Shipping your furniture overseas is a complicated process. It should be properly packed and carefully handled. If furniture is not packed properly, they could be damaged or broken when they arrive at the destination. Usually, people choose Less-than-container Load (LCL) shipping method for shipping furniture overseas. Your furniture will be inspected several times during the course. So crating would be ideal for LCL method.
How to pack your furniture for freight shipping?
- First, you should get some sturdy boxes and make sure it does not exceed the size and weight limits.
- Use wax to coat wood furniture before packing. This protects the furniture from getting damaged.
- If you are shipping furniture with multiple items, you should wrap them individually to protect each piece.
- Add 3 to 4 inches of bubble wrap to the length, width, and height of furniture. This will fill the gaps and restrict furniture from moving.
- If possible, disassemble your furniture to make it more compact. Remove the top part, legs, drawers and doors. This will lighten the load and mitigate the damage. If drawers cannot be removed, secure them with tape and wrappers.
- If legs and other moving parts cannot be removed, crating would be the safest way. But don’t forget to wrap each leg with foam or bubble wrap.
- Use Styrofoam sheets to wrap all sides, especially for desks, cabinets and dressers. Try to avoid the seams while wrapping or add additional sheets for seams.
- Secure the box with tapes and straps.
- Make sure you remove all the items inside the furniture while packing and put all the loose hardware into a zip lock bag.
Shipping and packing furniture is little trickier than you would think it is. Best solution, hire professionals to do the job. They have been trained to do all the packing and they will do a good job.
Video explaining how to pack furniture
Below you will find an explanation video. Here is a step-by-step explanation of how best to pack furniture before transporting it.