When you’re packing by yourself, you’re going to need a number of moving blankets as well in addition to the basic packing supplies such as cardboard boxes, packing paper, and bubble wrap. That’s especially important if you plan on taking with you some of your furniture pieces and/or household appliances.
Thick furniture blankets will cover and protect furniture, appliances, and other belongings from getting damaged (scratches, nicks, dents, scrapes, scuffs, etc.) – the so-called direct protection.
Also, by having your large items wrapped up in moving blankets, you’ll protect your walls, floors, and doors from damage – the so-called indirect protection.
When moving house, it’s always a good idea to have a stash of moving blankets to ensure that your furniture pieces and appliances survive the move with zero damage.
Read on to learn how to use moving blankets, why you should those furniture pads, and where to get them.
What are moving blankets?
Also known as furniture pads, moving blankets are large and thick heavy-duty cloth coverings that are used to protect furniture pieces, appliances, and other large household items while they are being moved from the old home to the new place.
Thanks to their thick padding, moving blankets will absorb harmful shocks and vibrations on the road and ensure a protective layer of padding (insulation) to the items that they are covering.
What are moving blankets made of? Furniture blankets are made of cotton or polyester, or a combination of the two materials.
Why should you use moving blankets?
The use of furniture blankets during a house move is highly recommended. If you’re wondering why you need moving blankets, then just check out the main advantages of using furniture pads when moving out:
- Moving blankets will protect your furniture and appliances from scratches, nicks, and other types of untimely damage during a move. How? The pads will create a thick insulation layer around the fragile items that you wish to protect.
- Furniture blankets will absorb any hits, shocks, or vibrations that are likely to occur on the road to the new home. That minimizes the chance of your blanket-wrapped furniture and appliances suffering any type of damage due to shocks or vibrations.
- Moving blankets will keep your delicate items free of dust and dirt during the relocation journey. And that’s always a bonus considering how dirty the inside of moving trucks can be.
- Furniture pads will protect indirectly your walls and floors as well. If a well-padded furniture item or a household appliance comes into contact with a wall or the floor, the latter will remain unscathed thanks to the thick padding around the fragile item that is being carried outside or inside the home.
Are moving blankets waterproof? No, they are not – furniture blankets will absorb fluids if they get wet.
Bear in mind that if furniture pads get exposed to heavy rain, for example, water will soak through the thick cotton or polyester padding and eventually reach the delicate surface of the items you’re trying to protect. And that’s exactly why when moving furniture in the rain, you should always add a final layer of plastic stretch wrap over the blankets to protect the furniture and appliances from potential water damage.
Must-read: Moving timeline for moving
How to use moving blankets
Now that you are familiar with the clear advantages of using moving blankets during your move, let’s take a look at how to actually use those protective blankets in your favor.
Use moving blankets to protect furniture
The process of wrapping furniture in moving blankets is pretty straightforward:
- Unfold a moving blanket and place it over the top of the furniture piece you want to protect.
- Cover the furniture item as much as possible using the first blanket.
- Secure the thick padding to the furniture by using pieces of packing tape. CAUTION: Make sure the tape does not come into contact with the furniture surface – instead, tape the loose ends of the moving blanket to the blanket itself.
- Feel free to secure the furniture blanket onto the furniture piece using a layer of stretch wrap instead of packing tape. Both options are fine, it’s just a matter of personal preference.
- Add a second moving blanket if the furniture piece is too large to get covered completely by only one blanket. Secure the second furniture pad as described above and use a third one, if needed.
- Inspect closely whether the entire furniture item has been covered in moving blankets. To minimize the risk of damage to your valuable furniture, make sure no areas of the furniture are left exposed.
Use moving blankets to protect appliances
To wrap household appliances in protective blankets, use the above-mentioned steps since the packing task is identical to that of packing furniture for a move. However, before you wrap an appliance in moving blankets, make sure the power cable is well secured to avoid a tripping accident.
Once you’ve wrapped your furniture and appliances with moving blankets, it’s time to take those items out of the house to be loaded onto the moving vehicle. If some of them prove to be too heavy to handle, do use a furniture dolly or an appliance dolly to wheel them out safely.
Use moving blankets to protect walls, doors, door frames
Wrapping your furniture and appliances in furniture blankets will also protect your walls, floors, and doors in an indirect way. Nevertheless, if you’re really worried about the possibility of inflicting damage to the walls – like a sharp corner, for example, then you can secure a few blankets to those vulnerable wall areas just in case.
See also: How to protect walls when moving
Also, to keep doors and door frames from accidentally getting scratched, nicked, dented, scraped, or broken, drape a thick furniture blanket over the upper section of a door and use painter’s tape to secure the padding to the door frame. If needed, attach a second blanket to the first one to cover the entire door from top to bottom.
Read also: How to protect doors when moving
How many moving blankets do you need?
This is a tough question but you should still be able to figure out the approximate number of furniture blankets that you will need to rent or buy to protect your valuable possessions.
Take a pencil and a piece of paper, go through the entire home, and assign furniture pads for all items that will need the extra protection.
- Assign ONE moving blanket for smaller items such as a microwave, a small nightstand, a dining room chair, a flat-screen TV, and so on.
- Assign TWO moving blankets for larger items such as a bookcase, an upholstered chair, a coffee table, a small dining room table, and so on.
- Assign THREE moving blankets for larger items such as a big kitchen table, a sofa, and most appliances you want to take with you such as the fridge, washer, dryer, and so on.
Keep in mind that a standard furniture blanket measures roughly 72 inches X 80 inches. When it doubt, it’s always better to have more moving blankets than you think you will need.
Useful info: What is a moving dolly and how to use it?
Should you rent or buy moving blankets?
Basically speaking, there are two ways to get moving blankets – either to rent them or to purchase them. The chance of scoring free moving blankets – the way you can get your hands on free moving boxes – is rather slim simply because those furniture pads are expensive and can be used and reused many times before they become practically unusable.
In other words, people will think twice before parting with their moving blankets, at least not until those thick cloth coverings are all tattered, in which case they will be useless to you too no matter how free they are.
Rent furniture blankets
In most cases, renting moving blankets will be the preferred option for you when you’ve made up your mind to pack your things by yourself or even rent a moving truck and transport your belongings without hiring movers to do it for you.
Here’s why it’s usually better to rent moving blankets than to purchase the furniture padding:
- Furniture blankets are expensive. The price of a single moving blanket starts around $8 and can go up to about $15. Naturally, the price can go down under $6 if you purchase a pack of 12 blankets or more, but even then you will need to pay good money to buy all the furniture pads that you may need.
- Furniture blankets take place. Once you purchase the heavy-duty moving blankets for your packing needs, you will have to find enough space to store them after the move is complete. And if you don’t plan to move out again in the near future, the purchase of those padded moving blankets can easily prove to be a bad investment since you’ll be forced to store them for years and years without knowing whether you’ll actually use them again.
So, where to rent moving blankets?
If you’re about to rent a moving truck from one of the top truck rental agencies in the country (U-Haul, Penske, Budget, Ryder, or Enterprise), the easiest way to rent moving blankets is to add them to an existing truck rental reservation. If you don’t plan to rent a moving truck, then you can still rent furniture blankets from those truck rental companies as a separate rental.
The good news is that you can rent the furniture pads either online or by visiting one of those truck rental places in person. Both rental options work fine, so just pick the one that’s more convenient for you.
Good to know: How to use furniture sliders when moving
Buy furniture blankets
In some cases, it can be better to purchase furniture pads than to rent them until the work is done. For example, if you happen to be moving temporarily and you know that another move will be necessary for the upcoming months, then the investment of purchasing those furniture blankets should be worth it because that way, you can have them at your disposal when the right time comes again.
Also, if you think that you can repurpose those protective blankets after the move, then there isn’t a single reason why you shouldn’t purchase blankets to cover furniture and appliances during the move and then use them for something else in the new home. The large thick cloths can be super-useful during renovation works, repair works, or when working in the garden.
As an added bonus, moving blankets are also machine washable.
Where to buy moving blankets?
You can buy furniture blankets from large stores such as Walmart, The Home Depot, Lowe’s, and so on, either by visiting them in person or by going to their websites and making an order. You can also purchase moving blankets online from Amazon.
Still, one of the easiest ways to get moving blankets is to visit a local moving company or a truck rental company in person and purchase the packing supplies straight from the pros. This way, the moving experts can give you good advice on how many furniture blankets you will need approximately to protect all your fragile furniture items and delicate household appliances.
After all, you don’t need to spend more money than you need to, right?
Must-read: How much does it cost to hire packers?
