How to Protect Your Furniture in Transit: Tips and Tricks

Moving can be stressful. Even the search for a reliable, affordable moving company can take longer than you’d expect. Then there is the tedious packing of your most treasured belongings — the ones you hope and pray don’t get damaged while in transit. You triple wrap them in bubble wrap and write “FRAGILE” all over the cardboard box.

As the boxes stack up, it’s time to start thinking about how to move the furniture. For some people who have, say, moved seven times in seven years, wrapping the furniture is just another check off the list. They’ve been there, done that, and know how to quickly get the job done. But for people who don’t move as frequently, thinking about safely moving furniture can be daunting.

That’s where we come in. Moving is already an overwhelming process, let alone trying to figure out how to perfectly wrap your grandma’s antique armoire to safely travel to its new home. With a few tips and tricks, we’ll have you wondering if you should just open your own moving business for the next move.

What You Need:

• Mattress cover
• Sofa cover
• Large black trash bags
• Bubble wrap
• Ziploc bags
• Moving pads and blankets

First things first: when you secure a moving company to do the heavy lifting, ask whether or not they are bringing their own moving blankets, or if you need to provide them. The same applies to renting U-Haul trucks. Sometimes, the trucks will come with blankets – other times, they will not. Moving blankets are key to ensuring your furniture arrives at its next destination without damage, so make sure you have them!

 Furniture wrapping

Here’s a major cost-efficient hack that will help decrease how long the movers are on the clock. Wrap as much furniture ahead of time as you can. Sure, you hired movers, so why not get your money’s worth? You packed all of the boxes; so let them handle the big stuff, right? Wrong. Moving companies generally charge by the hour, so the more stuff they have to wrap up upon arrival, the longer it will take and the more money it will cost. Wrapping your furniture will allow the movers to simply come in and start loading the truck. Plus, wouldn’t it be nice to hear them say, “Wow, you know what you’re doing!” Understandably, there are some things that are just better left to the movers. For bed frames, big couches or unwieldly pieces of furniture, movers have certain ways of efficiently wrapping the furniture. Here are some types of furniture that are great pieces to wrap ahead of the big day:

• Chairs (barstools, dining tables, sitting chairs, etc.)
• Coffee tables
• Small-medium sized TV stands
• Side tables
• Small-medium dressers
• Desks

When wrapping chair legs, table legs, or anything that sticks off of a piece of furniture, be careful as these pieces can easily break. If the legs of the furniture cannot easily be removed, wrap something soft around them before covering in plastic wrap. This will help create a barrier between the legs and anything that might damage them during the move. If you are able to remove the legs, make sure to put the nuts, screws, bolts, and any other small pieces in a clearly labeled Ziploc bag so you do not lose anything during transport!

When packing up a couch or large chair, it’s important to remove the cushions before wrapping the frame. Expert moving tip: cushions are great space fillers for heavy boxes that have extra room in them.  After putting a sofa (or chair) cover on the furniture, make sure to tape it to the underside of the furniture to close off the entrance to the fabric. In reality, you really only need to wrap the sides of the furniture — down to legs, if there are any. The sofa cover will protect the top of the couch, so we’re really just fully securing the cover to the sofa as well as protecting the legs.

Though this might be common sense, dressers should be completely empty. If the dresser, or any piece of furniture, is all wood, put a moving blanket on first and then wrap it in plastic over the blanket. This will help allow the wood to breathe while it is being moved, and keep the blanket secure to wood furniture’s more delicate exterior.

Protecting the bed in transport

Finally, what is probably the biggest piece of furniture to move: the bed. Again, Ziploc bags are your best friend here and pretty much the only thing keeping you from losing the small parts that hold your bed together. If you can do it on your own (or with a partner, friend or family member), place the mattress in a mattress bag before the movers arrive. This, again, streamlines the process. If physically moving furniture out of your home will be easy (i.e. same floor or with a freight elevator), it will be more efficient to put both the mattress and box frame in the same bag. If you have to rely on stairs, or are working in small hallways, it might be better to separate the two into different bags. Movers will have the tools needed to take apart the bed frame, though it might be a good idea to call ahead and make sure they bring whatever tool your bed needs (generally an allen wrench).

Moving can be an expensive, stressful and overwhelming experience. By taking the proper precautions you can help ensure your furniture makes it unscathed to the final destination. And if you’re doing this move sans movers, just remember to tie large pieces of furniture to the truck so they are secure and can’t topple over. In the same breath, never stack anything on top of wood furniture. The additional weight of the boxes can weaken the wood and even break it!