If you’re scared about damaging your valuable antique furniture during a move, you’re on the right track. You’re already cautious and understand that this is a more delicate process than moving other household items and appliances.That doesn’t mean you can’t do it, however. The following tips will give you a good idea of what thought process and strategy to use when moving antique furniture.
Tip 1 – Clear a path
Whether your antique furniture is large, heavy, or small, you should always create a clear path to move it safely. Remove fixtures or other furniture from the path you’ll use to move the antique furniture. Plan a new route if you have low-hanging lighting fixtures that can’t be moved. Roll carpets out of the way to avoid snagging and tripping.
Tip 2 – Choose your attire and equipment carefully
Once your furniture is wrapped and packed, it should be safe. But while you’re doing those things you should be careful with what you wear.
For example, you might want to take off your watch, jewellery, and other items of clothing and accessories that may come into contact with your antique furniture. Otherwise, you risk scratching or chipping your valuable items.
Tip 3 – Take your time whilst moving antique furniture
Antique furniture can be precious. It can also be fragile. Hence, you want to exercise more caution and patience when moving it. Move slowly to avoid hitting wall corners, other furniture edges, stairwells, doors, or even the truck ramp or walls. If you can, make sure you have a spotter to alert you of obstacles or if the piece of antique furniture is in risk of falling.
If you’re not using professional movers, be sure to have enough manpower. The easier you handle the furniture, the safer it will be.
Tip 4 – Lift, don’t drag
A general rule of thumb is to keep one hand under furniture when lifting. But that might not be possible due to its size or shape. However, you should still maintain a firm grip on the object’s base when moving it. In addition, lift instead of drag. Even dragging a piece of furniture on a carpet can damage it. Not to mention the damage it can do to your floor or carpet. Remember that antiques can be brittle. The vibrations caused by dragging can shake parts loose, damage the joints, break furniture legs, etc. Dragging may be convenient and easy, but it’s not ideal even after thoroughly wrapping the furniture in protective materials or moving blankets.
Tip 5 – The Dolly is your friend
If your antique furniture can be put on a dolly, don’t hesitate to do so. This will give you two advantages. Firstly, you’ll have more control over its weight and keeping it stable will be easier.
Secondly, using a dolly allows you to keep your eyes focused on what’s up ahead. If you have ever moved anything, you should know how tricky it is to move backwards. A dolly helps you easily navigate tight corners, narrow hallways, and stairwells. It will also make loading antique furniture onto a truck or trailer easier.
Tip 6 – Carefully secure your antique furniture finds
Even before you get the furniture into a moving truck, you should strap it down. Strap it to a dolly or a cart to give it maximum stability while moving. If you don’t have straps, use extra wrapping material to keep the furniture in place.
We have plenty of stalls at iacf antiques fairs selling bubble wrap and other facilities to help secure your furniture! Remember to ask the dealer for help and support loading your new item, as they are more than happy to help!
Tip 7 – Consider hiring movers
While you’ll often do most of the prep work, wrapping, and packing yourself, moving furniture to a new location should be left to the professionals. Movers have trucks and trailers spacious enough to accommodate large pieces of furniture.
In addition, they’ll have special equipment to safely lift, load, and unload the furniture at the pickup and drop-off points. Furthermore, movers understand how to store antique furniture regardless of weight and size to ensure maximum safety and stability while driving. They can even use additional straps to secure the furniture for the ride and minimise vibration impact on the road.
Finding movers isn’t hard, especially when planning to ship moving furniture from state to state!
Tip 8 – Only work with insured movers when moving antique furniture
Every moving company and legitimate shippers must be insured. But the amount or type of coverage can vary between different moving companies. Some only pay for minimum coverage, while others have more extensive coverage.
Since you’re moving antique furniture that’s fragile and potentially valuable, you should find a moving company with sufficient insurance and liability coverage to reimburse you for damages or total loss.
Tip 9 – Protect it from humidity and temperature swings
If you’re moving antique furniture over long distances, it may take a number of days or weeks. But a consistently changing environment, especially over lengthy periods, can harm your antique furniture. This is of particularly concern for wooden pieces.
Find out how to best preserve the furniture, what temperatures it can support, and find the correct packing and wrapping materials. You can go as far as picking a different time and date to move the furniture in ideal weather.
Tip 10 – It’s a marathon… not a sprint!
You don’t have to rush when moving antique furniture. It’s already hard to preserve and extend its life and usefulness, especially in very old pieces.
Take it slow, be extra careful, and don’t bite off more than you can chew. There’s no shame in asking for help. In fact, it’s highly recommended. Now that you have all the skills required to move your antique furniture, make sure to visit an upcoming antiques fair near you to source thousands of unique, decorative and high quality antique furniture!
Visit our calendar today to find an upcoming antiques fair near you and plan your antique furniture hunting trip! If you are looking for some support in moving, then please visit ThreeMovers.com today!
