Moving can make you lose your mind. The process is far from a walk in the park.
Apart from dealing with uncertainty, which feels like walking off a cliff blindfolded, you also have to deal with the difficult part of packing and unpacking or disassembling home appliances and furniture for shipping.
It is also expensive. Often, homeowners have to dig deep into their pockets to facilitate a move, especially where additional services are needed.
Many factors affect the costs of shipping items from one place to the other. It’s therefore imperative to look at ways one can minimize such costs.
Pro Tip: Disassembling your furniture for shipping can help you save money and reduce the overall costs.
Other tips can help you have a smooth moving experience plus allow you to transition quickly.
Moreover, it’ll ensure you become hopeful and excited about new adventures and memories you’re about to make in your new home.
As a professional moving company, Not A Hobby Moving – Austin Movers will provide tips that will make your relocating process as smooth as possible. It touches on everything, from packing, assembling, and disassembling items.
A Few Pointers Before You Start Disassembling Furniture
Before going into the nitty gritty of the disassembly process, it’s imperative to highlight a few tips to consider before you decide to disassemble your furniture for a move.
Downsize or Decide If It’s Worth the Hassle
Going back to the drawing board to settle whether or not the process of disassembling furniture is worthwhile is essential.
You’ll need to look at factors based on your moving budget.
Will you need services from furniture movers or tackle this process on your own? What advantages are you likely to experience when you disassemble furniture when moving?
Once you answer these questions, you’ll have a clear picture of your next course of action regarding the process of disassembling appliances and furniture.
Don’t Forget to Measure Doorways
The good news is that not every furniture piece would require disassembly. Most furnishings that pass the doorway and hallways can be shipped as they are.
You’ll simply add some protective padding and packing boxes to protect the items.
To determine what requires disassembling, you’ll have to measure the hallways, doorways, and furniture pieces. Also, if it’s an apartment move, measure the elevators and stairwells to make sure everything will fit. You can then go ahead and compare the values to determine if you’ll have trouble getting the furniture through the door.
If you find that your furniture won’t fit nicely and pass through the doorway, you can easily disassemble them when moving.
— Not A Hobby Moving (@NotAHobbyMoving) October 21, 2022
Get All the Help You Can
While trying to disassemble furniture when moving, it’s equally important that you consider asking for help. This is because the disassembly process is time-consuming and tedious. It can sometimes pose dangerous risks.
Throughout the process, you’ll need a set of hands to help dismantle furniture pieces. Asking a friend to help you disassemble large furniture pieces ensures you don’t damage the items and that the process also runs smoothly and without injury.
If it’s a residential move, and you have a lot to think about and take care of, it’s best to let professional furniture movers handle the job.
Use the Instruction Manual
Before you start dismantling your large furniture pieces, make sure you have their respective instruction manuals.
The process requires you to follow a specific order when picking apart furniture items such as China cabinets and shelving units.
Therefore, it’s wise to have these manual instructions during the process. You can use online manuals if you don’t have a hard copy.
To dismantle a piece of furniture or an appliance, you may need to follow the assembly instructions backward.
Prepare All the Tools Needed
Gather all the proper tools for the job beforehand to save time. Most furniture items are built and held together by tiny screws, nuts, and bolts. The bolts holding the furniture pieces are of different shapes and sizes.
It’s therefore essential to have a complete set of screwdrivers for removing screws and other sets of wrenches to remove nuts and bolts.
A small hammer may also come in handy when you’re dismantling items to move. You need to use the proper tools carefully as they can damage your furniture items when used incorrectly.
In some cases, you’ll need special tools to dismantle the furniture. Therefore, it is important to check the manual for details so you don’t lose precious time.
Keep All the Small Components in One Place
Another important thing to do before the big move is to ensure that all small parts are in one place. You can use a Ziplock sealable plastic bag to keep all small items in one place.
It’ll secure all fastening parts that you removed from the furniture. This is done to ensure that these components aren’t lost or misplaced during the moving process.
Moreover, marking the sealed bags with their corresponding furniture will help to avoid confusion when you assemble the furniture items again. If they get lost in the process, you will have to replace them, which will take additional time.
Guide for Disassembling Different Types of Furniture
Before starting the dismantling process, you’ll need to understand why you’re doing so in the first place to get the job done efficiently.
A piece of large furniture wasn’t meant to fit in a small space like hallways. They need to be moved as many separate elements. You’ll ultimately reassemble your furniture in the correct rooms of your new home.
This process eliminates the risk of personal injuries and damage to the walls and floors of your previous or new home. In addition to this, disassembling furniture makes packing supplies and loading them easier.
Various items may need to be dismantled, including bunk beds, desks, pool tables, dining tables, and sofas. Using the Movers Disassemble Furniture Guide from Not A Moving Hobby-Austin Movers, you can learn how to disassemble furniture.
The Bed Frame
If you need to dismantle your bed in preparation for a move, follow the steps below:
- First, remove all beddings from the bed and pack them separately in a box spring.
- You’ll then remove the mattress and insert it in a specialized mattress bag to ensure the best possible protection.
- Remove any drawers and other unattached elements from the bed’s frame and pack them separately.
- Next, unscrew the headboard from the bed frames.
- Once that is done, you can remove the bed’s sideboards.
- Disassemble the main metal frames next, removing as many separate components as possible. You can check out the manual for disassembly directions.
- Wrap all separated items of the bed in moving blankets.
- You can also wrap all delicate or fragile items in bubble wrap. A good example is decorative elements.
- Keep all fastening items in a hardware box or ziplock bags. Label them appropriately.
Wardrobe and Closets
Do you need to disassemble a wardrobe and closet in preparation for a move? Follow these steps:
- Remove your clothes and other things from the drawers and cabinets. All hangers from the rails must also be removed and packed in a box.
- Next, remove all drawers from the standalone furniture item to make it lighter and easier to transport. Pack the drawers separately.
- Remove all shelving units from the furniture if possible.
- Once done, you’ll move to the next phase. Detach all glass elements, including fragile parts of doors or glass shelves, from the main frame of the furniture with the help of an appropriate screwdriver. Pack all the glass elements in packing paper. To keep them from breaking, ensure they’re wrapped in bubble wrap.
- Remove all doors in the furniture piece by unscrewing the hinges.
- Once you’ve removed the doors, secure them by packing them in moving blankets.
- Put all hardware elements in a sealed plastic bag.
Sofa
Suppose your sofa doesn’t fit through the door. In that case, you’ll need to follow these steps to disassemble it:
- Remove detachable items from your sofas, including cushions, pillows, and stuffed animals.
- You can then go ahead and remove the couch’s feet. This is done by removing the screws in tight corners that hold the foot of the sofa in place. Most movers also recommend turning them anti-clockwise to detach them safely.
- Moreover, a professional moving company may also require you to remove the couch’s armrest to create more space for the sofa to pass through all openings.
- Using the instruction manual as a guide, detach all parts safely.
- Keep all small parts in a ziplock bag and label it to avoid confusion during assembly in the new location.
- Enclose all detached elements, including the armrest, and dismantle legs by wrapping them in furniture blankets.
Display Cabinets
Here’s a short guide on how to dismantle display cabinets:
- Remove all items in the cabinets, especially those fragile ones, because they won’t survive the relocation process.
- Detach any drawers from the cabinet. Then, pack them individually.
- Remove the doors from the display cabinet. To do this, you’ll need to remove all the screws from the hinges that hold the door together.
- Detach the glass shelves one by one.
- When dealing with more intricate display cabinets, you’ll need to separate the upper section from the lower section. It will make the bulky furniture easier to transport in a relocation process.
- Pack all glass elements in packing paper, then firmly secure them by wrapping them in bubble wrap, and finally protect them in a thick moving blanket.
Tables
Follow these steps to disassemble a table:
- First, remove the glass or marble top from your dining room table. Pack them carefully in a moving blanket.
- Remove the legs of the dining table. This is a crucial process and should be done carefully. First, you’ll turn the table upside down and remove the screws and bolts that hold the legs firmly in place to detach them from the table. Once all of them are detached, pack them carefully by covering them in bubble wrap.
- Afterward, put the sides of a table down to secure it in place with masking tape if you’re dealing with a side drop table.
- If it’s an extendable dining room table, you may have to remove the extension leaf and pack it separately.
- Keep all separate elements of the table in a sealable bag, then tape it under the table, so you can find it easily when it’s time to build your own furniture in your new home. Bear in mind that the process will differ for pool tables and work desks.
The Cost of Furniture Disassembly by the Movers
Moving companies disassemble furniture and reassemble them as an additional service. However, it may cost you extra.
The cost of a professional disassembly service will depend on several factors. Moving companies can charge an hourly rate if you’re moving locally.
One of these factors is the time required to dismantle the items. If you’re moving long-distance, the interstate companies will provide a pre-defined fee for these extra services.
During an in-house survey with a moving crew, you’ll be able to highlight what items need disassembly and reassembly.
Do You Need Help From Professionals to Disassemble Your Furniture?
The moving process is overwhelmingly tedious, and something can go wrong at any point.
Therefore, partnering with professional movers is extremely important when moving into a new space. There are benefits of hiring professional movers so taking advantage of their services is important.
Movers have the right expertise to disassemble your furniture and pack all items correctly, ensuring that they aren’t damaged during the move.
This leaves you with little to stress about when moving house. Don’t just settle for the first moving company you find!
It is crucial to hire experts with years of experience delivering exceptional services.
Moreover, at Not A Moving Hobby-Austin Movers, we save you time! Our team of movers has the right tools and equipment to help you disassemble, pack, and reassemble your furniture with ease.
We have a large moving truck that can transport all your things in one go.
If you want exceptional moving services in Austin, TX, contact Not A Moving Hobby-Austin Movers at (512) 826-8833 to get a free quote.
When you hire Not A Moving Hobby, you won’t have to build your own furniture or spend hours dismantling furniture. We are always prepared and willing to help!
