Moving house is something that the vast majority of people will do at least once in their lifetime. This time can be a difficult and even stressful experience, moving house comes with a diverse range of its own challenges, but the main challenge that everyone will face with this is moving their furniture.

To highlight a few, moving your furniture comes with the pain of both physical labour, storage challenges, time, and unpacking can be an entirely new pain in and of itself. 

This article looks at the different furniture types such as: electrical appliances, garden furniture and sofas, the individual challenges that come with storing and moving these, and, our top tips for moving house with those furniture types. 

The main challenges of moving house

If we could all start fresh when we moved house, new furniture, new appliances, new everything it’s no doubt that the whole process would be a lot easier. But this isn’t the case, and as such figuring out how to move and store your things is a big challenge. 

Moving house can generally take around 8-12 weeks, within this time there are a range of considerations that will impact this time…

Hiring moving companies – to move your furniture you might need to hire moving companies to help you load and unload your belongings.

Decorating your new home – a lot of people prefer to decorate their home before their belongings arrive, it makes the process of the big move a lot smoother, rather than trying to decorate once all of your things are in the house, why not decorate before. It certainly saves moving things around.

Packing up your old home – This one comes as no surprise, but packing your things can take a lot of time, in fact one study found that it takes the average family 40 hours to pack a typical three-bedroom home. 

Decluttering – many will choose to declutter their things to lessen the amount of things they need to move, however decluttering comes with a range of challenges of its own, from emotional attachments, and to the time needed to sell and donate. 

Storing furniture – Storing furniture can take some time of its own, depending on where you intend to store your things. If you decide to store at a family or friends home, you’ll need to allocate some time to move your things over to their homes. The same is said for a storage unit, you still need to take the time to store your things. 

Move in / out dates – Depending on your dates for moving in and moving out, you may need to store your furniture somewhere else before you can move in. This can often lead to people choosing to store their things in families or friends places. The problem with this, is storing bigger items like sofas or a cooker at a family house might pose challenges all of its own, regardless of whether it’s temporary or not. 

How far are you moving – The distance of where you are moving will significantly impact the length and challenge of your move. If you’re upscaling, or even downscaling within the same area, for example, the move is likely to be a lot easier and affordable compared to moving to a new part of the country. 

Overall, the combination of physical, logistical, and financial considerations makes moving and storing furniture one of the most challenging aspects of relocating.

How self storage can help with moving house. 

A self storage solution can really help alleviate the stress of finding somewhere to store your furniture/belongings and also means that it can be gradually moved across, rather than trying to do it all at once.

Ultimately, by utilising a self-storage solution movers can significantly alleviate some of that stress. Here’s how:

Temporary Storage for Furniture and Belongings: One of the biggest challenges during a move is finding a place to store your furniture and other belongings, especially if there’s a gap between your move-out and move-in dates. Self-storage provides a secure and convenient option to store your items during this transition period. Instead of cramming everything into your new home all at once, you can move things gradually, giving you the flexibility to organise and set up your new space at your own pace.

Staging Your Home for Sale: If you’re selling your current home, presenting it in the best possible light is crucial. Cluttered spaces can be off-putting to potential buyers. By moving excess furniture and personal items into self-storage, you can create a clean, open, and inviting environment that showcases your home’s best features. This can potentially lead to a quicker sale and a better selling price.

Flexibility for Renovations and Redecorating: Sometimes, your new home may require renovations or redecorating before you can fully move in. A self-storage unit provides the flexibility to keep your belongings safe and out of the way during these projects. This ensures that your furniture and other items are not damaged during the renovation process and can be moved in once the work is complete.

Decluttering Before the Move: Moving is an excellent opportunity to declutter and get rid of items you no longer need. However, deciding what to keep and what to discard can take time. By utilising a self-storage unit, you can temporarily store items you’re unsure about, giving yourself more time to make thoughtful decisions without feeling rushed. This can help ensure that your new home remains uncluttered and organised from the start.

Moving house is challenging, especially when it comes to relocating your furniture and belongings. It can feel time-consuming, inconvenient, and stressful. Self-storage offers a quick and easy solution, allowing you to spread out the workload and make the process more manageable. 

Having said that, some furniture types are more difficult to move and relocate than others, and some require storage more than the rest.

When moving house, you are going to be presented with lots of different challenges all specific for the type of furniture you intend to move.

How to Move Household Appliances

Relocating household appliances such as; 

• Cookers
• Washing machines
• Refrigerators,
• Dishwashers

These can be particularly challenging. Here are some common challenges associated with moving these appliances, along with recommended solutions and storage considerations:

The challenges

Size and Weight: Household appliances are often large, heavy, and awkward to handle, making them difficult to move without the right equipment. Not to mention that these items often contain delicate components that can be easily damaged if not handled correctly. This includes glass parts, electronic controls, and internal mechanisms.

Disconnection and setup: Appliances need to be properly disconnected from your home (electricity, water, and gas) and then reconnected at the new location. However, depending on when you can get someone to reconnect your appliances, you may need to store these somewhere. 

Our tips

Storage: During the moving process, you may need to store your household appliances temporarily. Specifically, if there is a gap between your move-out and move-in dates, you might need to consider placing your appliances in a storage unit. However, the size of your appliance is likely to impact this decision. 

For example, transferring a kettle over to your new home will be a lot simpler than that of a cooker. And, while one might require specific storage solutions, the other could most likely be transported in a car.

You could choose to store these in places such as another room within your new home, but the main point here is that you don’t want to have these items damaged, because they are not cheap to replace. As such we recommend you store these in one place until you can get these professionally delivered to your home. 

Label and Document: Particularly for using professional movers, we recommend you label appliances and take photos for documentation. This just ensures that in the worst case scenario you have proof of how your appliances were in the event of damage. 

Packing small appliances: When packing smaller kitchen appliances, if you can, use the original boxes, as they offer the best fit and protection; otherwise, you can choose sturdy, appropriately sized boxes. Fill any empty spaces in the boxes with something akin to bubble wrap to prevent shifting during the move. You should also label each box with its contents and mark it as “fragile” to ensure careful handling.

Defrost and Clean:

• Refrigerators and Freezers: Defrost at least 24 hours before moving. 
• Clean and dry your appliances thoroughly to prevent mould and odours.
• Ensure that all water is drained, this is specifically important for washing machines, dishwashers and refrigerators. 

How to Move Electrical Belongings

Electrical appliances include indoor items such as;

• TVs
• Computers
• Consoles

Naturally, these are a lot easier to move to a new home than that of a sofa or a fridge. However, they do still come with their own set of complications. 

The challenges

The main issue with moving your electrical belongings will generally be the risk of breakage and damage. These belongings are more delicate to things like water damage, and as such taking the time to consider how, who and where you will be transporting them is important. 

Unlike garden furniture, you can’t just throw a TV in the back of a car. You need to take the time to carefully consider how you will avoid breakage, and if you are moving this yourself, what you will transport this item with – You don’t want to pack a TV or a laptop right next to something that might leak.

Our tips

Packing and transportation: When it comes to packing and transportation, there are a few things you can do to ensure your belongings remain undamaged. 

First, be sure that these are packed properly, this includes being placed either in storage bins, or in cardboard boxes, it’s an added bonus if you still own the boxes your belongings previously came in, but not everyone can be so lucky! As such, when packing in boxes, cushion with either bubble wrap, or kill two birds with one stone, you can cushion some of your belongings with blankets, sheets and more.

We also recommend that if transporting your electrical belongings in a car that you carefully consider what can stack and what can’t. You might be able to stack the boxes with consoles inside, but stacking these on a TV might break your screen! 

Furthermore, don’t lose or mix up your wires! Imagine finally moving into your house and you can’t even use your electricals yet because you’ve got to sort through hundreds of tangled wires. You should take some time to arrange your wires, try wrapping these with velcro to secure them, and you could even label these individual wires, or the packaging they are in, so that when it comes to finding these you have no issues. 

Storage tips: If there is a date different for move in and move out, you may need to store your electricals. Luckily, these are a little easier to store, as such you could choose to store these with family, or should dates line up nicely, you might instead choose to dedicate a specific room within your new home to storing your belongings. Just be aware that this could pose a security issue, so ensure that your new home and belongings are all secure. 

How to Move Lounge, Dining, Bedroom & Office Furniture

This furniture consists of things like;

• Sofa
• Dining table and chairs
• Book shelves
• Desks
• Beds / mattresses
• Wardrobes

All of these pose similar sorts of challenges in both their size and significance in your home. 

The challenges

Size: Generally, these furniture pieces are larger and heavy, which makes them difficult to manoeuvre through doorways, hallways etc. As such, time might need to be spent disassembling these items (where possible) in order to make them fit into your new home. 

Without a professional moving company, moving these items will be difficult, if not near impossible without a van. For example, a sofa will require manual labour to transport it to and from your home. 

Cost

Due to the requirements needed for moving these items, there will be additional costs to consider. For example, you will likely need to hire professional movers who are specialised in transporting these items / helping people move. They will most likely help you with your entire moving process. But, depending on the size of your belongings, there may need to be more than one trip, which will slowly build up your costs. 

Risks: There are not only risks of damaging your belongings but also of damaging your new and old home during the manoeuvre process. 

Storage: Finding places to store this furniture during the moving process can be half of the challenge. Whereas with smaller belongings like suitcases, books, blankets or even electrical belongings you can store these with friends and family, or even just pop them in a spare room in your new home.

Ideally, with larger furniture you would want to move these into their places they will be in your new home, or not at all. As you don’t want to be lugging around large furniture to different rooms within your house. Finding the right storage solution for these large furniture pieces can end up adding to the overall cost of your move.

Our Tips

Dismantle your furniture: Before struggling to lug all of your furniture around, one thing you can do is take some time to dismantle it. You might have some pieces that you can’t do this with, however if you are able we’d definitely encourage you to do that. 

Top tip for dismantling your furniture:

• Dismantle one piece of furniture at a time. You don’t want to be taking apart multiple pieces of furniture at the same time as you might get your pieces mixed up. Instead, dismantle one piece of furniture, and pack its pieces and then move on to the next.

Storing larger furniture: It’s often beneficial to invest in storage solutions until you’re ready to move large furniture pieces into your new space. This approach not only keeps your furniture safe from potential damage during renovations or decorating but also ensures they are kept in optimal condition for when they’re needed.

For instance, if you’re in the midst of decorating your new home and are concerned about accidental spills or paint splatters, placing these larger items in a dedicated storage facility or a designated room within your house can prevent them from being inadvertently damaged.

Make sure that before you store your furniture you securely cover it, whether this is with actual furniture cover or if you simply use blankets, and sheets to wrap the furniture. This will help avoid any damages to your belongings.

Furthermore, when storing multiple pieces, stack items where possible to maximise your space. Place heavier items at the bottom and lighter items on top to prevent crushing or instability, and if it is breakable you should avoid stacking it altogether.

How to Move Garden Furniture

Unlike moving the rest of your furniture, moving garden furniture comes with its own set of problems and solutions…

Some common garden furniture you might have includes: 

• Garden table
• Lawn mowers 
• BBQ 
• Water features (fountain, pond)
• Potted plants

While transferring these items might not be the most difficult, the problem lies in the fact that they are held outside, and as such they might carry water, or be dirty.

With this in mind packing and moving garden furniture needs to be done carefully. If you’re moving this over with your car, you should clean these items carefully beforehand.  

Furthermore, for more delicate items like water features be sure that these are handled with care. 

The Risks: 

Mess: One of the main problems people might find with their garden furniture, is simply that it’s messy. As such, transferring it brings dirt, water and grass, it might be what puts people off storing their outdoor furniture belongings indoors. 

Size: A lot of these garden furniture is weighty and large, take for instance a garden table and chairs, or a water fountain. Whileyou might get some that are smaller a large majority of these can be large, which poses challenges of both transporting and storing. 

Due to this, it is highly recommended that you store garden furniture during a move, this ensures there are no issues with mess, lack of space due to the size of your outdoor furniture, it also removes risks of your things being stolen (should you get frustrated and decide to store your outdoor furniture outdoors.

Our tips for Storing garden furniture options

You have a few options when it comes to storing your garden furniture. 

1. Shed: If your new home has a shed a quick solution would be to store your items in your new shed, this means that these are out of the way until you can get around to unloading the furniture that needs to be in your garden. However, this comes at the risk of a lack of security, you should definitely invest in some added security if you intend to put your things in your shed, for example a padlock could work wonders keeping your things safe. 
2. Self-storage: Not all houses will come with a shed, so if you don’t have one we’d recommend using temporary self-storage. You don’t want to be keeping your garden furniture inside your new house as it can be messy, and might bring in things like bugs (safe to say, moving into a new house riddled with spiders is not ideal) 
3. Garage storage: You might choose to store your garden furniture in your garage. (if your house has one). This is a quick, and more secure solution to storing your things than a shed, assuming you are not using your shed for anything else. If your shed is multipurpose (a spot for your car, a workshop, a studio) having garden furniture in it may post some problems. 

How to Move Delicate Belongings 

Knowing how to move delicate belongings during a relocation is very important, afterall delicate belongings often hold sentimental value, for example these can consist of;

• Vases
• Photos and frames
• Decor
• In some cases electronics

Protection from Damage: Delicate items such as glass, and fragile decor are susceptible to breakage during transportation. Storing them properly ensures they are shielded from potential bumps, or falls that can occur during the moving process.

During a move, amidst the chaos of packing and unpacking, delicate items can easily get misplaced or lost if not stored securely. Storing them in designated containers or areas helps in keeping track of them and reduces the risk of losing valuable or sentimental items. 

As such, packing delicate items requires careful planning to ensure they are protected during the move. 

The challenges

Risk of breakage: Naturally, items that are fragile and delicate are more likely to be broken, and as such more care needs to be taken to ensure that they are protected from any damages. 

Delicate items might also be expensive ones, and therefore transporting, packing and storing all comes with an extra risk. Not to mention that this expense might also be one of sentimental and emotional value. As such extra percaussion needs to be taken to ensure that these items are packed correctly and don’t end up getting broken in the process.

Our Tips

Here are some steps and tips to help you pack delicate items effectively:

• Use reinforced boxes. You can reinforce the bottom of each box with packing tape to prevent it from collapsing under the weight.
• Wrap delicate items individually. You can wrap these items in bubble wrap or other items, wrapping individually means they are less likely to break. 
• When packing, use dividers for items like glasses, dishes, and stemware to keep them separate and prevent them from clinking together.
• Fill any empty spaces in boxes with things like crumpled paper to keep items from shifting during the move.
• Clearly label the box with “Fragile” and indicate which side should be kept upright. This means it will be handled with care compared to a box with no labels.
• When transporting, keep boxes containing delicate items separate from heavier boxes.

When is self-storage needed?

Self-storage is often needed during a move when there is a gap between moving out of the old residence and into the new one. This can occur due to various reasons such as delayed closing dates, or something as simple as renovations.

Self-storage provides a secure and flexible solution for storing belongings that cannot be immediately transferred to the new location. It is also useful for those who need to declutter their home to stage it for sale, or for people moving to a different city who require a temporary storage solution while they settle into their new environment.

Oftentimes, depending on the type of furniture, you might find that it is only necessary for specific types of furniture. While some will prefer to pack a vast majority of their belongings into self-storage, some might simply prefer to pack larger items like wardrobes and sofas. 

Final thoughts

If you are in the process of, or considering moving house, we highly urge you to take a look into self storage. Especially if you take the time to think about the different challenges that come with moving different furniture types. Afterall, knowing their differences will help to speed up and ease your packing and moving process, and might be the difference between a storage solution or an alternative.