When you're moving furniture as part of relocation to a new home, it's best to hire the services of a professional furniture removals firm.  They will have the experience and equipment to carry out the job safely without damaging anything.  However, if you do decide to carry out some or all of the work yourself, here are some top tips to help everything go smoothly.

Long, tall items

Tall items, such as wardrobes are best carried angled slightly towards you.  This helps to keep the piece stable, especially when negotiating stairs.  Ideally, you should have one person supporting the bottom of the item and one supporting the top.

Sofas can be awkward to manoeuvre through doorways.  The best way to manage this is to flip the sofa onto its end, carrying it as you would a wardrobe.  Remember to remove detachable feet or legs from the sofa first, and take off any loose cushions.

Avoiding damage

To avoid damaging your furniture, wrap it in special moving blankets.  Blankets will protect the furniture from knocks and scrapes and will help to absorb road vibration and bumps when in transit.

If a piece of furniture is too heavy to carry and you resort to dragging it across the floor, always put a blanket underneath.  Drag the blanket to move the piece of furniture, thus avoiding damaging the item and your flooring.  Alternatively, hire a 'dolly' on which to sit the furniture so that you can push it along, rather than trying to lift it.  Remember to strap very large and unwieldy pieces onto the dolly so that they don't topple over.

Drawers and ornamental mirrors can easily come adrift during the moving process, potentially sustaining damage.  Avoid accidents by removing anything detachable before moving the furniture or tape draws closed.  You can help to make items lighter by emptying drawers and cupboards of any contents.

Where to put it

You can save yourself and your removalists a lot of work by labelling each item of furniture clearly with the room it is destined for when it reaches your new home.

In conclusion

When it comes to furniture removals, you can make the job a whole lot easier and quicker by following the top tips outlined above.  If you have any items of particular sentimental or monetary value, you might want to ask for the advice and assistance of a professional furniture removals firm before undertaking the task yourself.