Whether you’re moving and need to ship furniture to your new home, or if you’re wanting to ship your refinished furniture to your customer, you’re probably not sure where to even start when it comes to how to ship furniture.
I started shipping furniture after a couple of years of painting furniture and selling it locally. I wanted to widen my customer pool and be able to raise my prices above what the locals were willing to spend on painted furniture.
Understandably, I was scared out of my mind. I had no idea how someone would even ship furniture across country. How do you get a quote when you don’t even know where it’s going? How to find companies that ship furniture? What is a cheap way to ship furniture? How to package furniture for shipping across the country??
I had so many questions! I’m sure you have some of these if you’re reading this.
After a few years of shipping furniture across country, I’m ready to dig into it and share how you can ship furniture too!
I’m sure that you want to be able to sell your furniture quickly and for more than you can get locally, right? Learning how to ship furniture will definitely be that key to success!
How to Ship Furniture
In today’s world, almost anything you can think of can be shipped. Amazon is shipping millions of packages with 2-day shipping. Most other companies have caught the shipping bug, and furniture is being shipped to homes across the country all the time.
We live in a world of shipping!
With that said, there are a ton of options when it comes to shipping furniture.
Different methods such as freight shipping, white glove delivery, pack and ship, ground mail, expedited shipping, independent shipping companies, etc are readily available.
Some of these methods are only cost-effective for small pieces of furniture while others are only cost-effective for large pieces of furniture.
The cost of shipping can also greatly depend on your location and the location of your customer. If your locations are close to each other and live on main highways, the cost can be very low! If you are far from each other and live in less-traveled areas, the cost goes up.
We’ve got real-life examples and experiences in this post if you’re wondering how much does it cost to ship furniture to another state.
Check out my post to learn how to offer free shipping and still make money here.
How to Ship Large Furniture
One of my very first questions was how to ship large furniture. How does that even work?? Is it hard??
No, it’s not hard.
But learning how to do it, and then doing it a couple of times is the key.
There are a couple of options when it comes to shipping large furniture and it’s not as hard as you may think.
My very favorite option is to ship large furniture with white glove delivery services.
White glove delivery companies come to your home, wrap your furniture up with moving blankets, load it onto their truck, drive to your customer’s home, and unload it inside of their home. They remove the wrapping and take it with them.
White glove shipping means that you don’t need to lift your finger, and your customer doesn’t need to lift a finger either. The shipping company does all the work for you!
Sounds expensive right??
It can be, BUT you can find companies that are willing to do it for a very reasonable amount of money.
How to Package Furniture for Shipping
If you ship with a white glove company, you don’t have to package your furniture! The shipping company will do it all for you, and remove the packaging when it gets to the customer. Easy!!
And if you want to ship through a company like UPS or Fed Ex, you will need to wrap and protect your furniture very well and then put it in a box.
UPS also has a quick little guide on how to package furniture when you ship with them.
They also have stores that will package for you, so you don’t need to worry about that headache, but you do pay a premium for it.
If you ship with a freight company, you will need to package the furniture very well and then attach it to a pallet.
You can get free pallets in your local community, so you don’t need to worry about the cost of the pallet. You can also attach two small pallets to make one long pallet, or you may be able to find free long pallets at a local store. Just be sure to ask the store before you take the pallets. Usually they are very happy to let you take them.
With independent companies, sometimes they want you to box it up, or sometimes they will offer blanket wrap shipping.
More information on how to package furniture for shipping is in this blog post.
How to Ship Furniture Guide / Video
In my How to Ship Furniture Guide, I share companies that I have personally worked with, and how to find more companies that offer white glove delivery.
I also show you how to package furniture in boxes, on a pallet, and how white glove delivery companies blanket wrap furniture.
This guide is an in-depth resource to walk you through shipping furniture – step by step. I dive deep into the do’s and don’ts, so you can easily ship furniture across the country.
You will be able to immediately get furniture shipping quotes and join many others who sell furniture on Etsy across the country.
If you’re still wondering if can you make money selling furniture on Etsy, read through this post to learn more.
I can’t wait to see the places you go once you start shipping furniture!
-Natalie
More Furniture Shipping Resources:
How to Ship Furniture Across the Country
Shipping furniture across country might seem a little bit intimating. But it doesn’t have to be! There are many options to choose from to get your furniture safely to it’s new home.
How to Ship Furniture on Etsy
Do you want to sell your furniture online, but you have no idea where to start? Here's how to ship furniture on Etsy, so you can sell furniture online!
