Antiques and Heirlooms: Your Guide to Moving Specialty Items

Moving is a time of new beginnings; you have a new home, a new address, new neighbors, and even in some cases, a new career. Your personal belongings, especially those that are important to you because of their history, are one of the only things that remain constant. Moving them with you can be a grounding experience and one of the ways to make a new place feel like home.

However, moving old furniture and heirlooms like grandfather clocks, old musical instruments, and other valuable antiques can present a challenge. You don't want these items to get damage that will impact their worth and their longevity.

Follow this guide for moving special heirloom items.

Get Insurance for Your Move

The first thing you want to do is make sure that your items are insured before you move them. Even though you will do everything in your power to make sure they reach your new home unharmed, accidents can happen.

You won't, of course, be able to use insurance payments to replace antique items that have special meaning to you, but you can use the money to get broken items restored by a specialist. Specialist work can be costly because of the niche market and high skill level required.

Hire Specialty Movers for Items that Require Additional Attention

Your regular mover should have the expertise to pack and move things like antique chairs and sofas without any damage. Some items, however, have more specialized needs.

Take, for instance, a grandfather clock. These tall clocks are often top-heavy. They have hanging chimes and weights that could swing with the motion of a truck. They also can have delicate carvings, glass cases with older, more brittle glass, and minute clock components that are at risk of breaking off or getting dented.

In these cases, you might hire a professional to disassemble (when possible) your clock components and have the clock shipped separately, or you could handle the disassembly yourself if you feel confident. Do not move a clock with the weights and chimes still hanging. In a move, the weights can fall off and burst, releasing hundreds of small lead pellets.

Other items that could require more special attention include heavy instruments like pianos, harps, and organs, or cabinets that have stained or antique glazed glass.

Prepare a Smaller Vehicle for Antiques

If you have a large moving truck filled with your normal belongings, you might decide to get a small, closed-in trailer to move delicate belongings. You can pull a rented trailer behind your own car and drive carefully with your sentimental cargo.

With a smaller trailer, you don't need to worry about packing in as much as you can in order to maximize truck space, which means you can give each item ample padding with moving blankets, foam pieces, and bubble wrap.

Having a separate moving trailer for antiques also helps on arrival. These items need to be moved cautiously, and should not be caught up in the hustle and bustle of unloading other boxes, tools, and kitchen supplies.

Utilize Moving Supplies

Moving supplies are an overlooked and under-appreciated asset for a move, but they are especially necessary for the protection of old, more fragile items. You don't want the finish of a two-hundred-year-old chair to be scratched by a neighboring box in the truck. You can prevent this by using moving blankets to wrap valuables.

Other moving supplies you should include in your move include plastic wrap to stabilize items that have moving pieces, a hand truck or furniture dolly to move even light antiques, and paper and plastic void fill products. Paper is sometimes better in humid areas to help protect old wood from the damage of humidity, especially if things need to be in storage for a few days before they are unloaded.

For more information, contact us at Superior Economy Moving. We can help you get started on planning your move.