What to Do When Furniture Won’t Fit Through the Door: 7 Solutions

The day of the move has arrived.

The house moving process is in its final phase – you can see the finishing line drawing nearer and nearer, and pretty soon the moving adventure will be over. All that you have to do now is take your furniture piece out of the home, load them up into the moving truck, and then transport them to the new home.

But then a sudden and unexpected problem chooses to put a big spoke in your moving wheel – some of your furniture won’t fit through the doors when you’re trying to take them out of the place. Such an occurrence is rather unfortunate and will temporarily hinder the entire relocation process.

What should you do if your furniture won’t go through the door?

Read on to find out all possible solutions to the problem of getting stuck in a doorway with a huge piece of furniture on Moving day. But first, you’re going to learn what you can do to avoid the big-furniture-small-door issue altogether.

What you should do to avoid getting stuck in a doorway – 5 steps

Have you heard the phrase that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?

This piece of wisdom is especially relevant on Moving day when a rushed decision could create a series of serious problems for you. Grabbing a large and heavy piece of furniture and starting to take it out of the place without thinking about safety first has TROUBLE written all over it.

Instead of desperately searching for appropriate solutions when a piece of huge furniture gets jammed in a doorway, focus on preventing the unfortunate situation from happening in the first place.

Luckily, if you choose to follow these 5 steps on your move-out day, the furniture items you have opted to take with you will pass through all doors and hallways comfortably without a single issue. As a result, your oversized furniture will be out of your home and into the rented truck before you know it.

Step 1. Measure your large furniture pieces

Sometimes a simple prevention step can help you avoid serious trouble later on. So, what’s the first thing you should do when you plan to take bulky furniture out of your home?

Measure the dimensions of those big furniture items, of course.

Let’s say you’re getting ready to move a big piece of furniture all the way to the vehicle waiting outside. Here’s how to measure up the furniture unit correctly with the help of a measuring tape:

• Height (H). Measure the distance from the floor to the highest point of the furniture unit – this is its height.
• Width (W). Measure the distance between the two widest points of the furniture item – this is its width.
• Depth (D). Measure the distance between the deepest points of the furniture piece (usually between the front and the back) – this is its depth.

These are the three basic measurements of each furniture piece. But there’s also one additional measurement that you are likely to need, especially when you intend to fit the unit through a small door while it’s standing up.

• Diagonal height (DH). Measure the distance from a front corner point of a piece to its opposite back corner – this is its diagonal height.

Step 2. Measure the doorways along the exit route

Once you know the dimensions of your large furniture pieces, the next step is highly logical – all you need to do next is to measure the height and width of each doorframe along the exit path in order to see whether or not you will have any fitting problems.

In addition to the doorframes, you’re recommended to also measure up the width of tight openings such as sharp corners and the width of narrow spaces such as the corridor leading to the front door.

When moving out of an apartment building, you may also want to know the dimensions of the elevator in order to figure out whether the furniture item will go safely through the elevator door and fit comfortably inside the elevator space.

Step 3. Do the math

Now that you have the dimensions of the large furniture pieces you’re trying to take out of the home and the dimensions of all the doorways and hallways along the way, all you have to do is compare the sizes and see if you predict any issues along the way.

You should always analyze the situation carefully instead of rushing the job just because you’re in a great hurry. Bear in mind that if you do get stuck in a doorway, you’re likely to lose an insane amount of time trying to solve the issue at hand.

Therefore, make an effort to avoid any hasty decisions that you will come to regret later on.

Now, by comparing the dimensions carefully, you should know right away whether you’re dealing with a good, not-so-good, or bad situation.

• GOOD. The measurements reveal that you won’t have any problems fitting your large furniture pieces through the doors. This is good news.
• NOT-SO-GOOD. The measurements show that some of your furniture items are slightly larger than the doorways and corridors. This is not great news but you can still fit large furniture through the doors using one of the fitting methods below.
• BAD. The measurements reveal that some of your furniture items are much larger than the door openings. This is bad news and what you should do next is to disassemble partially those big items to give yourself a chance.

Step 4. Disassemble partially the problematic furniture

Some of your furniture pieces will be compact enough to pass through all doors without any problems. But your main focus should be on the furniture that proves to be too big to fit safely through the doors.

It’s time to do something about it now in order to prevent problems later on, and that something is to disassemble the oversized furniture items into their major components so that you make them smaller in size.

Remove any parts of a large furniture piece that can be removed safely: legs, armrests, panels, doors, drawers, and even decorations. In fact, consider detaching any furniture elements that protrude considerably from the main structure of the piece.

How to Disassemble Furniture When Moving: Step-By-Step Guide

Step 5. Ask your friends to give you a hand

Since you’ve opted not to hire professional furniture movers, you’re going to have to make up for the required manpower by asking a few good friends to help you move the large and heavy furniture items. After all, you don’t want to get stuck in a doorway, entirely on your own, while desperately trying to get a bulky furniture piece out of the house or apartment.

As a rule of thumb, you’re going to need at least 2 other people to make sure everything goes smoothly on Moving day. If possible, get more than a couple of helpers to help you move your big furniture pieces. Remember that when it comes to moving furniture, strength comes in numbers.

Important: When you intend to move large and heavy furniture to the new home, you’ve got to ensure you’ll have at least two other people you can rely on to help you out. If you can’t get those two helpers, then trust professional furniture movers simply because you should never risk your health or risk inflicting costly property damage.

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What you should do when you’re already stuck in a doorway – 7 Solutions

All of the steps above are meant to prevent any incidents of getting large furniture jammed in a doorway.

However, it may be too and you may be already looking for practical ways to free the big couch from the living room doorframe or to get the large dresser unstuck from the narrow corridor walls.

Here are 7 different solutions to try when your furniture won’t fit through the door:

Solution #1. Disassemble the furniture even further

When your furniture will not go through the door, the first possible solution is to inspect it carefully to determine whether you can disassemble it even further to create more space. Disassemble it safely, of course.

The thing is that you may have failed to take apart the large furniture item as far as it can let you.

So, it’s always worth a try to remove yet another detachable element from the main furniture structure in order to make the unit smaller to fit through the doorway with zero chance of damage.

If the big furniture unit cannot be disassembled any further, then try Solution #2.

Solution #2. Try out various exit angles

Keep in mind that this is the solution that should give you the greatest chance of success.

The angle at which a furniture piece goes through a door is critical – it may easily be the single most important thing to look out for when moving big furniture out of the home.

And here’s why: a large furniture item may seem impossible to pass safely through a door until you change the exit angle and then VOILA – like a fun optical illusion, that oversized couch, dresser, desk, bed, or table can magically go through the tight opening without any problems whatsoever.

First of all, think about what’s the best angle to get the large furniture piece through the door. Try to visualize the whole process before you do it in practice.

Then, maneuver slowly the large item around the door until you get to the magical angle that will suddenly solve the puzzle for you. When almost there, keep changing the exit angle and it clicks into place.

Oftentimes, sofas can be carried through a small door by being positioned upright in the air – using the vertical space that a doorway gives you is the key to success in such close situations.

As long as you’ve got the required manpower, don’t be afraid to experiment with various exit angles until you hit the sweet spot.

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Solution #3. Squeeze the furniture through the door

The third possible solution to your furniture fitting problem is to try to squeeze the furniture piece through the smaller door.

Caution: This method can work well only when moving furniture with soft upholstery – most often sofas and couches.

Sometimes you may need only a few inches of more space to get the large furniture piece through the doorway. In such cases, you should use the fact that the soft upholstery of some pieces can be compressed without any damage whatsoever, thus giving the little extra room you need to overcome the obstacle.

When trying to squeeze in soft furniture pieces through a door, be extra careful not to get your fingers or hands injured if caught by accident in between. To protect your hands during the move day, always wear thick work gloves and mind where you position your hands at all times.

Also, to protect the furniture piece while it’s being squeezed through the door or by a sharp wall corner, make sure it’s wrapped up well in plastic wrap.

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Solution #4. Remove the door (only temporarily)

You shouldn’t despair even if the above 3 solutions don’t seem to work for you. Why? Because you’re not out of options yet.

Another solution you should try when your furniture won’t go through the door is to remove the door temporarily until the piece is safely through, and then to put it back properly on its hinges.

This trick may seem a bit unorthodox but it can definitely save the day, especially when you only need an extra couple of inches of free space.

However, before you and your helpers decide to try it, make sure you know exactly what it takes to take the door off its hinges. In most cases, it’s a fairly straightforward task but it can still be risky, especially when you’ve never done it until that moment.

Together with a helper, push the door up slowly and carefully until it pops out of its hinges. After that, place the door aside until the furniture item is safely through, and then place the door back into its original position.

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Solution #5. Remove the doorframe (only temporarily)

Although it could be an option for some people, we don’t really recommend the potential solution of removing the doorframe temporarily… until you do know what you’re doing and you trust your skills. After all, the last thing you’d want is to end up with costly property damage on the day of the move.

If the doorframe is made of wood and is attached in place with small nails, then taking out those little nails with the right tool should free the doorframe, thus giving you a bit more space to get your large furniture through.

Warning: We do not recommend this step so you should proceed at your own risk.  

Solution #6. Leave behind the furniture piece

Chances are that you won’t like this “solution” to your furniture problem.

And here’s the reason why: the mere fact that you’re attempting to take your furniture out of the home means that you’d very much like to take it with you. You’ve made the informed decision to move your furniture so having to leave some of the pieces behind can really dampen your mood, to say the least.

The thing is that leaving furniture behind may not be a viable option for you, so if you’ve already decided to move it no matter what – often the case with antique furniture that is both expensive and valuable – then you should definitely go to the actual solution of the problem – hiring the pros to help you out.

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Solution #7. Call up professional furniture movers

If none of the above-mentioned solutions works for you, then you’ve only got one option: pay professional furniture movers to protect and transport the furniture items for you.

Sometimes it’s the only way – you’ve tried your best but in the end, you’ll have to admit that the task was just too much for you.

Professional furniture movers have the proper equipment and the know-how to hoist oversized furniture over a window or a balcony if that proves the only way to get a huge furniture piece out of the home. Hoisting furniture out of a place is a special job that you can’t possibly handle on your own due to its extremely dangerous nature.

For your own sake, for the sake of your helpers, and for the sake of your valuable furniture, sometimes you just have to do what you have to do – let experienced furniture movers handle the heavy task for you.

Do yourself a favor and stay sane and injury-free.

Get free quotes from top-rated furniture movers in your city or town.