Tips for Protecting Your Upholstered Furniture When Moving

Moving is never easy. After spending hours loading all of your possessions on a moving truck, the last thing you need is to discover that your sofa got damaged in transit. With a little effort, however, you can keep all of your upholstered furniture safe and sound en route to your new home.

To Clean Or Not to Clean?

Before a big move, you don’t need to get your furniture cleaned. Even if you keep it wrapped and protected throughout the move, it will probably accrue a bit of dust by the time it’s positioned in its new home. It’s better to hold off on a deep clean until after you’re fully moved in. You may want to give it a good dusting, however. The protective coverings used to safeguard upholstered furniture also trap in any existing dirt.

furniture

Take It Apart

Not all sofas or chairs have removable parts. If they do, however, it’s best to disassemble them before a move. Remove cushions, feet, slipcovers, throw cushions, etc. Group these items together, so that you can find them easily once you’ve arrived at your new home. If you don’t disassemble upholstered furniture, they’re more likely to get damaged in transit—especially if they have protruding parts.

Wrapping Upholstered Furniture

When wrapping furniture, there are several available material options. For upholstered items like sofas and chairs, however, most moving professionals opt for furniture blankets. These thick, blue blankets are wrapped around the entirety of the sofa and then secured using special movers tape or rubber bands. These blankets are made of different materials, ranging from cotton-poly blends to synthetic materials.

Inside the blankets is a filler pad, which cushions and protects the furniture. When choosing the right furniture blankets for your upholstered items, select ones that are made of a strong material, have dense cushioning, heavy stitching, and tight binding. If you choose a well-made furniture pad, your items are more likely to arrive at your new home scratch-free.

If your sofa has protruding corners, they may need extra protection. You can purchase specially designed corner protectors, which safeguard furniture corners if they bump into walls or doorframes. If you don’t have access to corner protectors, you can tape cardboard onto the corners, which will provide an extra layer of protection.

You also need to protect the removable items, like feet, sofa covers and throw cushions. Your throw cushions may be safe in a cardboard box, but you may want to wrap any removable feet/legs in plastic wrap or bubble wrap.

Crating

If you have a sofa or chair that is particularly valuable, you may want to consider crating it. This process, which essentially encloses the furniture item in a large cushioned box, is the best way to ensure sofas and chairs arrive safely at their destination.

take-care-upholstery

Lifting Heavy Furniture

Preparing upholstered furniture for moving is only half the battle. You still need to haul it onto the moving truck. Sofas are always a two-person job—life from the bottom and walk it to the truck using small steps. If you can’t find a few buddies to help, it’s best to enlist the help of a cheap moving company. When it comes to chairs, always lift from the chair rails, rather than the arm or back.

Guidelines for Arranging Furniture When Moving Into a New Apartment

Moving is difficult for everyone. Before you can even unpack, you have to arrange your furniture. Arranging furniture sounds easy enough at first, but it’s not just what room the pieces go in. It’s figuring out the right spacing and what makes a room feel right. Fortunately, interior designers have certain guidelines they use to arrange living rooms, dining rooms, and bedrooms. Every space is different, so feel free only to use the rules that make sense for your home. According to this service for moving Santa Clarita, CA, applying these tips will make setting up your new apartment easier:

arranging-furniture

Living Room

When busy families finally get some downtime, they usually spend that time in the living room. But living rooms are also plagued by cramped seating arrangements, bad tv viewing angles, and inadequate floor space. Follow these guidelines to avoid those pitfalls:

  • Leave 30-36″ of clear space between large furniture pieces for a walkway. If that’s too much for your space, 18-24″ will do.
  • Keep a minimum of 3.5′ and a maximum of 10′ between seating. Closer than 3.5′ feels too close and farther than 10′ feels too far.
  • If possible leave 3-5″ between your sofa and your wall. This creates the illusion of a larger space.
  • Leave 16-18″ between your sofa and coffee table for a walkway.
  • If you have a rug, the front legs of all furniture pieces should be on the rug.
  • Leave 24″ between your rug and your wall in a big living room, 10-18″ in a small living room.
  • Side tables should be 2-3″ from the height of the chair’s arm.
  • To fit a table between chairs, keep 42″ between them. If the room is too small, skip the table and put the chairs next to each other.
  • Leave 6″ of space on either end of a sofa console.
  • Tv height should be 30″ above the lowest seat height.
  • For best tv viewing, leave 7′ between your sofa and tv.

Dining Room

Dining rooms are meant to be mealtime gathering places, but a bad layout can make it just a storage room or completely unusable. The following rules are here to save the day:

  • Leave 30-36″ of clear space between large furniture pieces for a walkway. If that’s too much for your space, 18-24″ will do.
  • Allow for 24″ of table space per person.
  • Plan for 36″ between the edge of your table and the edge of your rug.
  • Leave 12″ between your rug and your wall (space permitting).

Bedrooms

A bedroom should be a relaxing oasis, but more often they’re uncomfortably cramped, leading to clutter and stress. That won’t be your case if you use these standards:

  • Rugs should have 24″ on all three sides of your bed.
  • The legs of the bed’s footboard should be on the rug.
  • Leave 36″ of clear floor space around the bed for walkways.
  • Divide the space between the top of the window and the ceiling into thirds and then hang your curtains in the top third.
  • Curtain rods should extend 10-12″ more than the width of the window on either side.
  • Curtains should be long enough to touch the floor without bunching up.
  • Benches at the end of the bed should be 3/4 the width of the bed (or leave 6-8″ on either side).

living-room

Hopefully, these rules help make arranging your next apartment easier and lead to a smooth move! This