How do you take apart furniture?

Moving is a tough job with a nice reward waiting for you at the end. Whether you're doing the move yourself, are hiring movers, or are even having a full-service move, saving money is something that is always welcome. Disassembling furniture yourself is a great way to save money for your move. It means you won’t have to pay your movers anything extra to take apart your furniture, and it saves time by knocking that item out. To learn how to disassemble furniture, read on.

Where To Start - Should It Stay, or Should It Go?

The first step in this process is determining whether you will be keeping that furniture piece. Keep in mind that movers charge by weight, so the heavier your shipment of belongings is, the more money you will end up paying.

Besides moving costs, another consideration when deciding to keep furniture is style choice. Are you going to keep your new home the exact same style as your old one? Will your antique china hutch meld well with the farmhouse look you’re going for? If not, then you might want to consider selling or donating your old furniture and buying new furniture when you get to your new home.

Keeping Your Furniture – What Now?

For the furniture pieces you have decided to keep, some of them may need to be disassembled in order to be properly packed up. This does a few things; it saves space, protects your furniture, and it also makes moving your furniture pieces much easier.

Keep in mind disassembly is only necessary when your item is extremely bulky and heavy, or it won’t fit through doorways. If you have a small nightstand you don’t need to worry about taking it apart. However, if you have a large dining table that is too big for the front door, you might need to break out some of your trusty tools and get to work.

Next Steps

When deciding whether you’llneed to disassemble anything, measure your doorways. Next, measure your furniture items. If those pieces of furniture are larger than the doorway, you’ll need to disassemble them.

• We recommend getting help from your spouse, friends, or even super friendly neighbors.
  • Not only can they help you in moving your items, but they can also ensure that nothing happens to you while you disassemble your furniture.
• When disassembling your furniture, you will want to get the instruction manual that you used to assemble your item.
  • If you threw it away after claiming victory when it was put together, Google can be your best friend.
  • Google your item, usually, you can go off the brand and item, for example, "Hart pedestal dining table" and you can get results from there.
• While you won’t find disassembly instructions (typically), you just need to follow your assembly instructions backward.
  • Use the manual to make sure you have the right tools, those tools can include a screwdriver, a wrench, and even a hammer (persuader).
  • Of course, be careful when using tools so you don’t damage your furniture.

Note: If your furniture pieces are glued together, we highly recommend not taking those items apart. You can easily destroy your items without meaning to.

Final Steps

When you start disassembling your furniture, make sure you keep your parts together. Typically, a great tool for this is using a Ziploc bag (or even small Tupperware). This will help keep all your items together and help ensure you don’t lose anything in the process.

Once you get your furniture item disassembled, you can wrap your item for the move. If your item is wood, we recommend wrapping it first in a moving blanket followed by shrink wrap. The shrink wrap will help the moving blanket stay on the item. You don’t want to put the shrink wrap directly on the wood as moisture can get trapped between the wood and the plastic causing mildew or mold to form.

When loading your furniture pieces remember to keep the nuts, bolts, and screws together with the larger pieces so everything is all together after you get to your destination.

Do Movers Disassemble Furniture?

If you would rather have professionals disassemble your items, movers can do this for you. It is typically an additional charge, but it will be taken care of for you. Movers will also assemble your items when you get to your new location, meaning you won’t have to stop down to do it yourself.

Overall, disassembling furniture yourself is a great way to save money if you are having movers do the move for you. It allows them to focus solely on the move, and it avoids an extra fee for you.