Movehack: How to Perfectly Wrap an Office Chair in Under 3 Minutes
Posted in: I'm Moving, How To Pack, Pro Packing GuidesWhen you move, protecting your furniture is a huge part of the deal. And for most people who move, we’ve noticed the hardest piece of furniture to truly protect is none other than the common chair.
It seems like that can’t possibly be true given how much stuff you’ll be moving, but if you’ve ever tried to protect a chair in a blanket, then you know how difficult it can be… the legs stick out, the blanket starts to slip, and no amount of tape seems to help.
But we’re going to show you right here and now how easy it can be!
This is all you’ll need:
- Moving pads
- A bit of tape
- The following four steps
We’ll give you three minutes per chair, because that’s about all it takes once you get good at it. I took some quick snapshots to give you a better visual, which I’ve posted below.
STEP 1:
Lay your chair on its back
Keep it off-center, cheating toward the corner nearest the top of the chair. You’ll need a little extra to cover the chair’s legs.
STEP 2:
Start wrapping from the sides, fold the top corner over
Make sure the pad completely covers your chair’s front legs. If it doesn’t, slide your chair closer toward the top corner. (Or go get a bigger pad.)
If the corner of your pad doesn’t reach the seat of your chair with room to spare you’ll want to tape the pad in place around the seat back. (Or… still go look one more time for a bigger pad.)
Protip: Make sure any tape you use stays strictly on the pad – the tape’s sticky adhesive will mar the wood of your chair!
STEP 3:
Pull the bottom corner up between the chair’s legs
That little piece of pad you see sticking out is what you’ll be pulling up. Make sure the pad stays wrapped around the chair’s rear legs. If need be, wrap tape around the bottoms of those legs to keep the pad in place over them.
STEP 4:
Tape the pad in place around the chair’s front legs and put a piece of tape across and under the seat
You won’t need to use much tape as long as the pad is firmly in place.
Don’t skimp, tape all the way around so the tape can stick to itself. Because tape doesn’t stick to furniture pads too well.
And that’s it! A piece of cake as long as your pad (or blanket) is big enough to cover the chair. If not, you might try overlapping two blankets or pads and start again.
REMEMBER: The key to wrapping a chair (or any other item) properly is having a big enough pad. From there the rest is as easy as 1-2-3-4.