention the score of hidden expenses that most DIY enthusiasts often fail to take into account (packing materials, food and lodging on the road, road tolls and taxes, insurance and other highly unexpected costs (including medical bills due to personal injuries!)).

Before giving the green light to your self-moving project, take the time to create a moving budget and make every effort to calculate upfront the expenses you think you’ll incur for transporting your furniture pieces from Point A (your soon-to-be old home) and Point B (your soon-to-be new home).

How To Prepare Your Furniture For Moving

Having set up a preliminary furniture moving budget, you should have a rough idea about how much the transportation of your pieces will cost you. The next step is to get your furniture ready to be moved to your new home.

Inventory your pieces

You need to know exactly how many furniture pieces you possess in your house or apartment, as well as to be aware of their current condition. Take a pen and a notepad, and inventory your furniture in detail by inspecting each room of your residence. This inventory will help you determine whether a piece will be worth taking with you or it’ll be better to just leave it behind.

How to make a home inventory

Take out the measuring tape

If possible, visit your future home and measure its doorways and corridors, as well as the areas where the different furniture pieces will be placed. The idea behind this action is to save you potential troubles while trying to get your bulky ones (beds, wardrobes, desks, couches and tables) inside. And although the majority of the pieces can be partially or completely taken apart beforehand, you may still find it impossible to squeeze in a particular one through a door or maneuver it around a tight corner.

Also, how your old furniture will match the interior décor of your new place is another factor you should consider before the actual move. If you can’t go to your new residence in advance, then at least try to obtain its floor plan and use it as a guide.

My furniture won’t fit through the door

Get rid of old or useless furniture

Of course, it won’t make much sense to move any furniture pieces that are A) too bulky to fit through the doorways and hallways of your new place, B) too unfitting for your future living space in terms of size, shape or color, C) too old or old-fashioned to continue to be a delight to the eyes and D) too worn out or broken to continue to serve their purpose.

Remember that each additional furniture piece to transport means more money out of your wallet, so be extra prudent when deciding the fate of your loyal articles. Therefore, sell or give away the ones that just won’t do you any good and pocket some cash to help with the moving expenses.

Disassemble your furniture

Here’s another proven way to make moving furniture easy – try to disassemble (partially or completely) the pieces you have decided to definitely take with you. Your large bedroom bed can surely be taken apart to its main elements, right?

Make sure you remove all detachable and protruding parts from your furniture, such as shelves, drawers, doors, frames, supporting boards, legs and so on. Be extremely careful when handling fragile elements (mirrors, glass doors, etc.) as they can easily be broken or worse – they may hurt you in the process.

If you have no idea how to go about dismantling a specific piece, you are encouraged to consult its construction manual, ask a friend for help or contact a professional if the first two options fail to deliver any satisfactory results. Don’t forget to keep the tiny parts (screws, bolts, nuts, etc.) in a safe place, such as a plastic bag or a metal box.

Protect your precious furniture

Our moving furniture tips continue with good advice on how to protect your furniture when moving. Once you have disassembled your pieces as far as they can go, it’s time to make sure that they arrive in your new residence safe and sound – that is, practically in the same condition they were before the move. For that purpose, you must do what’s necessary to keep them intact throughout all relocation stages.

Wrap the bigger pieces in special moving blankets (purchasable from the local removal company), old household blankets, thick bed sheets or any other suitable large pieces of no-longer-needed clothing you can find in your house. Use sheets of bubble wrap to safeguard the smaller and more delicate parts, or the easily breakable glass elements. Then, apply plenty of packing tape to keep the protective layers in place.

Be mindful that to keep your furniture safe, the most important rule is to create a protective shield for all wooden surfaces and prevent them from getting into contact with each other during the actual transportation. Also, this furniture protection process will minimize any possible property damage during the move, so it’s clearly a win-win situation for you.

How To Move Furniture Across Country

You have decided which furniture pieces to move to your new home, you have partially disassembled them and you have prepared them for transportation. So far, so good. Now it’s time to actually load them onto the moving vehicle and drive away to meet your new life.

Get the right equipment for moving furniture

To move furniture easily around your house and load it into the moving van, you’re going to need the right moving equipment:

• Vehicle for moving furniture: it can be a moving van you rent from a truck rental company, one you borrow from a friend or even your own car that is suitable for the job. Either way, make sure the moving vehicle is equipped with a ramp for easy furniture loading operations.

• 

  Wheeled dolly for moving furniture: such a moving dolly is a must-have piece of moving equipment without which the entire self-move is doomed to fail. You need such an irreplaceable wheeled helper to move heavy furniture upstairs by yourself, to move the pieces downstairs and out to the moving van, as well as to move your furniture on carpet in order to avoid property damage. Once loaded onto the appliance dolly, don’t forget to strap the furniture piece securely with rope to minimize undesirable and dangerous movements of any kind. A furniture dolly can be rented from a local removal company.

• Sliders for moving furniture: How to move heavy furniture without scratching the floor? To move heavy furniture on hard wood floors, you need the so called sliders (furniture pads). Placed underneath the furniture edges, these sliders will help you move your furniture around your home with ease and without causing any damage in the process. Again, they can be rented or even bought from local removers, but before you do it, have in mind that sometimes blankets can also serve the same purpose, especially for your smaller and lighter furniture.
• Personal protection gear: it’s very important that you take all precautionary measures to keep bad accidents at bay. Wear appropriate clothes and shoes on moving day and don’t forget to provide the ultimate protection for your hands by wearing durable gloves with a good grip.

Count the helping hands

One thing is clear – you’re going to need help when moving furniture around your house.  Moving heavy furniture is not only an impossible task for a single person, but it can be a back-breaking one as well. Therefore, turn to your good friends and check way before your moving date how many of them will be able come to your rescue.

If it turns out that your buddies have already made other plans, then you have no other option but to hire the pros and let them give you a hand with your really heavy furniture.

Load your furniture the right way

Remember that your heavy furniture pieces, together with the large kitchen appliances (refrigerator, washing machine, dishwasher, cooking stove, etc.), should be loaded first onto the moving van. It’s imperative that you secure your pieces well to the side the vehicle with straps or considerable lengths of rope to immobilize them. Any shifts or movement on the road would only contribute to a higher risk of damage to your household goods.

Moving furniture to another city can be a much harder task than it may have looked in the very beginning of your relocation preparations. The above tips for moving furniture will surely help you relocate your loyal pieces easily and without any major setbacks, but you still need to weigh in your available options for moving furniture and figure out whether you’re up to the challenge.

Keep in mind that contacting an experienced and reliable furniture removal company is only a few mouse clicks away.

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