How to pack furniture for moving

Take apart anything with legs that unscrew, any bed frame, any table with a removable top, and any bookcase with adjustable shelves. A disassembled piece travels flatter, loads tighter and is far less likely to snap at a joint, because a joint under load in a moving truck is carrying weight it was never designed to carry sideways. Leave assembled anything glued, anything with a mechanism you cannot see, and anything under warranty that says not to.

Blanket first, plastic second, and never plastic against the finish. Moving blankets go directly against the wood and cover every corner, since corners take the impact. Stretch wrap then goes around the blanket to hold it in place. Wrapping plastic straight onto a finished surface traps moisture, and on a warm day in a truck that moisture lifts or clouds a finish. Tape never touches wood either, for the same reason.

Upholstery needs a barrier against dirt and moisture rather than against impact. A sofa cover or a mattress bag over the whole piece, then a blanket over that if the piece is going in a truck with hard furniture. Cushions come off and travel separately in a bag, because loose cushions in a truck slide and take the abrasion. Leather needs a blanket rather than plastic, since plastic against leather in heat leaves marks.

Bag every fitting with the piece it came from, and tape the bag to the largest part of that piece. A bed frame with its bolts taped to the headboard reassembles in ten minutes. The same frame with its bolts in a box marked hardware costs an hour and a trip to a shop. Photograph each joint before you take it apart, since a photograph is faster than remembering which way a cam lock faced.

Four kinds. Anything over about 150 pounds that has to go down stairs, since the risk is to you rather than the furniture. Pianos, safes and gun cabinets, which need equipment and a technique that is not obvious. Glass-topped tables, because the glass has to be crated rather than blanketed. And anything antique with a joint that has already been repaired, since a repaired joint fails differently from an original one.

The commonest damage is not impact. It is a finish clouded by plastic wrapped directly onto wood, a leg snapped because a piece was carried by its leg, and a drawer that slid open in transit and took the front off. Tape drawers shut with painter's tape rather than packing tape, carry every piece by its frame, and put a blanket between any two pieces that will touch in the truck.