How to Move a Dresser by Yourself: Step-by-Step Guide

While a dresser – a standalone cabinet with drawers for keeping clothing and often featuring a large mirror – can be a super practical and functional piece of bedroom furniture, when the time comes to move out, that chest of drawers will be quite the challenge to pack and move to a new home without professional assistance.

Dressers tend to be both large and heavy – a disadvantageous combination that often spells T-R-O-U-B-L-E when Moving day comes around. Moving a dresser by yourself – that is, without using professional movers – is possible but never an easy thing to do by any means.

And so, if you remain adamant that the dresser is coming with you to the new home NO MATTER WHAT, then you’ll need to know the best way to move a dresser without movers.

Here’s how to move a dresser by yourself, step by step.

What to do before packing and moving a dresser

Before you decide to pack up and move your dresser all the way to the new home – either short distance with a local move or long distance with a cross-country move, you need to be sure that it’ll make sense to move your furniture piece in the first place.

1. Assess the necessity to move the dresser

Before you rush into following the detailed steps to packing and moving a dresser, you just have to ask yourself if moving that large bureau is the right thing to do under your specific set of circumstances.

In fact, there are a number of reasons why moving your dresser to the new home may prove to be a bad idea:

• it is too old, too worn out, or too damaged to be worth moving to another part of the country;
• it has zero sentimental value for you – it’s just a piece of furniture that will most likely cost you more to transport it than to purchase a new one after the move;
• it has never been practical enough to be worth the hassle of moving it all the way to the new place;
• it will not fit the layout or match the décor of the new home, either due to its big size, mismatching design, or inconsistent color. In other words, will the dresser fit into the new house or apartment?

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2. Prepare the proper packing materials

Once you make up your mind that you’re moving your dresser to the new home no matter what, you’ll need to start thinking about gathering the proper packing materials so that the furniture piece gets the best possible protection to survive the relocation journey ahead.

The thing is that there are potential risks for your dresser at every corner – while you’re taking it out of your bedroom, carrying it down the hall to the front door, then taking it out of home, loading it into the moving truck, and finally, securing it inside the moving vehicle itself.

Once the dresser is delivered to the new address, together with the rest of your furniture pieces, other household items, and boxes, all of these actions will need to be repeated in reverse order.

So, as you can see, you’ll need adequate packing supplies to protect the dresser during the house-moving process:

• furniture blankets
• plastic wrap (stretch wrap)
• bubble wrap
• cardboard,
• masking tape (painter’s tape), and
• packing tape.

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3. Get the right moving equipment

The best way to move a dresser by yourself is to use the right moving equipment to complete the heavy task quickly and safely. Safety, of course, should be your primary concern, so do the right thing and use the proper tools to avoid any bad injuries to your back, fingers, or toes.

Also, the use of adequate moving equipment will help you prevent costly damage to the property you’re moving out of or moving into. Most often, that property damage comes in the form of scratched floors and chipped walls.

There are two pieces of moving equipment that you must have when moving a heavy dresser on your own:

• Furniture sliders. Furniture sliders are pieces of durable plastic or rubber that, when placed underneath a heavy furniture piece, will enable you to slide that unit almost effortlessly across the room without any type of damage to the floor.
  You can get high-quality furniture sliders from a home improvement store or from a local moving company. Be careful before you purchase a set as there are two distinct types of sliders: sliders meant for hardwood floors and sliders meant for carpeted floors.
• Furniture dolly. A furniture dolly is a flat platform made of wood or steel that has 4 swivel wheels under its base. Its design does look rather simple but that moving dolly can handle loads up to a thousand pounds and makes moving large furniture easier than ever.
  You can purchase a furniture dolly from a home improvement store (it’s a useful tool to have at your disposal even after the move is over) or rent one from a local moving company.

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4. Secure reliable helpers

Even though you’ve made up your mind to move your dresser without using professional moving services, you shouldn’t try to complete the tough job all by yourself due to the high risks of injury or property damage.

Make sure you secure at least a couple of friends to help you out with the task of moving a dresser to a new house. Those helpers don’t need to be dedicated bodybuilders – after all, you’ll be using moving equipment as your ally as well.

Don’t take any risks – if you can’t find anybody to help you move the heavy bureau, then hire experienced furniture movers who know what it takes to move heavy furniture safely.

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How to pack a dresser for moving

The following steps will show you how to pack a dresser for moving. Don’t estimate these dresser packing steps because as you will see soon enough, that piece of bedroom furniture can be too heavy and cumbersome, which makes it really hard to maneuver through doors and hallways.

And that’s exactly why protecting the chest of drawers you’re moving will help you avoid accidents on the day of the move.

Step 1. Empty the dresser drawers

Before you can protect your dresser for the upcoming house move, you’re going to have to empty it in order to reduce its overall weight.

And once you make the standalone furniture piece lighter, then it’ll be easier and safer for you to wheel it out of your home.

Extra weight will not slow down professional movers but it will definitely make things more difficult for you because a loaded bureau is always heavier than an empty one.

Remove any clothes, towels, bed sheets, and blankets from the dresser drawers and pack them separately into large cardboard boxes. The only items you may choose to leave inside the drawers are lightweight pillows. Why? Pillows won’t affect the dresser’s weight by much but they will certainly take up plenty of space when packed into moving boxes.

Can you move a dresser with clothes in it? Yes, as long as you know that you’ll have at least two reliable helpers to give you a hand with that big and heavy bedroom furniture, then you may choose to leave the drawers full of clothing and other bedding items to save time and space in the moving boxes.

Step 2. Secure the dresser drawers

Since you’ll be keeping the drawers in the dresser, the second step is to keep drawers from falling out when moving, thus preventing potential property damage and avoiding possible personal injuries.

Make sure the dresser drawers do not accidentally open during transport. To secure the drawers when moving, you should use a few pieces of masking tape on each end to keep each drawer fastened to the main structure of the dresser. Also known as Painter’s tape, that’s a special type of tape that will not leave any sticky residue on delicate surfaces and, as a result, will not damage your furniture in any way. 

Another good way to keep the dresser drawers secure during the house move is to wrap a few layers of stretch wrap over those drawers and around the whole furniture item. Stretch wrap is ideal for that purpose because it won’t leave any marks on the furniture surface and it will keep the entire unit free from dust and moisture.

After all, you never know what’s going to happen when moving from one home to another.

Step 3. Remove everything from the dresser top

The next step when packing a dresser for moving is to remove and pack separately any miscellaneous items that happen to be on the top of the dresser – make-up, jewelry, perfume bottles, favorite family photos, vases, candles, decorations, books, toys, etc.

Also, if your dresser features a large mirror, that latter should also be taken down and protected for the move. See the next step for more details.

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Step 4. Remove and protect the mirror

In case the dresser you’re moving comes with a large mirror, you’re going to have to remove that extra-fragile reflective surface and pack it separately from the main body of the dressing table.

• USE a screwdriver to remove the screws that hold the mirror or the mirror frame in place. Do this slowly and cautiously, and have somebody help you with that delicate task.
• PLACE all screws, bolts, nuts, or other fastening elements in a Ziploc bag to keep them safe.
• PLACE a large sheet of cardboard over the fragile mirror surface for extra protection. Then, use small pieces of masking tape to secure the cardboard.
• WRAP the mirror completely in thick furniture blankets. If needed, add one final protective layer of bubble wrap.
• DO NOT BOTHER cleaning the mirror surface prior to packing it – you will have enough time to do it after the move when you’ve managed to reassemble the dresser.

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Step 5. Wrap up the dresser

The final step of packing a dresser for a move is to wrap it up in moving blankets so that its entire body gets protected. In most cases, you’ll need 3-4 thick moving blankets to get the job done. If you don’t have any of those specialized blankets, ordinary household blankets will do just fine.

Use ordinary packing tape to secure the blankets onto the furniture piece but be careful to use that tape only over the blankets and never directly onto the delicate surface of the dresser. Wrapping the tape 2 or 3 times around the dresser from top to bottom should be enough.

To avoid getting those protective covers dirty or even partially damaged during the move, wrap the entire dresser in shrink wrap – the final packing step that should keep your bedroom furniture piece perfectly protected from dust and even moisture.

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How to move a dresser without movers: Step-by-step instructions

Again, moving a heavy dresser by yourself is definitely NOT a good idea. If you’re not hiring movers to help you pack and move the heavy and bulky bureau out of your home and load it onto the moving truck, then you should find a few reliable friends to lend you a hand.

Here are the steps that will describe in detail how to move a dresser with a dolly:

Step 1. Map the way out

The very first step to moving a dresser without hiring professional movers is to plan the exact route from the spot where the furniture item is resting to the moving vehicle.

Check whether the way out of your home is clear of obstacles. If you suspect that the dresser may not be able to go through any of the doors, hallways, or tight spaces along that pre-set route, then do the necessary measurements to act accordingly and solve potential problems before they arise.

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Step 2. Slide the dresser across the room

Often, dressers are positioned right next to the wall – a spot from which it can be really tricky to handle the big and heavy furniture piece.

Therefore, a good way to solve that difficulty is to slide the dresser either a short distance off the wall or slide it across the room to the bedroom door.

To do that easily and damage-free, you have to use furniture sliders. With your helpers’ aid, lift slightly one side or one leg of the dresser and place a slider underneath it. Do this on all four sides of the bulky furniture piece and make sure you’re using the right type of furniture sliders to avoid floor damage.

As a rule of thumb, sliding disks made of felt or another soft material are meant to be used on hardwood floors, ceramic tiles, vinyl, laminate, and linoleum. On the other hand, sliders made of hard materials – plastic or hard rubber – are meant to be used on soft carpeted floors.

Once you position all four sliders underneath the heavy dresser, slide it slowly in the direction you want it to go.

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Step 3. Load the dresser onto the dolly

This step will explain how to move a dresser with a dolly. Of course, the loading phase will be the most dangerous one so you need to pay close attention to how it’s done.

Have a couple of helpers tilt the dresser slightly from one side while you slide the dolly underneath the large furniture. Do this slowly and make sure you use the proper lifting techniques to avoid injuries, predominantly back injuries. The good news is that once the dresser is empty, it shouldn’t be too difficult to tilt it just enough to slide the dolly underneath.

Position the dolly under the central area of the dresser and then tilt the bureau back slowly until it gets to rest completely on the low 4-wheel platform. Secure the heavy load onto the dolly using straps or rope.

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Step 4. Wheel the dresser out of the home

Have your helpers hold onto the loaded dresser as you’re wheeling it out of the home. Go very slowly, don’t do any abrupt movements, and be extra careful when navigating it around tight corners. Always think before you act.

Please note that a furniture dolly is not designed to go downstairs or upstairs, which basically means that you can only move your dresser by yourself if you’re moving out from the ground floor in a house or from an apartment building using an elevator that’s big enough to fit the load.

In case your route to the moving vehicle includes a number of stairs, then you should do the sensible thing of hiring professional movers to do it for you – it’s just too risky to be going up or down stairs with a big dresser strapped onto a furniture dolly.

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Step 5. Load the dresser onto the truck

Once you reach the moving vehicle, use the truck liftgate to get your dresser safely inside.

If the rental truck is equipped only with a standard loading ramp, then getting the furniture piece inside may prove to be too much for you because furniture dollies do not have a handle for pulling up loads as appliance dollies do.

When inside, strap securely the bedroom furniture to the side of the vehicle so that it won’t shift during transport.

Remember that moving a large and heavy dresser to a new home is a challenging task that involves a number of risks for the people involved in the process, the furniture item itself, the property you’re moving out of, and later the property you’re moving into.

If what you’ve just read seems too dangerous and too complicated for you, then just leave it all to experienced furniture movers.

Use our cost calculator to learn how much it will cost you to have professional movers pack and move your dresser.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)