Amongst the most important decisions you must make when preparing to move out is whether you will relocate any large or heavy furniture by yourself or not. Remember that moving furniture is difficult and potentially dangerous due to most furniture items consist of enormous dimensions and are heavyweight. Still, it will also cost you extra money – sometimes more than the furniture is worth.
The dresser is one piece of bedroom furniture that you may want to take with you, especially if it is a very high-quality unit or a lovely antique that you simply cannot part with. Of course, hiring competent furniture movers to move a dresser is the best option – they will protect the unit and transport it safely to where you want it to go.
Nonetheless, there are some circumstances in which moving your dresser on your own makes more sense, especially if you’re moving locally. In such cases, you will have to know how to pack and move a dresser on your own – that is, without the assistance of a professional.
Tips On How To Move A Heavy Dresser
Step 1: Determine Whether Moving Your Dresser Makes Sense
The first step in relocating a dresser is determining whether the trouble of transporting such a large and heavy piece of furniture is worthwhile.
To help you decide, here are some questions to ask to ascertain whether moving your dresser is a good idea at all:
- Do you have any kind of sentimental attachment to the dresser? If so, you must bring the furniture piece with you.
- What is the current state of the dresser? If it is old, worn out, or even damaged, it may be time to purchase a new dresser following the move.
- Will it go with the new house’s décor? Also, will there still be room for the furniture in the new place’s bedroom?
Step 2: Gather The Necessary Packing Materials
Once you decide to move your dresser despite the extra effort and cost, it’s time to gather the necessary packing materials. The success of the entire relocation operation depends on how well you protect the furniture item for transport with the help of great packaging.
The step of helping to protect the dresser is critical, so you’ll need to gather the necessary packing materials to get it right:
- Furniture blankets (also known as furniture pads).
- Wrapping paper;
- a stretch wrap
- thick cardboard sheets
- Painter’s tape and masking tape
- Tape for packing.
The dresser is always at risk of damage during the move, so make sure it’s well-padded and arrives safely in the new home’s bedroom.
Step 3: Obtain The Necessary Moving Equipment
Most dressers are too heavy to be lifted and carried out of the house with bare hands. As a result, to ensure the safety of everybody involved in the move (you, your relatives, and your friends), you must use the proper moving tools to quickly and safely move your dresser.
Make sure you’ve secured your dresser before moving it.
- A set of furniture sliders to help you effortlessly slide the heavy furniture piece away from the wall as well as possibly even across the room – with no risk of property damage, and
- A furniture dolly – a flat and low platform made of wood or steel that allows you to wheel the large furniture item on its four swivel wheels like a Sunday shopping cart.
Step 4: Enlist The Assistance Of Friends
Even if you’ve decided not to hire experienced furniture movers, moving your dresser and the rest of the furniture you take with you is not a good idea.
Moving furniture is a difficult task for one person, so consider enlisting the assistance of a few close friends. Using the proper moving equipment will make the moving dresser task much easier, but you should still get helpers to avoid mishaps on a moving day.
Step 5: Empty And Secure The Dressers’ Drawers
It’s time to have the dresser ready for safe transport.
The first step is to empty the bureau to reduce its overall weight. Remove clothes, bedding, sheets, towels, and other soft items from the drawers and place them in large cardboard boxes.
Light pillows have been the only items you can leave inside the drawers because they don’t add much weight but take up a lot of space when packed into boxes.
Once dresser drawers are empty or nearly empty, secure them to the main structure of the bureau with a couple of pieces of painter’s tape. The drawers will not open accidentally during transportation, and masking tape will not damage the delicate surface of the furniture.
Step 6: Take Everything Off The Dresser Top
The dresser top should always be empty for safety before wrapping it in protective blankets in the following steps.
This step is simple: remove any items on display on the top of the dresser, such as decorative elements, jewelry, perfume bottles, make-up, flower pots, photos, lamps, etc.
Pack those miscellaneous items in appropriate boxes, but first, protect them by trying to wrap them in packing paper and, if extra fragile, in a layer of bubble wrap.
Step 7: Take Out The Dresser Mirror
If the dresser you’re transporting has a large mirror, you must remove it and pack it securely for transport carefully.
How do you pack a dresser mirror for a move?
Before you begin this step:
- Make sure you have a helper.
- Remove the screws which hold the mirror in place with a screwdriver, then carefully detach the mirror and place it on the floor.
- Place a large sheet of thick cardboard over the mirror’s reflective surface, then secure the cut-out with masking tape.
- Wrap a furniture blanket around the entire mirror.
Step 8: Protect The Dresser
This step is about padding the dresser to be protected until it reaches its new home.
Wrap a few furniture blankets (3-4 should suffice) around the dresser to ensure no area is left exposed. Packing tape may be used to secure the blankets, but not directly on the surface of the dressing table.
If you suspect the dresser pads will get dirty in the moving vehicle, use the stretch wrap as the final layer of protection over the blankets. However, packaging the entire dresser will not be necessary in most cases.
Step 9: Securely Slide The Dresser
If your dresser is beside a wall, as most are, you’ll need to move it some distance away to load it securely onto the moving dolly.
If the dresser you’re moving isn’t too big and bulky to be handled by two people, you and your assistant should try to lift it off the ground and carefully move it toward the middle of the room.
If the furniture is still too heavy, place a slider underneath each leg and glide it around the room to where you want it to go.
Step 10: Place The Dresser On A Dolly
If you’re not paying professional furniture movers, using a furniture dolly to move the heavy dresser out of the house is the safest option.
Ensure you have at least two people to help you while moving your dresser. Use proper lifting techniques to gently tilt the dresser to one of its sides and have a friend slide the furniture dolly under the furniture.
Then, straighten the dresser to sit squarely on the four-wheel platform. To secure the load to the dolly, use straps or rope.
Step 11: Remove The Dresser From The House
Take the dresser slowly out of the house, holding it steady for added support as you wheel it to the front door. With extreme caution, pass through smaller openings, including doors, tight corners, and long and narrow corridors.
When moving your dresser from an apartment, use the building elevator to transport it to the ground floor. If you’re moving out of a house, you should move your dresser from the first floor.
Caution: Trying to move a bulky dresser downstairs is not advised because furniture dollies are not designed to go down or upstairs. If your vehicle’s exit path includes any number of stairs, you should do the proper thing and hire the best furniture movers.
Step 12: Place The Dresser In The Back Of The Truck
The final step in moving a dresser is safely loading it onto the waiting truck. Load the furniture item into the vehicle using the loading ramp or, better yet, the truck liftgate.
To avoid bad accidents, use all your available human resources during this loading operation. Once inside, secure the dresser to the side of the vehicle so it doesn’t move around during transport.
Conclusion
Finally, dressers are lovely furniture with multiple drawers for storing clothing and a large mirror on top. In fact, a dresser is one of the most functional furniture units in a home, so it’s not surprising if you decide to relocate your dresser.
Suppose you do want to move the dresser. In that case, you should use professional relocation experts. If you are short of money, you should follow the steps discussed above in an orderly manner to relocate the dresser successfully. And still, if you go through any doubt regarding your move. Feel free to ask our expert furniture movers in Toronto regarding the same. They will surely help you clear out your doubt.
Contact us now through:
Call: +1-6479322202
Mail: info@teamremovals.ca
