Ask the seller these five things before you commit
Message the seller before you agree to anything and ask, in this order:
What are the exact dimensions — width, depth and height? Listings routinely describe a full sectional as a "couch".
What floor is it on, and are there stairs or an elevator? A ground-floor pickup and a third-floor walk-up are different jobs at different prices.
Where exactly can a vehicle park, and for how long? "Out front" means different things on a Capitol Hill block and a Fairfax driveway.
Is it already disassembled, or does it need to be? Bed frames and large tables usually have to come apart, and you want to know who is doing that.
What is the honest condition, and can you send a photo with a person or a doorway in frame for scale? Photographs of furniture are taken to flatter it.
Measure your own doorways before you buy
Measure the narrowest doorway on the route, the tightest turn on the stairs, and if you have an elevator, its opening width and interior depth. Write the numbers down in your phone, because you will want them again.
For a sofa, the number that decides everything is diagonal depth: measure from the top back corner to the front bottom corner. If that measurement is less than your narrowest doorway width, it will almost certainly go through on its side. If it is not, no amount of enthusiasm will change that.
Decide honestly whether you can do it yourself
You can move it yourself if it is genuinely light, fits in or on your vehicle, and neither end involves stairs. A dining chair, a nightstand, a small bookcase — take the car.
Get help if it is upholstered and full-size, if it is solid wood, if either end has stairs, if it needs to be strapped to a roof, or if the plan involves a friend with a bad back and a pickup truck. Sofas, dressers, dining tables, wardrobes and appliances are where people hurt themselves or damage a stairwell. Two trained people with a dolly and straps will do in twenty minutes what two friends will do in ninety, badly.
Protect it before it moves, not after
Wrap before you carry, always. Upholstery gets stretch wrap; wood gets blankets first, then wrap. Take the legs off anything that has removable legs — it is the difference between fitting through a door and not — and bag the hardware taped to the underside of the piece.
Drawers come out and travel separately unless the piece is wrapped tightly enough to hold them shut. Mirrors and glass tops travel flat, padded and on edge, never lying loose in a load. Nothing rides unsecured: a dresser that shifts on I-395 will damage itself and everything near it.
Check for the things people bring home by accident
Inspect upholstered furniture in daylight before it goes in your vehicle. Look along the seams and in the folds of the fabric, and check the joints of any wooden bed frame, for insects or eggs. This is the one genuine risk of secondhand upholstered furniture and it is far easier to walk away at the seller’s door than to deal with afterwards.
Also check for smoke or pet odour, which fabric holds tenaciously, and for structural cracks in frames and legs. If something is wrong, you are allowed to leave without it.
What hiring it out actually costs
Our single-item and furniture delivery starts at $149 — we collect from the seller, wrap it, bring it to you and put it in the room you want. The price moves with distance, stairs at either end, item weight, parking and whether it needs assembly.
Compare that against a truck rental for a couple of hours plus fuel plus your afternoon plus the risk of scratching a stairwell you are responsible for. For one large item, delivery help is often the cheaper option once you count everything; for three or four items in one trip, it usually is.
One firm rule wherever you get help: settle payment with the seller yourself before the crew arrives. We collect the item, not the transaction.