Moving house can be an exciting time—a chance for a fresh start in a new space. However, the stress of ensuring your belongings arrive intact often casts a shadow over the excitement. Furniture, in particular, is vulnerable to damage during the move, with scratches, dents, and even breakage all too common. While mishaps may feel inevitable, the truth is, they are largely preventable if you know how to handle the process properly.
Let’s delve into practical strategies to safeguard furniture from breaking during your move, ensuring your cherished possessions arrive in pristine condition.
Imagine this: A friend of mine was moving from a small apartment to a larger standalone house. Like many, he enlisted the help of friends and family to manage the move—a seemingly economical and communal approach. One of his friends, self-proclaimed as “experienced,” bluntly predicted, “Vitu lazima ziharibike!” (loosely translating to, “Things are bound to break”).
Despite protests, this prophecy came true. By the end of the move, a once-elegant table bore a nasty scratch, and a sturdy wall unit looked wobbly and frail. What went wrong? Poor planning and lack of expertise in handling furniture during transit.
The lesson? Moving furniture isn’t just about getting it from one place to another; it’s about ensuring it survives the journey intact.
Proper Handling Is Crucial
Furniture pieces like sofas, beds, and cabinets are often bulky, heavy, and awkward to maneuver. Unlike smaller items, they lack natural handles or easy grip points, making them prone to mishandling. This is where professional movers shine—they’re trained to handle such items with care.
Techniques like lifting with support rather than dragging, using straps for stabilization, and disassembling large furniture for easier movement are all essential. For instance, detaching table legs or removing cushions from sofas minimizes the risk of stress on structural joints. Even with help from friends, ensuring proper handling techniques can save your furniture from unnecessary damage. That’s why you can feel and see the difference when you use moving companies like The Centric Moving Company since our technicians and movers receive specialized training on proper item handling.
Protecting Furniture During Transit
The journey to your new home isn’t always smooth. The furniture you’ve entrusted to the moving truck will face bumps, potholes, and sharp turns. Without proper protection, these movements can cause scratches, dents, or worse.
Professional moving companies employ various protective measures to mitigate this risk. Items are carefully wrapped using materials like bubble wrap, moving blankets, or stretch film. Cardboard boxes or plastic crates are used for smaller items, while larger furniture pieces are padded and secured to prevent movement.
How items are loaded onto the truck also matters. Strategic packing leaves minimal gaps between items, reducing the risk of shifting during transit. And for added peace of mind, opting for a covered moving truck shields your furniture from weather elements like rain or dust, which could cause additional damage.
Choosing the Right Vehicle for the Job
It’s tempting to cut costs by opting for a smaller vehicle or using a friend’s pickup truck for the move. However, this often backfires. Overloading a vehicle or tying items precariously onto its roof increases the risk of physical damage. Furniture can buckle under excessive weight or pressure, and exposed pieces are vulnerable to the elements or road vibrations.
A professional moving company like The Centric Moving Company solves this problem by matching the right vehicle to the size of your load. Whether it’s a small van for a studio apartment or a larger truck for a family home, having adequate space ensures that furniture can be transported without stacking or improper balancing that might lead to damage.
Key Takeaways for a Damage-Free Move
The myth that furniture must inevitably suffer during a house move is just that—a myth. The real culprit behind broken or damaged furniture lies in how the move is executed. With proper handling, adequate protection, and the right vehicle, your prized possessions can arrive at your new home unscathed.
Whether you’re moving a cherished antique table or a trusty sofa, taking the time to plan and invest in professional help where necessary will save you the heartbreak of discovering scratched, broken, or damaged items. And if hiring movers isn’t an option, adopting their methods—disassembling pieces, wrapping them securely, and loading them strategically—can go a long way toward safeguarding furniture from breaking.
In the end, a well-executed move isn’t just about arriving at your new home; it’s about ensuring everything you bring with you is ready to help make it feel like home. So, the next time you’re planning a move, remember: safeguarding your furniture is entirely within your control.
