Moving a heavy desk from one home to another is a serious challenge so you must be absolutely sure it’s worth the trouble.
You have to be extremely careful because a big and heavy desk could inflict costly property damage or even lead to a bad personal injury.
Disassembling the heavy desk is only half the battle. To emerge victorious in the end, you’ll also need to know how to pack and move the bulky piece of furniture.
Follow the detailed steps below to learn how to move a heavy desk by yourself (without hiring furniture movers).
Together with the never-ending job of packing for a move, lifting and carrying large and heavy furniture pieces is often viewed as one of the most challenging tasks during a house move.
That’s right, moving heavy furniture is never a joke – it always requires a lot of time and effort, and it can be dangerous too if not done properly.
Having completed the home inventory, you may have come to the conclusion that in no way will you leave behind your favorite solid-wood desk.
And since you’re taking your favorite piece of furniture with you to the new home, it’s a great idea to learn the proper way of doing it – quickly, safely, and hassle-free.
Here’s the complete step-by-step guide on how to move a desk to a new home.
Decision time: should you move your heavy desk at all?
What to consider before moving a desk to another home?
Before you start preparing your desk for moving, it’s a good idea to stop for a minute or two and ask yourself whether you should move the desk at all.
Ask yourself if the desk will be worth the transportation cost, the time required to prepare it for moving, and the efforts to pack it, lift it, carry it to the moving truck, and then load it up safely.
As is the case with the rest of the large and heavy furniture in your home, the decision of whether to leave a piece behind and purchase a new one after the move remains as important as ever.
Just keep in mind that leaving most furniture pieces behind and getting new ones when you reach the destination is often the option that makes the most sense, especially when you’re moving long distance.
After all, why would you pay big money to transport a desk to a new house or apartment when buying a brand new one in the destination town or city will cost roughly the same or even less?
To help you make the right choice from the very beginning, here are some factors you just have to take into consideration before you get down to disassembling and packing your office desk for a move.
Practical value. Is the desk you want to take with you comfortable and functional? Will it fit well with the rest of the furniture in the new home? Will it fit in there at all?
Current condition. What’s the overall condition of the furniture piece? If your desk is in bad shape and is nearing its final years of service, it’s not usually worth paying to move it only to throw it away in a few years’ time.
Aesthetic value. Is your desk beautiful, stylish, and a joy to look at? Or is it just an ordinary furniture piece, unremarkable in any way?
Sentimental value. Is there any sentimental value attached to the desk you’re thinking about moving? If your desk happens to be a family heirloom or you associate happy memories with it, then it’s time to read on because you’re taking it with you at all costs.
Monetary value. Is the desk expensive? Is it an antique piece of art? Was the furniture made by a well-known and renowned manufacturer?
Of course, your decision whether to move your heavy and large desk will also depend on the move distance too – the longer the distance between the two homes, the higher the risk usually is for your household item.
Follow the link below to learn more about deciding what to keep and what to throw away when moving house.
If only you could use magic to move your desk to the new home!
The best way to move a heavy desk (understand the easiest way) is to have a professional moving company do it for you.
Experienced furniture movers will disassemble, protect, carry, and transport all your furniture pieces in the safest way possible. What’s more, they will complete the job faster and more efficiently than you could ever possibly do on your own.
Thus said, the real disadvantage of hiring professional furniture movers is that the service will cost you. So, the second best way to move a large desk is to ask a few friends to help you out and do it together as a team, especially when you’re moving a short distance away –across town or to another town or city within the same state (local moving).
In order to move a desk by yourself – that is, without paying movers to do it for you, you will need:
Helping hands
Moving a desk entirely on your own is very risky and borders the realm of impossible tasks. You need to make sure that friendly furniture-moving assistance will be available when you need it the most.
Reach out to your pals as soon as possible so that 1) you minimize the disruption of their own plans, thus guaranteeing a better chance of receiving their help, and 2) you can have enough time to still go with Plan B (professional movers) if it turns out that none of your friends is too thrilled to lift and carry heavy furniture.
Important: You’ll need at least one other person to help you lift and carry the desk, preferably more.
Also, you’re going to need some packing materials to protect the furniture piece for the road ahead. Packing a desk for moving is not complicated in any way (see below for details), and you’ll only need:
a few protective blankets – thick moving blankets work best but ordinary household ones will do the trick too,
several sheets of bubble wrap to cover any delicate areas on the desk,
a few sheets of soft packing paper, and
some packing tape or stretch wrap to keep the blankets in place.
Lastly, you’ll need to have a set of furniture sliders to be able to slide the desk easily and safely across the room instead of having to lift it and carry it the same distance.
In reality, furniture sliders are small pieces of durable plastic and/or rubber that help minimize or, in some cases, eliminate the friction between a heavy piece of furniture and the floor.
Some furniture sliders are meant to be used on hardwood and tiled floors while others are designed for carpeted floors.
You can purchase such sliders online or from the nearest Home Improvement Store or hardware store, like The Home Depot and Lowe’s.
How to pack a desk for moving: 4 packing steps
Make your desk as light as possible to facilitate the moving task.
The next step to moving a heavy desk is to pack it safely – a process that often includes disassembling your large piece of furniture so that 1) it can be transported more easily, and 2) it can go through all openings in the home (doorways, hallways, staircases) without any problems whatsoever.
Packing a desk when moving involves the following steps:
Step 1. Disassemble your desk
Remove any sections from your desk if they can be detached safely. The idea here is to reduce the size of the furniture piece, if possible, and to lower its overall weight.
To do that, take out all the desk drawers (you can leave their contents inside – see below) and disengage all removable trays, such as a keyboard tray, for example.
If your desk has glass elements installed, you must make sure you remove them so that they can be wrapped up and moved separately to avoid any damage during the haul.
L-shaped desks can usually be disassembled into at least two separate parts for easier and safer transportation. Use a screwdriver to remove any metal fastening elements and keep all small parts in a sealable plastic bag to keep them from getting lost during the house move.
Step 2. Wrap any detached desk elements
If you’ve removed any glass elements from your desk, wrap those in packing paper first, then use thick moving blankets to protect them well. Also, use bubble wrap to protect the extra fragile or delicate parts of the wooden desk, like decorative elements.
When packing your desk components, avoid placing bubble wrap directly onto sensitive surfaces because that way you may damage the delicate finish of the desk itself or leave nasty marks on its glass elements. Whenever you want to add that extra protection, always use soft packing paper to create an initial layer.
Step 3. Pack the desk drawers
It’s time to turn your attention to the drawers of the desk you’re moving. Remove all drawers to make the desk lighter and take a good look inside them.
Scenario 1: The desk drawers contain a great number of small items that are not too heavy. In that case, you’re advised to leave those various things inside – just use stretch wrap to cover completely the open part of the drawer so that anything that’s inside stays inside it. Finally, wrap up the entire drawer in a moving blanket.
Scenario 2: The desk drawers contain heavy items (books, for example) or items that are too fragile to be left unprotected. In that case, the better option is to empty those drawers and pack the things inside them separately.
Step 4. Protect the entire desk
By now all removable desk components should be taken apart safely and wrapped up well in protective materials. The drawers should also be removed and packed separately as described above.
Now it’s time to protect the main frame of the desk. To do that, use thick blankets to cover the entire area so that your valuable furniture piece is safe against any type of damage. Use pieces of tape to secure the blankets so that they don’t shift and leave any desk area unprotected.
Make sure the tape doesn’t come into direct contact with the delicate finish of the desk to prevent any stains from the sticky residue or even more serious surface damage.
Protect your desk with thick blankets, place furniture sliders under each leg and you’re ready to take the furniture out of your home.
The moment you have disassembled the desk as far as possible and have packed up safely its detached components, it’s time to move the desk out of your home and load it up securely onto the moving vehicle.
Follow these easy steps to moving a desk and you’ll have the large and heavy furniture piece safely onto the moving van in no time.
Step 1. Plan the exit route
When moving heavy furniture without hiring furniture movers, one thing you just have to do before lifting and carrying those pieces is to plan exactly how you’re going to do it in terms of exit pathways and possible obstacles.
Take a walk, together with your helpers, along the exit route out of your home to check if there might be potential problems for you. If a doorway seems to be too tight or a corridor looks like it may be too narrow for the safe passage of your desk, take the measuring tape and double-check the dimensions of the furniture and those of all the openings along the exit pathway.
Also, remove all obstacles along the way to prevent dangerous accidents from taking place.
Step 2. Slide the desk in the right direction
Moving heavy furniture is a very strenuous and laborious task that may lead to injury if not done correctly. Damage to the furniture piece is also possible due to accidents on the day of the move. Therefore, you need to minimize any instances of lifting and carrying your heavy desk toward the moving truck.
Ultimately, the best way to move a (really) heavy desk is to slide it safely around the room and along hallways until you reach the front door. And to be able to do just that, you’ll need the appropriate type of furniture sliders (as discussed above).
With the help of your friends, lift each leg or side edge of the desk and place a slider underneath it. All in all, you should have 4 sliders positioned under the heavyweight furniture. And when you do, simply push the desk gently across the room and toward the room exit – easily, safely, and with minimum effort. While you push the heavy desk forward, have your helper pull it backward at the same time.
Keep in mind that furniture sliders are also great because, in addition to minimizing the efforts of lifting heavy objects and eliminating the probability of an injury, they also guarantee a zero chance of floor damage.
Step 3. Fit the desk through small and tight openings
As long as you have the right type of furniture sliders, sliding the desk across the room should be a relatively easy task. The problem may be to get the furniture piece through the doorway.
Remember that since you’ve disassembled the desk, it should fit through any house door. If it won’t, then try getting it through the opening at different angles. Hopefully, you’ll manage to fit the desk without having to rely on the last resort – removing temporarily the doorframe to free up a few extra inches.
Whenever you reach a doorstep or another floor obstacle, lift and carry the desk over it, then re-position the sliders to continue the safe slide until you leave your house or reach the front door of your apartment building.
It looks like magic does work. Sometimes.
If you’re taking the desk out of a house, then going down a flight of stairs may prove to be problematic. Use all the manpower you’ve got and go very carefully down the stairs, one step at a time.
If you’re moving out of an apartment, then you should use the building elevator to get the furniture piece down and outside, unless you live on the first floor.
If the elevator is out of order and there are many flights of stairs to go down, then you should definitely resort to calling in professional movers.
When you reach the moving truck outside, use its motorized loading ramp to get the desk up and onto the back of the vehicle. If no motorized loading ramp is available, load up the heavy furniture piece using the standard ramp.
Once inside, position the desk next to the side of the vehicle and use, if necessary, a piece of rope or straps to secure it well and eliminate the chance of it shifting during transport.
In most cases, you’ll be able to handle the task at hand and move your desk with the help of a friend. However, if the whole idea of moving a large and heavy desk by yourself sounds too risky (and it is!), then you’d better get in touch with a good furniture mover.
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