Written, Edited and Fact Checked by Taras Kim
Updated: October 21, 2024
Do you know why there are companies specializing in moving? In reality, any move would not be so complicated and quite manageable for an ordinary person if it weren't for 2 simple reasons: furniture and appliances.
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You don't know the pain and nerves spent if you haven't tried to move a sofa bed from the 5th floor! Nothing compares to the suffering of trying to fit a refrigerator into a passenger elevator! It is during a move that you realize how large your appliances are — and this is not just a stable phrase, but quite tangible kilograms.
Do you have to disassemble furniture for movers? Contrary to popular belief, the answer is: "No." Our experts, based on their extensive experience in loading and transportation, assert that dressers, chests of drawers, and even wardrobes are better transported in their assembled state.
Indeed, if you calculate the time and effort spent on disassembly, loading-unloading, and subsequent assembly of furniture, it turns out that it is better to carry, secure, and transport the wardrobe or dresser as a whole once. However, this is not always possible. Sometimes the furniture is too large to fit through doorways and staircases. In this case, the furniture must be dismantled.
Here, words should be said about the benefits of movers who disassemble furniture. But let's not engage in self-promotion. Instead, let's discuss how to independently prepare furniture for a move – office, apartment, or country house.
If you follow these tips, the transportation will go quickly and smoothly, and the savings on services will justify themselves.
🛋️ Furniture Moving Tips
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1. Make sure – is it really necessary to disassemble the furniture
The first thing to do is to protect yourself from unnecessary work. Sometimes it is not worth disassembling furniture – even large ones and even before long transportation. For example, small bedside tables and coffee tables can withstand the trip in their assembled state if packed correctly. It is not necessary to touch old furniture: perhaps after the move, you will not be able to reassemble it.
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2. Measure the passages and corridors
Now measure the width of the doorways and corridors. Think again whether it is worth disassembling the furniture. As a rule, assembled chairs and wardrobes can be carried through the entrance and taken down to the car. But for some furniture, the passages turn out to be too narrow, and it has to be disassembled anyway.
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3. Purchase packaging
The second step in preparation is buying packaging materials. They will be useful for both whole and disassembled furniture. If you are transporting standard items, you will need a minimal set: cardboard sheets and boxes, bubble wrap, stretch film, packing paper, and tape.
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4. Make notes
If you still have to disassemble large furniture, make notes when you put the parts in boxes. Write down which part belongs to what and how it is attached. For example: "right armrest," "top shelf," "left door." It goes without saying that such notes will save hours of time and tons of effort during assembly.
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5. Remove the hardware
No matter how much you hurry, pay attention to the "small" details – remove all handles from the doors, take out the shelves from the cabinets, remove mirrors and decorative elements. Put handles and other easily lost details in a small box or bag. Stack the shelves "in a stack" (no more than three pieces), wrap them in film, and wrap them with tape.
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6. Put the screws in a bag
During self-moves, bolts and screws disappear with mystical frequency. To keep the fasteners with you, stock up on a couple of cloth bags or bags. In them, you will put everything that you unscrew from the furniture. There is another way – stick the fasteners to the parts for which they are intended.
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7. Remove the armrests from soft furniture
If the movers are not ready to transport all your furniture in its assembled state (for example, they did not have an upholstered furniture van), you will have to deal with sofas and chairs. For chairs and sofa beds, you need to remove the armrests. Sofa beds need to be completely disassembled. For this, you can spend money on assemblers. Yes, you won't save as much as you wanted. But the work with one sofa and a couple of chairs, in any case, will be cheaper than disassembling all the furniture in the apartment.
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8. Protect the leather upholstery from the cold
You will have to fuss with leather furniture. If you decide to carry it to the car yourself, follow a few rules. First, do not put household appliances, boxes, and other items on sofas and chairs. When moving furniture, do not squeeze the upholstery, but rather keep your hands on the frames. In winter, leather is afraid of the cold, and in summer – dust. Therefore, a warm blanket or stretch film is mandatory.
When working, consider the recommendations:
- As with disassembling furniture, you should start with large items – sofas, wardrobes. This will allow you to put clothes and smaller items on them.
- Equipment should not be immediately connected to the power supply; you need to wait at least a few hours. It is especially important to fulfill this condition in winter when there are large temperature differences between the street and the room, and the equipment can be damaged.
- Glass and fragile elements need to be disassembled carefully and attentively so that the furniture is not damaged.
- Do not lift one sofa and other large furniture alone to avoid injury and damage.
- To make it easier to assemble the furniture, it is recommended to pre-record all stages on paper and then strictly follow them.
DIY packing guide: If you're doing the packing yourself, learn more in our packing guide.
Do movers disassemble beds?
Even for short distances, it is better to disassemble large furniture. Therefore, do not skimp on preparing items. Specialists quickly disassemble furniture and assemble it in the new place. They will carefully transport it using special straps and fasteners to the new address.
And, moreover, an unassembled bed may simply not fit into the van or take up too much space. When disassembled, it will take up minimal space. In addition, unassembled furniture becomes loose during transportation. Screws can start falling out of the fasteners, all joints will become loose. Therefore, it is necessary to disassemble the bed in 9 out of 10 cases. And movers know perfectly well how to do it, because they have done this job hundreds of times.
Hire Professionals
If you are facing a move for the first time and have doubts about successfully organizing everything, it is better to hire professionals. When moving, you can hire movers with experience in disassembling furniture, dismantling equipment, who perform work on a turnkey basis. They will professionally disassemble sofas and other furniture to deliver to the new place, organize careful dismantling of equipment so that nothing is damaged during the move.
Do you have to disassemble furniture for movers? When placing an order, you need to specify which additional work needs to be done – disassembling furniture, dismantling equipment. Most movers disassemble and reassemble the furniture at no extra cost if necessary for the move (for example, a bed, that we discussed above, is often impossible to take out of the apartment without disassembling, and its transportation in a truck is too risky).
At a convenient time for the client, movers arrive, who begin disassembling furniture and dismantling equipment.
Nothing is required from the customer; the specialists will bring everything for disassembly, including packaging.
At the new location, unloading is carried out, after which the assembly of sofas and other furniture, installation of equipment begins.