A bed is one of the biggest and heaviest furniture pieces you’ll have in your home, meaning that it’ll require a lot of time and effort to disassemble it properly and pack it safely for moving. Also, the money you’ll pay for its transportation may turn out to be more than what the bed itself is worth.
Depending on the specific parameters of your house move, moving your bed to the new place may or may not be the best solution in your case. But if your initial risk assessment and careful analysis of the situation do confirm that the pros outnumber the cons, then you’re going to need to know how to disassemble a bed frame for moving.
These 8 disassembly steps below will show you the safest way to take apart a bed without any risk of damage whatsoever.
Is it a good idea to move your bed?
Before you rush to disassemble your bed as part of the moving preparation, you have to know for sure that moving your bed is the right decision in terms of time, money, and effort.
You must make sure that moving a bed to a new home is the right call under your specific set of circumstances. Here are a few considerations that should help you reach an informed decision about whether moving your bed is a good idea.
- Distance. When moving short distance (across town or within the same state), it can make sense to take your furniture with you, including your bed. When moving many hundreds or thousands of miles across the country, it’s very rarely worth it to move large and heavy furniture to the new place.
- Size. How big is your bed exactly? Even when partially disassembled, the bed frame may prove to be problematic when it comes to fitting it through narrow openings such as doors, hallways, sharp corners, or staircases. Also, will the bed fit the living space of the new home and match its overall design?
- Condition. If the bed you plan to move is fairly new or in excellent condition, then it’ll make much more sense to take it with you. But if it’s too old, too worn out, or too broken, then it’s time to leave it behind and buy a new bed after the move.
- Sentimental value. Some beds can have high sentimental value while most of them are just ordinary pieces of furniture that can be safely left behind during a move. What’s the case with your bed?
Before you reach a decision about the bed, assess the situation in terms of what you’ll win and what you’ll lose if you do choose to take the bed with you.
The major ADVANTAGES of moving a bed to a new home are:
- You’ll continue to sleep in your own comfortable bed;
- You won’t have to lose time while shopping for a new bed in the new town or city;
- You won’t have to spend money on a new bed if the new place doesn’t have one;
- You’ll have a big and meaningful piece from your old home to help you overcome relocation anxiety.
The main DISADVANTAGES of moving a bed to another home are:
- You’ll pay a higher moving cost due to the serious weight and substantial size of the bed;
- You’ll need time to disassemble, pack, and load the bed into the moving vehicle, and then unload it, take it inside the new place, unpack it, and reassemble it upon arrival.
So, is your bed worth moving at all?
If the answer is a firm YES, then read on to learn how to disassemble a bed for moving.
Must-read: Is it better to move furniture or buy new?
How to disassemble a bed frame: Step by step
As long as you have enough time and at least one reliable helper, you should be able to disassemble a bed frame for moving without any serious issues. Just follow the bed disassembly steps below to get the job done quickly – and more importantly – safely.
Step 1. Remove the bedding
Remove the bedding from the bed and pack those bed covers, comforters, blankets, sheets, and pillows into large cardboard boxes. It’s OK – bedding items take plenty of space but they are generally lightweight so using big moving boxes is a safe option.
Feel free to use vacuum seal bags to pack extra voluminous bedding such as comforters. Vacuum bags are believed to shrink the volume of soft items to up to 80% so that they don’t take too much space during transport or in storage.
Step 2. Remove the mattress
Next, you should also remove the mattress in order to gain access to the bed frame.
The weight of bed mattresses can vary greatly so you may or may not be able to handle safely the mattress on your bed. To minimize the risk of personal injury or property damage, or both, have another person by your side when you’re handling the mattress.
Insert the mattress into a protective mattress bag to protect the bed accessory against dust, dirt, and moisture while on the road. Seal the plastic bag either by using packing tape or by zipping it up with its own zipper, if applicable.
Step 3. Take out the drawers
This step marks the start of the actual disassembly of the bed frame. Remember that you shouldn’t rush this job for safety reasons. Instead, give yourself enough time to think through each action before you take it.
Remove any storage drawers from the bed frame by pulling them out, one by one. Then, if the drawers contain soft, unbreakable items such as pieces of clothing or bedding, consider speeding up greatly the entire bed disassembly process by simply stretch-wrapping their open parts and leaving their contents inside them.
See also: How to pack drawers for moving
Step 4. Remove the headboard
The next step is to remove the headboard – the bed component that’s usually screwed down or bolted to the main bed frame.
Use a screwdriver of the right size to remove the several screws, one by one, that keep it attached to the frame. Alternatively, if the headboard is held by bolts, you should use a wrench to take them out safely.
Some headboards can be quite heavy, especially if made of solid wood, so be careful when handling the headboard of your bed.
Step 5. Take off the sideboards
Now it’s time to remove the sideboards of the bed, if any. Similar to the headboard, the sideboards will be either screwed or bolted to the main frame, so you’re going to have to use a screwdriver or a wrench to take them apart safely.
Once again, the four sideboards of your bed can be rather bulky to handle by one person, so make sure you have someone by your side to give you hand.
Step 6. Remove extra bed elements
After removing the bedding, mattress, drawers, headboard, and any sideboards, you should only have the main bed frame – as bare as it should be.
However, if there are still any other bed elements left that can be removed safely, then do it without hesitation. Your ultimate goal should be to disassemble the bed as much as possible in order to make the moving process easier and safer.
So, take off any remaining elements – most often the bed legs or ornaments of some sort – to make the frame construction lighter to carry as well.
Step 7. Safeguard small elements
During the bed disassembly process, you’ll have plenty of small fastening elements such as bolts, nuts, screws, and washers coming out of the bed frame.
Make sure you keep those small elements in a safe place, preferably in a sealable plastic bag. Losing any of those tiny parts will surely hinder the bed reassembly process in the destination place.
Step 8. Protect all bed frame components
Once the bed frame has been disassembled to its main components, wrap each part in furniture blankets for ultimate protection.
If some of the bed elements seem too fragile to survive the move unscathed, then don’t hesitate to wrap them in bubble wrap first and then add the outer protective layer of thick moving blankets.
The task of disassembling a bed frame for moving is not overly complicated but you may still face some difficulties, especially if you’ve never done something like this before. Should you get stuck, consider contacting the furniture store from which you bought the bed and ask for advice.
Better still, in case the bed disassembly task proves too much for you, your best solution is to hire furniture movers to do it for you. While at it, the professionals will also detach, fully or partially, any other large furniture piece that you wish to take with you to the new home.
