Dressers are beautiful pieces of bedroom furniture that feature multiple drawers for keeping clothes and a large mirror on top. In fact, a dresser is one of the most practical furniture units found in a home so it won’t be a big surprise if you do choose to move your dresser to a new place.
The downside of moving a dresser is that those furniture items are usually rather big and heavy, so not only will the dresser moving task be tough to handle but you’ll also be forced to pay more money to transport it due to the added weight and size.
The best way to move a dresser to a new home is to hire the services of experienced furniture movers who know exactly what it takes to move safely that specific piece of furniture, together with all the other types of furniture prices. However, if paying for furniture moving services is not an option for you, then you’re going to have to learn how to move a dresser by yourself.
Ready for the furniture moving challenge?
Here’s how to move a heavy dresser in 12 steps.
Table of Contents
Step 1. See if moving your dresser makes sense
The very first step to moving a dresser to a new house is to determine whether taking that large and heavy furniture item is worth the trouble.
To help you make the right choice, here are a few questions you should ask to determine whether it’ll make sense to move your dresser at all:
- Does the dresser have any sentimental value for you? If yes, then taking the furniture piece with you is a must.
- What’s the current condition of the dresser? If it happens to be old, worn out, or maybe even damaged, then it may be the right time to buy a new dresser after the move.
- Will it fit the new-home décor? Also, will there be enough space for the furniture piece in the bedroom of the new place?
Useful info: Is it better to move furniture or buy new?
Step 2. Get the right packing supplies
Once you make up your mind to move your dresser despite the extra effort and the higher cost, it’s time to prepare the proper packing materials since the success of the entire relocation operation hinges on how well you will protect the furniture item for transport.
The step of protecting the dresser is absolutely crucial, so you’re going to have to secure the necessary packing supplies in order to get it right:
- Furniture blankets (aka furniture pads);
- Bubble wrap;
- Stretch wrap;
- Sheets of thick cardboard;
- Masking tape (painter’s tape), and
- Packing tape.
There’s always a risk of damage to the dresser during the move so you have to make sure it’s well-padded in order to arrive safely in the new home’s bedroom.
Step 3. Secure the proper moving equipment
In most cases, dressers will be too heavy to be simply lifted with bare hands and carried out of the home. Therefore, in order to guarantee the safety of everyone involved in the move (you, your family, and your friends of yours), you must use the right moving tools to move your dresser easily and safely.
Before you prepare your dresser for moving, make sure you’ve secured
- a set of furniture sliders to help you slide the heavy furniture piece away from the wall and maybe even across the room – effortlessly and with zero chance of property damage, and
- a furniture dolly – the flat and low platform made of either wood or steel that will let you wheel the large furniture item on its 4 swivel wheels as if you were pushing a Sunday shopping cart.
See also: What moving equipment to rent when moving by yourself
Step 4. Ask friends to help you out
Even though you’ve decided not to hire experienced furniture movers, it’s not a good idea to move your dresser and the rest of the furniture items you’re taking with you entirely on your own.
Moving furniture is not a task for one person so do consider asking a few good friends of yours to give you a hand with the heavy job. Using the right moving equipment will greatly facilitate the dresser moving task but you should still get helpers to avoid any accidents on Moving day.
Read also: How to get friends to help you move
Step 5. Empty and secure the drawer dressers
It’s time to get the dresser ready to be moved safely.
Now, the first step is to empty the bureau in order to reduce its total weight. Take out any clothes, blankets, sheets, towels, and so on from the drawers and pack those soft items separately in big cardboard boxes.
The only items you can leave inside the drawers are light pillows because they won’t affect the weight much but will take plenty of room when packed into boxes.
Once the dresser drawers are empty or almost empty, tape a couple of pieces of painter’s tape over each drawer to fasten it to the main structure of the bureau. This way, the drawers won’t open accidentally during transport while the use of masking tape won’t damage the delicate surface of the furniture item.
Good to know: Do you need to empty drawers when moving?
Step 6. Remove items from the dresser top
This step is pretty straightforward – all you need to do is remove any items that are on display on the top of the dresser – decorations, jewelry, perfume bottles, make-up, vases, photos, lamps, and so on.
Pack those miscellaneous items in suitable boxes but make sure you protect them first by wrapping them in packing paper and, in the case of extra fragile items – in a layer of bubble wrap as well.
For safety reasons, the dresser top should be completely free of any stuff before you wrap it up in protective blankets in the next steps.
Step 7. Remove the dresser mirror
If the dresser you’re moving with you comes equipped with a large mirror, then you’re going to have to remove the dresser mirror carefully and pack it safely for transport.
How to pack a dresser mirror for moving?
Make sure you have a helper with you before you begin this step. Remove the screws that hold the mirror with the help of a screwdriver, then detach the mirror and place it carefully on the floor. Place a big sheet of thick cardboard over the reflective surface of the mirror for extra protection, then secure the cardboard cut-out with masking tape. Finally, wrap the entire mirror in a furniture blanket.
Packing advice: How to pack a large mirror for moving
Step 8. Pad the dresser
This step is all about padding the dresser well enough so that it remains perfectly protected until it reaches the new home.
Wrap several furniture blankets (3-4 should be sufficient) around the entire furniture piece so that no area remains exposed. Secure the blankets with packing tape but be careful not to place that type of tape directly onto the surface of the dressing table.
If you suspect that those furniture pads may get really dirty in the moving vehicle, then you can use stretch wrap over the blankets as the final layer of protection. However, shrink-wrapping the entire dresser will not be necessary in most cases.
See also: How to pack furniture for moving
Step 9. Slide the dresser safely
If your dresser is situated right next to a wall, as most dressers are, then you’re going to need to get it some distance away from that wall in order to load it safely onto the moving dolly.
In case the dresser you’re moving is not too heavy to be handled by two persons, then you and your helper should simply lift it off the ground and move it carefully toward the center of the room.
However, if the furniture item is still too heavy, then place a furniture slider under each leg and simply slide it effortlessly across the room to where you want it to go.
Read also: How to use furniture sliders to move furniture
Step 10. Get the dresser onto a dolly
Using a furniture dolly to take the heavy dresser out of the home is the safest option when you’re not paying professional furniture movers to do it for you.
Make sure you’ve got at least two helpers to assist you in this critical step. Use proper lifting techniques to tilt the dresser ever so slightly to one of its sides and get one of your friends to slide the furniture dolly underneath the furniture.
Then, straighten up the dresser until it gets to sit squarely on the 4-wheel platform. Use straps or pieces of rope to secure the load onto the dolly.
Good to know: What is a dolly and how to use it?
Step 11. Move the dresser out of the home
Slowly, take the dresser out of the home, holding it steady for extra support as you’re wheeling it toward the front door. Be extremely careful when you’re passing through smaller openings such as doors, tight corners, and long narrow corridors.
When you’re moving out of an apartment, use the building elevator to take the furniture piece down to the ground floor. When you’re moving out of a house, then, hopefully, you’ll be moving your dresser out from the first floor.
Caution: Moving a heavy dresser downstairs is not recommended since furniture dollies are not meant to go down or up stairs. If the exit path to the vehicle does include any number of stairs, then you should do the right thing and hire professional furniture movers.
Step 12. Load the dresser into the truck
The final step to moving a dresser to a new house is to load it safely onto the awaiting truck. Use the loading ramp – or better yet, the truck liftgate – to load the furniture item inside the vehicle.
Use all the manpower you’ve got during this loading operation to avoid bad accidents. Once you get the dresser inside, strap it securely to the side of the truck so that it can’t shift around during transit.
Must-read: How do movers load a truck?
Moving a heavy dresser by yourself is not a joke. In fact, moving any large and heavy furniture on yourself can be risky, especially when you’ve never done it before or you can’t rally up enough friends to help you out.
Get a free quote from the best furniture movers in your area to learn the price of having experienced professionals by your side when you need assistance.
