How To Protect Your Furniture When Moving House

There’s nothing worse than moving house and then discovering your furniture has arrived with a few scuff marks, dents or even more significant damage. No matter if you have decided to move your furniture yourself or enlisted the help of local professionals, there are various protective measures you can take to ensure your items arrive at your new place in one piece.

Below are some professional tips and tricks for how to safely transport your furniture items:

1. Decide On How You Will Move Your Furniture

Now is the time to decide if you will be moving your items yourself or hire a professional to do the job. If you happen to be time poor or can’t get access to a vehicle to move your belongings over to your new place, hiring a professional to handle the job might be the best solution for you.

If you have decided to do your entire your move yourself, start by formulating a plan or create a checklist of what tasks you need to complete and by when. By being organised early on, you can prevent any oversights or potential issues later on.

2. Gather Your Furniture Packing Supplies

Before you get started, ensure you have the following items on hand to protect your furniture:

• Blankets and towels
• Lounge covers
• Bubble wrap
• Corrugated cardboard
• Foam padding
• Shrinkwrap for securing doors or drawers and providing a bit of waterproofing
• Ziplock bags to store disassembled furniture pieces, screws and other hardware
• Old socks (instead of bubble wrap) to wrap around bed frames, table corners etc.
• Packing tape

Even if you decide to move your items with a professional removalist, you can still pre-wrap some of the more fragile items yourself – there’s no such thing as “too careful” when it comes to your precious items.

3. Clean Furniture Surfaces

Be sure to wipe down your furniture before you move house. Doing this will prevent dust and dirt from transferring to your other belongings or to your new place.

Any dust and debris that’s been left on your furniture can scratch furniture surfaces during your move so it’s best to take the time to clean your furniture. Use a damp cloth and gently wipe your furniture clean.

4. Disassemble What You Can

For best results, disassemble your furniture the day before you move. Once your furniture is clean, carefully remove legs from tables or chairs (where you can) to help make your move easier and prevent any damage to your belongings. Doing the above means squeezing your larger furniture items through doorways and stairwells becomes a breeze.

Gather any small screws and parts by placing them into a plastic bag to keep all your furniture hardware together. Label and tape the bag of furniture hardware onto the inside of an empty drawer or another safe location you can easily access once you get to your new address.

5. Wrap It All Up

Plastic sheets, lounge covers and bubble wrap are some of the most often used materials for packing furniture. If you find that you don’t happen to have enough of these materials, you can always improvise with other things from around your home. Towels, old sheets or thick blankets can also be used as protective packing material.

Use plastic wrap to protect upholstered items from dust and use bubble wrap to cushion delicate items such as glass and mirrors. To prevent friction damage, slide corrugated cardboard pieces in-between furniture.

Secure any loose drawers shut with tape or shrink-wrap to prevent movement during transit.

6. Loading Your Furniture

Before you start loading your furniture onto your moving vehicle, take a step back and think about how to best position your items. By rule of thumb, you should load your largest items into your truck first. This includes heavy furniture, fridges, washing machines, lounges etc.

Try to close off any gaps between your larger items to make the most of your moving space. Be sure to tie up any items that may shift during transport to prevent damage.

When To Call In The Professionals

If moving house on your own seems too daunting of a task or if you are very pressed for time, calling in the professionals to assist might be the best option for you.

Professional furniture movers have the capability and experience (not to mention the right equipment) to effectively pack, protect and carefully relocate your furniture so you won’t have to lift a finger. They know how to give your furniture the very best care so you can have peace of mind that your belongings will remain in good condition during your move.

Stress Less, Work With Brisbane’s Giffen Removals

If you need a hand with your house move, packing your belongings or with disassembling furniture, get in touch with the team at Giffen Removals. We offer competitively priced services to suit your specific needs, and best of all we’ve been in the industry for almost 30 years so you know your furniture will be in good hands.

Call us on (07) 3162 6783 for an obligation-free quote and take the stress off your next furniture move today.