Furniture pads (also called moving blankets) are an invaluable tool when moving. Furniture pads are often viewed as tools for professional movers only, but they are an important tool for DIY movers. In fact, they are just as important as moving boxes, hand trucks, and even packing tape. To learn about why you need to use furniture pads when you move, check out this guide.
What Are Furniture Pads?
Furniture pads are thick coverings, like blankets, that are used to cover and protect large items when moving. These can be used to cover large items, and they can also be used to wrap fragile items to protect them during your move. Their versatility and utility cannot be understated when it comes to moving.
Where Can You Get Furniture Pads?
To learn more about moving blankets, like where to rent and buy moving blankets, check out our guide about it in our furniture pad guide. In general, you can rent moving blankets from U-Haul, Penske, and Budget. You can also buy moving blankets from Home Depot, Lowe's, and Amazon.
If you hire professional movers, they will provide their moving blankets and use them as often as they use furniture dollies and packing tape.
Why You Should Use Furniture Pads
1. They Protect Your Floors
Having people walk in and out of your home, whether it's your old home or your new one, scratches on your floors are bound to happen. Luckily, furniture pads can help protect your floors. Simply lay moving blankets on the ground to cover carpets or hardwood floors to protect them from mud and scratches. Furniture pads are washable so once you’re done you can wash the blankets and return them.
Note: Your furniture pads will probably need to be secured to your wood floors with tape.
2. They Help You Move Heavy Items
Furniture pads are also great in helping you move heavy items through your home. Simply place the moving blanket on the ground and place your heavy item on the furniture pad. You can then drag it around your home and move it with ease. This does only work inside your home, unfortunately, so once you get outside you do have to pick your item up.
3. They Protect Your Items from Dust
Wrapping your furniture in furniture pads protects it from the dust buildup that can accrue in your moving truck. When you wrap your furniture in moving blankets it protects them from not only the dust from the moving truck but the dirt from outside and even the elements.
We’ve all had a move in less favorable conditions and thought "oh no my table" or “our couch will get soaked”. Well, if your table, or couch, or desk, is wrapped up in furniture pads you don’t have to worry about snow, rain, or even dust.
4. Furniture Pads Prevent Loads from Shifting in Your Truck
When you load your truck, you can fill in the gaps with moving blankets to prevent things from shifting. As an example, if you have a gap between boxes, you can fold up a furniture pad and put it in-between the boxes to make them sturdier while in the truck. They also act as a buffer while you’re driving so nothing breaks.
Note: This method does not replace using straps and ropes to tie items down.
5. Furniture Pads Prevent Scratching, Nicks, Or Damage to Your Items
The primary use of furniture pads is to wrap up your large, bulky, or oddly shaped items to protect them. Most moving blankets are large enough to fit most appliances and pieces of furniture, and after you cover your items up you can then wrap it in plastic wrap to hold the furniture pad to the item.
By wrapping your furniture pad onto your item, you are also layering protection, making sure your items won’t get dented or dinged in your move, and doing this will also prevent scratches since the surface will be protected.
6. Furniture Pads Protect Items in Your Boxes
If you have boxes with leftover box space (whether those boxes have fragile items or whatever), then that could be a recipe for disaster. Extra box room leaves room for broken items. However, if you wrap items up in a furniture pad before placing those items in the box. This not only protects those items wrapped up, but it also creates less space in the box.
Another idea you can utilize is to put a furniture pad in the box after you have placed your items inside to ensure nothing can shift around after you have packed it up.
7. Moving Blankets Protect Fragile Legs
Legs on furniture are fragile. In moving a couch, it is so easy to break a leg off by hitting it against a wall or by accidentally dropping it on the ground. If you wrap your couch, table, chair, or whatever furniture item that has legs on it with a furniture pad, then you are protecting the legs from getting knocked off during your move.
How Many Furniture Pads Will You Need?
A lot of times rental truck companies judge how many moving blankets you need based on the size of the moving truck you rented. For instance:
- A 12' and a 16’ truck would need a pack of furniture pads (one pack has a dozen pads)
- A 22’ truck would need two to three packs
- A 26’ truck would need three to four packs
While it is a decent way to estimate, you can also judge by simply going through your home and counting all the items you are going to wrap. An example would be:
- Couch (three or four furniture pads)
- loveseat (three furniture pads)
- upholstered chair (three furniture pads)
- table (two or three furniture pads)
- television (one or two furniture pads)
- nightstand (one furniture pad)
- etc.
If you can start judging how many items you have and how many moving blankets each item might need, then you’ll have a better idea of how many you need to rent.
Can You Use Something Else Instead of Moving Blankets?
If you don't want to rent furniture pads, is there another option, such as plastic wrap, bubble wrap, or even everyday blankets?
To answer that question, not really. Sure, you can wrap your items in bubble and plastic wrap, but the damage that will end up doing to leather and wood is not worth it at all. Using your blankets wouldn’t make much of a difference either, unfortunately.
Renting blankets is inexpensive and can save you thousands in not having to repair or replace furniture. Your stuff will be protected when using furniture pads, so you can wrap them up and move on with your next project knowing that you won’t have to worry about scratches, dings, dents, or anything like that.