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Published on 20/09/2023 & Updated on 26/07/2025.

Ensuring that you protect furniture that’s going into long or short-term storage is crucial to ensure your furniture retains its quality and value, particularly if those items are delicate or antique. 

Over time, items might sustain scratches, warping, dust accumulation, or even moisture damage if proper precautions are not taken.

By following the appropriate procedures for cleaning, preparing, and storing your furniture, you can ensure that your possessions are protected and will remain in their initial condition.

Can I Protect My Furniture for Storage in the Same Way as for Removals?

The good news is that the advice for protecting furniture in storage is similar to the advice for protecting furniture for moving house. The techniques below can be applied to both storage and house removals. During both processes, protecting your furniture is incredibly important.

7 Steps For Protecting Furniture in Storage

You can ensure complete protection for your furniture in storage by following these 7 steps:

1. Clean and dust furniture

2. Disassemble furniture if possible

3. Avoid contact between items

4. Protect glass & fragile items

5. Choose a climate-controlled unit

6. Label and organise items

7. Add insurance

1. Clean and Dust Furniture

While dust, dirt, and grime don’t cause damage to your furniture in the house, which gets regularly used and cleaned throughout the weeks and months, it’s a completely different scenario in storage.

Remember, these items may go untouched for months, perhaps even years. We’ve found it common for storage clients to extend the length of their storage when unexpected life events inevitably occur.

For this reason, before storing furniture, ensure you dust and clean the furniture thoroughly. Using a multi-surface cleaner will do the trick and will prevent any dirt or grime from building up whilst in storage, which could cause damage over time.

A simple multi-purpose cleaner will do the trick.

2. Disassemble Furniture if Possible

We often recommend that the most easily disassembled pieces of furniture be disassembled prior to storage; this will simply save you time, space and money during the storage process. It can also make these pieces of furniture easier to clean if completed prior to step one.

What Can Be Easily Disassembled?

The easiest items to disable that take up the most space tend to be:

• Tables
• Bed frames
• Bookshelves
• Desks

By doing so, you’ll be making these items easier to transport and reducing the chance of damage during moving and storage.

3. Avoid Contact Between Items

‘Avoiding contact’ applies to avoiding contact between pieces of furniture and between the furniture and the vehicle that is transporting the items to storage. The easiest way to do so is to use transport blankets, or for longer journeys, we’d recommend corrugated cardboard to cover the pieces of furniture whilst being transported.

An experienced removals team could make all the difference during this step, and these teams will often be insured even if the worst were to happen. If you’d like support in wrapping, storing and transporting your furniture, enquire about our removal and storage services.

A professional and reliable removals team will have the experience and knowledge to move fragile and valuable items.

4. Protect Glass & Fragile Items

It’s glass items where the most care and protection must be applied. One knock or bump can lead to a smash, or potentially could lead to cracks that develop into breaks later down the line.

Wrap all glass items in bubble wrap, of which there are sustainable, biodegradable options available for the eco-conscious among you. If these items are then being transported in boxes, ensure those boxes are clearly labelled and use fragile tape.

5. Choose a Climate-Controlled Unit

Now there’s no need to become an expert in room temperatures and storage conditions. Simply by choosing to store your furniture with a well-reviewed and trusted storage provider, you will be able to ensure your items come out looking as good as they went in.

However, checking that a storage facility is heated and climate-controlled is often overlooked, with old shipping containers often selected over specially designed storage units. The result can end in temperature fluctuations leading to wood damage, fabric damage, and other materials becoming worn or stretched over time.

Will a Climate-Controlled Storage Option Cost More?

More often than not, a climate-controlled storage option may well cost 25-40% more than a cheap option; however, saving on the potential damage and ageing of your furniture makes the climate-controlled option a far more cost-effective option in the long term.

For total peace of mind, choosing more than just a shipping container could make all the difference.

6. Label and Organise Items

To speed up the process of removals and to ensure fragile items are protected, label and organise each box with a description of its contents and the room of origin. 

We highly recommend using sticky labels that contrast with the colour of the box rather than writing directly on the box, as this will increase the chance these descriptions are read and understood by your family and your removals team if you choose to hire one.

There is every chance you will need to use your storage facility for longer than planned, so you will thank yourself when unpacking, as there’s no struggling to remember what goes where.

7. Add Insurance

Now this is only necessary if your items are particularly valuable and if the storage facility doesn’t have insurance itself, which it absolutely should. This insurance will give you peace of mind and reassurance that even if the worst happens, when you move into your new home, you will always have furniture to move in with.

In the unlikely event that your storage provider doesn’t offer insurance, then it’s also worth checking your homeowners insurance in case it covers stored belongings.

How Can We Help

We hope that this guide has supported you in understanding how to protect your furniture in storage and allowed you to feel more confident in packing up your belongings during your move.

Our goal at Falconer Removals is to make relocating less stressful. With decades of experience and a trusted team, you can rely on us to safely transport your belongings to your new home. Enquire about our removal and storage services today!

For more advice on moving house, removals and storage, visit our removals blog. Alternatively, you can find out more about Falconer Removals’ heated and purpose-built storage facility.

Written by Aled Nelmes.