How to Move a Sectional Sofa Easily and Efficiently, According to Pro Movers

I love our sectional sofa. It’s only two pieces, but each one is a decent size. One half is the chaise lounge (where I sit) and the other half is a two-seat couch with wide seats. That’s my boyfriend’s terrain. It’s nice because we can each have the type of furniture we want, while still having just one piece in the living room and the capability to sit next to each other.

When we bought the sectional, we envisioned it at home in our apartment. But we’re thinking about moving — which means getting the sofa safely from one home to another without damaging any of the components. It’s a little nerve wracking, but it doesn’t have to be. I spoke to two moving experts to get the lowdown on the best way to move a sectional sofa.

This includes the cushions. Take them off the couch, and disconnect the different pieces of the sectional. Tip the pieces onto their side and remove any legs as well. If you don’t take the sofa apart, it could be irreparably damaged in the move.

Your sectional is held together by connectors. On mine, it’s a plastic bit that can swivel around to tuck underneath one of the seats. But that’s not always the case.

“Some connectors will fold away once the pieces are disconnected while others can be unscrewed from the individual sections,” says Noah Duarte, training manager at Gentle Giant Moving Company. 

Other connections are flush against the side of the sofa pieces and don’t need much protection at all.

“It really depends upon how sections are connected,” says Piet Gauchat, president of Olympia Moving and Storage. “If the connection is particularly fragile, you could use bubble wrap or a piece of cardboard taped to the sectional to offer additional protection.”

If you want your sofa to stay pristine, shrinkwrap the whole thing. If you don’t, the fabric could get dirty or stained when the sectional is loaded into the truck. “The pieces of the sofa will often be loaded on their end and you don’t want the fabric coming into direct contact with the floor of the moving truck,” Gauchat says.

This gives your furniture extra protection from rips, stains, and general damage from moving.

You want to move your sectional with the least possibility of damage, and that means holding it in a certain way.

“Carry the sections of the sofa so that the front of the arms are facing the ground and the back of the sofa is facing the ceiling,” Duarte says. “This will aid in navigating doorways, stairs, and hallways.”

And that’s that! Just make sure that before you do any of this, you carefully measure the space your sectional is headed. You don’t want to end up with a bunch of pieces that won’t fit together in your living room.