Measure before you buy! More than half of Americans have moved to a new home only to find out on MOVING DAY that their furniture doesn’t fit through the doors.
- A new survey by DrSofa.com found that 63 per cent of people in the US have tried to move in furniture but found it was too big for passageways
- Many have had to dissemble their furniture or send it back to the store altogether
- Only 35 per cent of respondents said they bother to measure furniture before buying
- Some people reported having to airlift furniture onto the roof, remove door hinges, and lift sofas through windows with cranes
Most Americans don’t think to measure their furniture before moving into a new home – which ends up with some seriously stressful consequences on moving day.
According to a new survey of 1,000 people by DrSofa.com, more than half of Americans misjudge how big their stuff is – and how small the passageways in their new places are – when moving into a new house or apartment.
A whopping 63 per cent admitted that on moving day they’ve learned that some of their furniture doesn’t fit up the stairs, into the elevator, down the hall, or through the doorway.
Uh oh! Nearly two-thirds of Americans admit they’ve found out on moving day that their furniture doesn’t fit through the entrances of their new home.
Sixty-two percent of respondents said they’ve had to disassemble furniture just to get it to fit inside their homes, while 33 per cent didn’t have that option – or just gave up, sending new furniture back to the store because it was too big. As if there aren’t other things to worry about, an overwhelming number of Americans – 72 per cent -say ill-fitting furniture leaves them frustrated. And 44 per cent say it’s that kind of nightmare scenario that leaves them stressed and upset. ‘I bought a couch from Lazy Boy and when we got it home it would not even go in the door of the house. My husband kept telling me it would not fit, but I really wanted it. So we took it back,’ complained one woman. However, despite citing it as a source of stress, few seem to take steps to prevent it from becoming a problem. When it comes to furniture, 32 percent confess appearance is much more important than size, and one in three considers the size of furniture only ‘slightly important’.
What matters, according more than half -57 per cent -is that their furniture is comfortable. Only 35 per cent say they always measure furniture in the store or pay attention to measurements.
Planning ahead: Only a third say they’ve actually bothered to measure furniture before moving in.
‘People often want to feel comfortable in their living rooms and host a lot of people. So they immediately gravitate towards big coaches and large showpieces,’ said Shlomi Gal-On, CEO of Dr. Sofa. ‘Most people never give any thought to the size of the furniture, or the hallway, elevator, and doorway they need to get it through.’ Respondents shared stories of having to airlift furniture to the roof, remove door hinges, lower sofas through windows with cranes, and create pulley systems to hoist furniture up to patio balconies. Some even copped to breaking furniture apart and gluing it back together in a desperate bid to make it fit. ‘Our bed was too big to go up the stairs and we had to take out the frame of a window on the second floor to fit through. When we moved out, we left the bed,’ said another person.
One more added: ‘I put together a very large, heavy desk at my mother’s old house. When we got to her new house, we discovered there was no way we were going to fit it in at any of her entrances. We had to break the top part off, break the dowels and then glue it back together once we got it into the room.’
PIVOT! Many have found themselves in a situation similar to the one Ross endured on an episode of Friends, when he tried to move a new sofa in himself – and found he couldn’t get it up the stairs
Mishap: The humorous scene sees Ross enlisting Chandler and Rachel to help him, though Chandler gets quite annoyed when Ross repeatedly shouts that he should ‘pivot’ . During any given week, the Bronx-based Dr. Sofa receives hundreds of calls from its massive database of customers. ‘They want the sofa. They don’t care [how big it is]. They’re just going to hope for the best,’ Gal-on said. Gal-on and his teams specialize in taking apart furniture, mostly sofas, and reassembling it piece by piece once it’s inside. It usually takes his teams about two hours from start to finish. ‘We make the sofa as small as we need it to fit,’ said Gal-On, adding that his teams carefully disassemble arms and backs, removing upholstery and cushioning. ‘I love challenges. I love situations that encourage me to discover more.’