Home furnishings belong to the most valuable inventory in a household. Sofas, cabinets, and not least household appliances have their price, and when a move or renovation is approaching, most people look for temporary storage for their furniture. At the same time, most want to ensure that they receive the items back in the same condition in which they were stored. Who wants to move into a brand-new apartment or a freshly renovated house and furnish it with furniture that has scratches, chipped corners, cracks, or holes?
The correct, professional packaging for your furniture pieces becomes just as important for protecting the furnishings as the actual storage itself. Precisely planned and well-prepared furniture packaging usually consists of the following steps:
- Inspection: Take a good look at your furniture before packing it for storage.
- The choice of packing materials: Quality is usually better than quantity here.
- Disassembly: Use appropriate tools and the correct working procedure when dismantling furnishings.
- Packing and labeling: Wrap your items properly and make sure that by attaching labels you can quickly find your furnishings again.
- Transport and storage of household inventory: When rearranging, carrying, and storing furniture, particular care is required to avoid damage.
In the following, we give you tips and advice on how to best prepare your furniture for safe transport to a storage facility and the subsequent short- or long-term storage period.
How to inspect each piece of furniture to avoid damage
Before you start working on the packaging, you must get an overview of what is actually to be placed into storage. This becomes particularly relevant when calculating the space you will require for storing your furniture. To use the space in your storage facility as efficiently as possible, you should not only consider the floor area (measured in m²), but also the total volume (measured in m³). After all, you can also stack upwards, but for that you must first dismantle part of your furniture.
Before disassembly and packaging, it is advisable to check the items to be stored for existing damage and identify possible risk areas. Look closely at each item and, if necessary, take photos of already existing scratches or dents. When inspecting the furniture, you can consider the following four points:
- Surface integrity: Is the exterior intact or are there already scratches? Should you carry out a surface treatment to protect the items from further damage or worsening of existing scratches?
- Loose parts: Do some of the items have loose or weak elements that must be removed and packed separately before storage? These include shelves with the corresponding shelf supports, cabinet doors made of glass or wood, mirrors, hinges, and screws.
- Hidden moisture damage: High humidity in the area where you live could also affect your furniture. Pay particular attention to places that are not immediately obvious, including the underside of your upholstered furniture, the inside of your drawers, and the back of furniture placed along walls.
- Sharp edges and corners: These require special attention because they can quickly become chipped or damaged during transport and storage.
At the same time, you should carefully check and, if necessary, measure the transport path of your furniture. Does the sofa really fit through all door frames? Is it perhaps necessary to dismantle the living room cabinet into the smallest individual parts to ensure that it not only fits through the door in your home, but also the one at the storage facility and finally: does it fit into the vehicle intended for transport?
Scratches, dents, moisture, mold: What you should pay attention to
If your items already show damage in advance, you can assume that these will not improve during storage. Therefore, you should take certain precautionary measures, depending on the nature of the items and the type/size of the damage.
Wooden furniture and surfaces
Wooden furniture is particularly susceptible to scratches as well as chipped edges and corners. During storage, dust and dirt can settle in the open areas, no matter how well you pack the items. Therefore treat the damage with the help of repair kits that you can obtain in hardware stores (Baumarkt). Also make sure that you apply protective measures to veneer as well. In addition, the veneer surface may come loose if stored improperly and lead to an unsightly appearance.
Leather and fabric furniture
Textiles are particularly susceptible to moisture and can easily develop mold. If you discover the first signs of moisture damage, you must act immediately and send the affected upholstery or textiles for deep cleaning. For smaller spots, treatment with hydrogen peroxide may also be successful. Never store items affected by mold, as the spores can spread to the rest of your inventory within just a few days. Before storing your upholstered furniture, also pay attention to inconspicuous damage at seams and on the underside.
Items and components made of glass
Here the focus is of course first and foremost on fragility. Glass must be packed particularly well to prevent breakage, splinters, and cracks. In addition, glass surfaces on furniture scratch easily. With mirrors, moisture can lead to corrosion, also called mirror corrosion (“Spiegelfraß”), which becomes noticeable through ugly dark spots. Therefore make sure that your glass items are packed safely against breakage but can still “breathe” during storage.
Metal furniture
In addition to scratches and dents, furniture made of metal or with metal details is exposed to the risk of rust. Rust develops when moisture settles in surface damage and, like mold, has the tendency to spread quickly. Therefore remove all signs of rust from your garden furniture and other metal items before packaging and storage, and ensure that good ventilation is guaranteed.
Plastic furniture
Many may think that plastic does not require special precautions during storage. After all, the material is known for its resistance to moisture. However, plastic can also scratch, break, or discolor due to exposure to light. Plastic furniture such as garden equipment and child seats should therefore also be treated with care and maintenance products before you store them.
Which materials you should use to protect furniture during moving and storage
Once you have obtained an overview of your inventory and made the necessary preparations for storage, it is time to think about professional packaging for your furniture. As a starting point, your shopping list should include the following packaging materials:
- Packing paper (acid-free): for the first protective layer on your furniture.
- Bubble wrap: to protect fragile items and sensitive surfaces from bumps and impacts.
- Moving blankets and furniture blankets: made from breathable materials that ensure ventilation while protecting against dust, dirt, and abrasions.
- Corrugated cardboard and boxes: for protecting corners and edges.
- Stretch film: used for stabilization and additional dust protection.
- Adhesive tape, cord, and clips: to secure packaging materials.
- Labels: for identifying individual items.
- Plastic bags: in which individual parts such as screws, wall plugs (Dübel), and shelf supports can be stored.
You should also consider foam wrap and specially prefabricated corner/edge protectors made of stainless steel or plastic, especially if you also want to protect items made of stone such as marble slabs.
Tools and disassembly
In addition to packaging materials, you will also need tools for proper disassembly, including hammer, screwdriver, and Allen key (Inbusschlüssel). When dismantling large pieces of furniture such as cabinets or shelves, create your own manual in which you document the disassembly step by step with photos. Number the individual parts and label them with their respective assignment. When dismantling, make sure that you collect all small parts in plastic bags labeled with the name of the piece of furniture. After successful packaging, it is best to attach the bags to the corresponding furniture with a cord. Avoid adhesive tape on visible surfaces, as it will leave marks during longer storage.
How to pack your furniture professionally
| Furniture material | Wrapping paper | Bubble wrap and stretch film | Furniture blankets | Cardboard and corrugated board | Foam |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wood & Veneer | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Leather & Fabric | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Glass | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Metal | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Plastic | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
Securing and labeling stored furniture and their individual parts
As you have probably already realized, your greatest enemy when storing furniture is condensation. If you use plastic film or bubble wrap, it should never seal your items airtight. Even the best ventilation in your storage facility will not be able to prevent moisture from collecting under the film and destroying your property. Make sure that you do not apply adhesive tape too tightly and never directly on the furniture. The adhesive in the tape can irreversibly damage the surface of wood, veneer, and leather furniture, and porous materials such as stone and marble can also suffer unsightly marks.
Quick tips by furniture type (practical cheat sheet based on furniture piece)
- Sofa/Couch: Use breathable sofa covers or moving blankets. Pack the sofa cushions separately and protect wooden parts with corner/edge protectors.
- Wardrobe/Living room cabinet: Remove shelves and clothes rails and pack them separately. Place hinges/screws in a labeled bag and secure the doors with straps or adhesive tape over a buffer made of cardboard.
- Dressers and shelves: Empty drawers and remove them for separate packaging and storage. Cover handles with cardboard and use acid-free paper for the interior.
- Marble/Stone slab: First place paper or foam on the surface, then attach the corner/edge protector. Use rigid cardboard or MDF boards on both sides.
- Dining/Work table: If possible, remove the legs and protect the tabletop with acid-free paper and a transport blanket.
- Chairs (Leather/Fabric/Metal): Pack each chair individually with first paper and then a blanket. Make sure that the chairs are not sealed airtight, especially with materials such as leather/fabric.
