When DIY moving furniture like a dining room suite or bedroom suite great care must always be taken since these sets of matching pieces are usually some of your most costly furnishings. Most times, individual pieces to these sets are impossible to replace and they can be very expensive to fix. Therefore, every piece needs to be properly prepared and carefully handled during DIY furniture moving. You especially want your long dresser or your buffet moving done without damage. The buffet or a long dresser are some of the key pieces of these sets for which damage free moving is especially desirable.

Knowledge about just how-to-move a buffet or a long dresser is very important in order to to avoid damages. Good long dresser or buffet moving methods start with proper preparation and full padding. Once the buffet is snugly blanket wrapped we can then show you the best ways of moving a buffet.

Padding and Moving Buffets

Buffets and long dressers are similar in that they can have regular pull-out drawers
and they can also have drawers hidden behind middle doors.
Be sure that these and all other drawers are empty before you pad a buffet or a long dresser.

If the hidden drawers are loose fitting, then shim them well with folded cardboard
so that they don't bounce around while the piece is being moved.

Don't tape the doors shut because you don't want to get hard to remove tape residue
on the finish of the buffet.

When fully padding a buffet or long dresser snugly, the tightened pads
will hold the drawers and doors shut automatically.

So begin your DIY buffet moving by first draping two pads over the buffet
with its front covered past the ground and its back short-covered
just as shown in the 2 pictures below.

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Front --------------------------------------------------- Back

Then seal the 2 pads in place all around the buffet with a couple of strips of tape.

Next, square off each side neatly and tape it all around as shown in the 3 pictures below.

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Then do a lot of tight taping of the top side edges under its lip
so that the pads won't slip when they are gripped during moving.

Also tape around the entire buffet (top to bottom as shown in the picture below)
a few times to further fully secure the pads.

Be sure to crimp the tape crossing the open back area (as shown in the picture below)
so that it can't stick to the wood, leaving unsightly tape residue.

Now, one man bucks (he puts his foot up against the piece's base so that it won't slide
as the other side is being lifted) and holds the buffet on one side
while the other man lifts his end as shown in the 2 pictures below.

How to Move Buffets

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Notice that the mover is just using his legs when he's lifting the end of a buffet / long dresser
while he's keeping his back straight. This is how to move a buffet starting with proper lifting technique.

Once the lift is started, he soon pauses and braces the piece on his leg
in order to get another grip so that he can finish lifting it.

In the picture below, the man on the right is lifting his end all the way up to its balance point
while the man on the left keeps bucking and helps with the lifting.

Next, with the long dresser / buffet in balance and nearly weightless,
the pads are easily taped around each leg for protection.

The men reverse the process with the left man doing the same to the buffet legs on his side.

Next, the piece is lifted up on its side on top of a dolly.

Notice that the dolly is placed flat against the down side of the buffet (not flat on the floor)
before the buffet is tipped up onto it. This way the dolly won't slide out
as the final tipping up occurs, but instead it will nicely pop right up onto the dolly.

Finally, the center is taped and the tape is crimped around the buffet's
unpadded underside as shown in the two pictures below.

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Now it is well protected and can be dollied (or carried) up onto a truck. Next, you will need to learn
how to move a buffet onto the truck and then into your new residence. When you subscribe
we will give you a lot of good buffet moving instruction showing you dollying, lifting and carrying techniques.

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How-to-Move Buffets