How to Ship Furniture Out of State

Planning a move out of state can be daunting, whether you're moving for work, family, or other reasons. Our Complete Guide to Moving Out of State answers all your biggest questions about moving out of state, from creating to-do lists, planning, and budgeting for your move to downsizing, packing your belongings, and settling into your new home.

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There’s a lot to consider when you’re planning an out of state move—where you will live, how much the move will cost, downsizing, and how you will transport your belongings long distance, just to name a few.

While there are cost-effective methods of moving furniture to another state, it is not always worth the expense if you are looking at moving heavy, easily-replaced items like an old couch. In these instances, it might be better to donate or sell your current furniture and replace it when you reach your new hometown. However, for expensive items, heirlooms, antiques, or sentimental pieces, shipping may be worth the expense.

Deciding when and how to ship furniture to another state can be especially daunting when you’re in the midst of planning a long distance move. In this section of the Complete Guide to Moving Out of State, we’ll unpack how to move furniture to another state, including:

1. Selecting your shipping method, including approximate shipping costs
2. Preparing your furniture for shipping
3. Clearly labelling your furniture with its destination
4. Arranging for pickup or drop off your furniture
5. Preparing for delivery

Let’s get started.

1. Selecting a Shipping Method

There are several different methods available for shipping furniture out of state. Hiring movers, consolidated freight, and parcel shipping are the most popular and easiest methods. Let’s take a closer look at these options.

i. Hiring professional movers

Hiring a moving team involves researching long distance moving companies, getting quotes, and selecting the company that best fits your unique situation. Once you have selected your team and arranged a pick-up date, a moving team will pick up your furniture, as well as any other boxes you may be transporting. They’ll hit the road to your new home, then unload your belongings upon delivery.

If you hire professional movers to move furniture to another state, your movers may prep your furniture for you before loading it onto the truck, or—depending on the service level you select—you may need to pack the furniture yourself before pickup. Some packing services may cost extra, but may be worth the expense if you’re moving on a fast timeline or your employer is covering your moving costs.

Hiring professional movers is often costly, but it’s also one of the most convenient ways to move furniture to another state. Here’s a rough idea of how much you can expect to pay when hiring long distance movers:

Source: Moving.com Moving Cost Calculator. Approximate cost based on the average weight of a full move (including furniture and boxes) for that size home. Estimates do not include the cost of packing services.

ii. Consolidated freight

Consolidated freight services like TSI’s White Glove Shipping are a convenient way to ship valuable, antique, or sentimental furniture. Costs for these services are often too high to justify shipping old furniture like your college leftovers or old family hand-me-downs. 

With TSI’s White Glove Shipping, a moving crew will come to your home and pack up your furniture, then load it onto the truck and deliver it to your new home. Your furniture will share space on the truck with other shipments heading in the same direction. You only pay for the space your items take up on the truck, which can help reduce your shipping costs. 

While Glove shipping often takes longer than other methods (15-20 days from the date of pickup) because of the consolidated nature of transport. Unlike a full house move where your items will fill a whole truck, your carrier will also be transporting other shipments to multiple locations and your shipment may transfer trucks more than once on their journey. If your timing is flexible and you don’t need a whole truck’s worth of space, consolidated shipping is the most cost-effective way to go.

Here’s a rough idea how much you can expect to pay when using consolidated white glove shipping to move furniture out of state:

Learn more about how to ship popular difficult-to-transport items:

• How to ship a mattress
• How to ship antique furniture
• How to ship a dining room set
• How to ship paintings 
• How to ship sculpture
• How to ship a grandfather clock

iii. Parcel shipping

Parcel shippers like FedEx and UPS can transport small, boxed furniture items, but they may not be able to transport bulkier items like couches, tables, or cabinets. If you have a few smaller items like end tables or ottomans that can be securely packaged into a box, parcel shipping may be a fast and cost-effective shipping option. 

When shipping small furniture items to another state using a parcel shipper, you will pack the furniture yourself into boxes, then take the packed boxes to your chosen parcel shipment provider. They will deliver the packed furniture based on the delivery speed you select from their service offerings. While this method is often one of the fastest and most reliable, it can quickly become expensive if you are shipping large items, heavy items, or multiple pieces.

Here’s how much you can expect to pay if you’re able to pack your furniture box for parcel shipping:

2. Preparing Your Furniture for Shipping

To ensure it arrives safely, furniture requires some preparation before you can ship it. Generally, you will follow these steps when preparing furniture to ship out of state:

1. Disassemble it as much as possible
2. Bag up any screws or nuts and bolts or other joining components, clearly label them, and affix them to a large piece of the furniture
3. Protect delicate pieces such as glass, mirrors, intricate woodwork, or decorative inlays with hard cardboard
4. Wrap protruding pieces, such as table or chair legs, in bubble wrap or moving blankets where appropriate
5. Box or crate your furniture if necessary, such as if they are expensive, delicate, or antique pieces. 

3. Clearly Labelling Your Furniture With its Destination

Nothing ensures your furniture is going to end up where it’s supposed to better than clearly labelling its destination directly on the box or packaging materials. 

For hired movers and consolidated freight, label each item with the furniture’s destination, its contents, whether those contents are fragile, and which room it should be unloaded into. Most of this information is included in the Bill of Lading or other important paperwork required by shippers, but you are often required to label each box with it as well.  

For parcel shipments, write the furniture’s destination, its return address, and any other information required by the parcel shipper. This can include package contents and estimated value.

For more tips on how to label your moving boxes, check out 3 Important Moving Labels to Add to Your Boxes.

4. Arranging for the Pickup and Delivery of Your Furniture

How pickup and delivery pans out will depend on which method you have selected for shipping furniture out of state. 

For parcel delivery, you will drop off the item(s) at the parcel shipper you have selected, or arrange for them to come pick them up. You may get a tracking number and/or estimated delivery date depending on the level of service you opt for. For delivery, plan to have someone home to receive the furniture on its estimated day of arrival.

For consolidated freight and professional movers, your pickup and delivery dates will have been arranged during the booking process or soon after. They may be firm dates or estimates, depending on your shipping provider. You may need to call or email to confirm these dates before moving day, as well as carry the furniture into the agreed pick-up location. Unboxed furniture almost always will include inside pickup and delivery, but for boxed items, pickup can be inside or from the porch, driveway, or curb of your home.

5. Preparing for Delivery

To ensure a smooth delivery process, make sure that someone is home to receive the shipment when it is delivered so they can sign for the furniture, check its condition, and, depending on your method of shipment, arrange for it to be unloaded into its new home. In the winter, this can include putting down plastic or cardboard sheets to protect floors. If you selected insurance for the item(s), check the condition of the packaging before signing for delivery so you can note any issues on the paperwork.

Frequently Asked Questions