Shipping bedroom furniture can be costly, but is usually less expensive than buying a new bedroom set.
The cost of shipping a bed or bedroom furniture is between $400 to $4,500 for cross-country moves, while international shipping costs range from $500 to $1,000. Your total price will depend on the shipping distance, type and size of the bed, time of year, packing services, and more. Use this guide to help you prepare to ship your bedroom furniture so you can catch up on much-needed sleep after the move.
Type of Move | Low Cost | High Cost |
---|---|---|
Cross-Country | $500 | $1,000 |
International | $1,000 | $4,500 |
The cost of shipping your bedroom furniture varies widely from $500 to $4,500, depending on the distance it travels and its size. There are three standard questions every furniture shipper will ask to help you add up the shipping costs:
What is the pick-up address?
What is the delivery address, including international details?
What are the weight and dimensions of the bedroom set?
After the shippers calculate this information, they’ll probably discuss add-on options like disassembly and assembly services, specialized packing, and white-glove service. However, you can estimate the cost of shipping based on whether it’s heading to a domestic or international location.
The bigger and heavier your mattress, box spring, and bed frame, the more you’ll pay for cross-country and international shipping. Provide shipping pros with the exact dimensions and weight of your items, the shipping distance, and arrival date to get the most accurate estimate of shipping costs.
The cost to ship a mattress depends on how far it’s going, its dimensions, and how fast you need it to get to its destination. The best way to determine the cost to ship your mattress is to measure its dimensions, including weight, so you can reach out to several services and compare pricing and policies. If you’re unsure of your mattresses’ weight, check the manufacturer’s website.
The less your bed frame weighs, the more options and flexibility you have for shipping it. If you can disassemble the frame and put the various pieces in a single box, you’ll save on the cost of freight. In most cases, you can expect to pay anywhere from $0.70 to $2.50 per mile to ship your bed frame, depending on the speed of the service, how much it weighs, and how far it’s going.
A typical queen-size box spring weighs about 40 to 45 pounds, while a king-sized box spring weighs around 50 pounds. This price increases if you’re shipping a box spring overseas or on an expedited timeline, so reach out to different carriers to get accurate quotes based on your needs.
Item | Cross-country shipping cost | International shipping cost |
---|---|---|
Mattress | $160–$900 | $1,400–$2,800 |
Box spring | $100–$850 | $800–$2,000 |
Bed frame | $150–$1,000 | $1,000–$4,500 |
Most people ship their furniture overseas by sea-freight because it's more affordable than air-freight. The average price range for international shipping is about $1,000 to $4,500. Overseas shipping requires more hands-on details like customs paperwork and port-to-port transportation that can drive up the costs, so it helps to start the planning process as early as possible.
To calculate your international shipping costs, talk with your shipping company about fees for services like:
Pick-up and delivery
Air vs. sea freight
Taxes, fees, and duty payments
Customs documents
Insurance
Tracking details
Specialized packing materials
Shipping your bedroom furniture cross-country involves hiring a moving company, which costs between $500 and $1,000. When you're discussing rates with your shipper, keep in mind that professional moving companies define a cross-country move as more than 400 miles.
Check out these price ranges for an East Coast to West Coast delivery:
Item | Cost |
---|---|
Bookcase (medium size) | $475–$1,000 |
Dresser | $475–$1,000 |
Rug (medium size) | $475–$850 |
It’s standard to tip moving companies, so expect to pay at least 10% extra to your mover, and if they go above and beyond, you may even want to provide a gratuity of 20% or more. Tipping standards may vary with international shipping companies as some countries do not look favorably on tipping workers, so research your new home country before offering a tip to movers outside the U.S.
Some shipping companies might give you the option to pre-pack your bedroom furniture yourself, saving you money. If you choose to pack your furniture by yourself, you’ll need to budget for the cost of the following moving supplies:
Cardboard boxes
Packing tape
Packing paper
Bubble wrap
Moving blankets
Mattress and box spring moving boxes
Sheet of plastic (to roll up rugs) or area rug bags
If you ship your furniture during the peak moving season, you could pay more for a cross-country shipment and international shipping services. In the United States, the traditional moving season is during the summer months. International peak season hits in August, September, January, and February.
Moving furniture from one standard one-story home to another will typically cost less than a moving job that requires going up or down stairs or through other obstacles. Expect to pay more if it is difficult to access either your new or old bedroom.
If you choose the more affordable option of sea-freight shipping, your bedroom set will probably ride in multiple modes of transportation before it gets to you. The set will likely start in a crate to withstand the ocean waves, but it might need new packing once it hits land. Shippers will uncrate and rewrap or box your furniture to fit into smaller delivery trucks and protect it from damage.
Another option is to ship your bedroom set via an independent carrier that costs more but provides individualized service. Your bedroom set probably won’t mix with other customers’ furniture, have fewer transfers, and you’ll have access to direct customer service if you have questions about pick up and drop off.
For some bedroom furniture, like family heirlooms, you’ll have to pull out all of the stops to cut down on the chances of damage. A white-glove delivery service will take care of the essential details, such as point-to-point pick-up and delivery and customized packing materials. You can even pay for professional movers to unload your furniture and place it perfectly in your bedroom.
Many movers offer additional services aside from just moving items from one home to another. You may want to add-on cleaning, storage, or insurance, depending on your needs.
Bedroom cleaning services: $30–$80
Furniture disassembly and assembly: $40–$150 per piece
Storage: $120–$280
Renting a moving truck and moving your bedroom set yourself can often save you some cash, but it is a lot more work than hiring a moving company. Aside from the labor involved with packing and loading the moving truck, a cross country move can be exhausting, plus moving trucks are more difficult to drive than passenger vehicles and may be an alluring target for thieves.
If you’re only moving a smaller load, such as a bedroom set, the cost of the vehicle rental and gas is often more expensive than hiring a local moving company. It typically costs $1,000 to $3,500 to rent and drive a moving truck across the country, meaning moving a bedroom set is usually less expensive when done using a professional moving company.
Overseas moves should be performed with a moving company, as they can handle not only the loading and transportation of your furniture, but also the logistics of international customs, taxes, and fees.
Shipping furniture can be pricey, so it makes sense to save money anyway you can. A few ways you can cut the costs include:
Packaging the items yourself
Shipping smaller items as freight instead of hiring a moving company
Disassembling furniture to reduce shipping volume
Look for recycled moving supplies such as boxes, bubble wrap, and packing paper
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Whether it is worth it to ship your bedroom furniture depends on your priorities, but it can be hard to decide. You should ship your bedroom furniture if the pieces have sentimental or antique value and if it will make you happy to have them in your new home. But if your mattress or box spring is worn out (the average lifespan of a bed is seven to ten years), it's probably not worth the money or effort to ship if you’re moving somewhere where bedroom furniture is readily available.
To find a reliable furniture moving company, start with online searches for long-distance and international furniture companies. Looking online can help you find client reviews, testimonials, and customer service contract information to ask questions and discuss quotes. But don’t forget about tapping into your friends and family for sources of recommendations.
You should consider the time needed to clean and prepare your bedroom set for transit. A few days before moving, vacuum, dust, and clean your furniture with a mild cleaning solution. Depending on the movers and the services you pick, you might need to pre-pack the mattress and box spring in boxes designed for beds and disassemble some furniture by removing doors and hardware. Finally, don’t forget to take plenty of pictures documenting the pre-move condition in case you need to file a claim.