Moving Furniture | Long Distance USA Movers

Best Tips for Moving Furniture Across the Country

With all the excitement about your up-and-coming relocation, you’ve probably haven’t yet figured out what you’ll need for moving furniture or how to do it properly. You’ll be able to handle some pieces by yourself, but other, bulkier items require both skill and some help.

A man holding a couch overlay
Repositioning heavier furnishings is like going to the gym

The smartest thing to do when you make up your mind about relocating is to find an ultimate relocation guide and follow the steps. But taking care of furnishings is tricky and requires some in-depth analysis of the surroundings and the item itself. Sounds overblown? Once you try to rearrange your home and move the sofa as far as another room, you’ll get it. However, with great tips, you can avoid damaging the piece, and above all, getting hurt.

A Word or Two on the History of Sofas and Other Furnishings

Did you know that sofas date back to ancient Egypt? And the icon of British gentleman’s clubs, the Chesterfield sofa, was designed three centuries ago. We have made it a part of everyday lives, and along with other pieces, such as TV stands, armchairs, beds, and shelves, they make our lives comfy. But when we’re about to relocate, there’s nothing comfortable about repositioning bulky and heavy stuff. So, while you search for “long-distance movers near me” and pick which long-distance moving services you want to invest in, take a look at some of the best tips on how to move furniture in the house.

If you’re interested in the evolution of chairs, watch the following video.

What Is the Cheapest Way to Move Furniture? First Tip – Declutter and Purge as Much as You Can

There are a few things you can do weeks before your move-out date that will enable you to move efficiently. That includes a thorough decluttering of your home and deciding what to keep and which furnishings will fit into your new residence. Getting rid of unnecessary possessions can be divided into three stages:

  • First of all, if there are any unusable objects, you should throw them away immediately. Keeping things that are beyond repair only causes clutter inside our homes, and it will make the same clutter in the next. On top of that, everything you get rid of will only lower the cost of cross-country moving services.
  • The next step is to reexamine all of your possessions and donate unwanted items. Charities such as Goodwill or the Salvation Army usually accept all kinds of donations – from unwanted appliances to furnishings, clothes, and dry foods.
  • Eventually, after you’ve donated old appliances, furnishings, and other unwanted stuff, you can decide to sell some pieces. If you organize properly, you can have a successful garage sale. The best way to do it is to organize it on the weekend and advertise it in the neighborhood. The other option is to sell these things online.

Additionally, you can contact your long-distance movers to get a list of the non-allowable items so that you can get rid of them.

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Taking Furnishings With You Across the States Isn’t Easy, so Leave It in Storage

Once you’ve decluttered and sold everything deemed not worthy of being relocated from a small town to a big city with you, you don’t have to bring it to the future home right away. Until you settle and figure out the arrangements in the new place, invest in storage service and leave your bulkier pieces for safekeeping. If you’re worried you don’t know how to protect items in storage units properly, the trick is to clean and thoroughly dry everything before you pack it. Use specialized blankets and wrap everything so it won’t get damaged in the back of the relocation truck. The rest is up to cross-country movers and their services.

An open storage unit overlay
Storage units can hold many things - from appliances to furnishings

Find the Right Equipment for the Job

Although it’s quite easy to move a chair – you clean it, dry it, and envelop it in wrapping material – loading a bed or a wooden desk requires some heavy lifting. Just like you’ll create a relocation binder for your next move, obtain as many high-quality packing materials as you can, you’ll need to have proper tools to help you handle your furnishings. These will ensure you do everything with less force and much less strain on your back and muscles. Remember that improper lifting may cause some severe health issues, so arm yourself with proper tools.

The Straps Will Preserve Your Back

Like with backpacks, the more straps it has (like those that buckle up on front,) the less your back will suffer. One of the best relocation tips for bulky furnishings is buying these specialized straps and using them when lifting. They are adjustable, so you can tailor them and adjust them to the size of the piece, as well as your body.

Sliders and Pads Are a Great Hack for Sliding Furnishings

These handy little things come cheap and are a perfect hack that will enable you to slide furnishings with ease. And not only that but also to protect both wooden and carpeted floors. They are felted from one side and plastic on the other, so you can use them on any kind of floor without worrying. Also, don’t let the sliders be the most commonly forgotten things to pack – pack them and bring them to the future home, so you can freely slide all the furnishings until you arrange them to your liking.

Rearranging and Furniture Moving Is Easier With Some Help So Get Yourself a Dolly and Move Anything

When it comes to relocations, a set of wheels could be of great assistance. Your car could be transported in a jiffy, carried across the states through an auto transport service, while another set of wheels can be helpful when you move stuff around the house. Repositioning something as heavy as a desk or a sofa should be done on a dolly, whether you have some assistance or not. These things are quite useful and should definitely be a part of your checklist for relocating to a new state.

Dollies come in two varieties, and you could go by with getting your hands on either one. The first type is a square platform with four wheels, and it comes with or without a handle to push. You’ve probably seen one at Ikea. This one is quite suitable to help you move a mattress or anything else as large. The other is a hand cart with two wheels, with a much smaller platform. This one is fit for tall objects, for instance – if you need to move a grandfather clock.

A dolly with boxes on overlay
A dolly always comes in handy when there's some stuff to be carried around

Prepare Your Residence and Clear the Pathway, Just Like You’re Awaiting a Delivery From the Furnishings Store

What’s the next step in your relocation? You’ve done a home inventory, decided which long-distance moving company to hire, and projected your relocation budget. You’ve also packed by yourself or thrown a packing party and invited your friends to assist you. The next thing you should do is clear the path and secure it, so you can slide and carry without running into obstacles.

Plan the Routes Carefully Before You Start Lifting

Once you’ve cleared the path throughout your residence, you should check the routes where you’re going to pass through to move all the large objects. Take a measuring tape and measure the doors, stairs, and hallways. Then, sit down and measure the pieces you should carry through there. Finally, before you start lifting and sliding anything, figure out the strategy for carrying over obstacles and through tight openings. These are some of them:

  • Carrying tall and bulky objects is just like the delivery guys do it – move it high and low. Whether you’ve called a friend to help you move the wardrobe or your neighbor is giving you a helping hand to carry a shelf, it’s definitely a two-person job. The item should be tipped at an angle, and one of you should carry the top side while the other takes care of the bottom.
  • Perhaps you’ve got a pretty light item, and you probably believe it will be a piece of cake to handle. But if the piece is too large, it may be more than tricky to carry around the corners and through door frames. These kinds of objects should be hooked through. Turn it on its side, in the shape of the letter L, and slide it back-first through the doorway.
  • Another piece that should be a job for two is a couch or a sofa. Maneuvering it through the residence means you should stand it on its end before sliding it through the doorway. The best way to do this is to place it on its end, slide it to the doorway, and hook it through. If you think that this is too hard and you should leave it behind, remember that you can always repurpose old furnishings and give them another life. Yes, even if you’ve damaged it during the move.
  • Although you can load a smaller mattress on a dolly, if it’s a large one, you should make a rope sling and carry it with extended control. The rope should be threaded through the mattress handles, which are not meant for carrying.

Before you start repositioning these pieces through the residence, you should carefully envelop them as much as you can. Do this with specialized blankets and bubble and plastic wrap, and secure everything with tape. Also, disassemble everything that can be taken apart and later assembled. Only make sure the corresponding hardware is placed into ziplock bags and attached with a piece of tape. All these materials will be brought to you by relocation specialists if you’ve decided to invest in a packing service instead of handling everything by yourself.

A man preparing a table for long-distance moving overlay
Even if it's a lighter object in question, pay attention to how you carry it

We Also Require Help Moving Furniture Within Homes

One of the questions that probably bothers you is, can you hire someone to rearrange the furniture? It may surprise you, but some relocation companies provide you with hassle-free movers that will be helpful when you make arrangements in your residence. Although you can do this by yourself and avoid getting backache by calling your family or friends to help you, you’ll risk damaging your furnishings. That’s why it’s probably best to leave it to their trained handling.

A couple preparing a carpet for cross country moving overlay
We can move and reposition some stuff by ourselves, but it's best to leave heavier objects to professional movers

Is Moving Furniture Expensive? Hire Movers to Move Furniture for You, and You’ll Get an Accurate Quote

This is all hard work, and that’s why the wisest thing to do is to contact your local cross country moving company and find out how much does it cost to move some furniture. If you’re not sure how to choose a relocation company, you should search for them online, look if they have stellar reviews, narrow your picks and then call them to compare quotes and thus move more efficiently from a financial standpoint. After all, picking the right movers will enable you to have peace of mind when it comes to taking care of all your possessions.

Kate Holland

A true grunge and rock music fan born in Seattle, Kate has moved across the country and started writing about her experience.


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