Should you dismantle a wardrobe before moving it?
The short answer is almost certainly yes, and the maths makes it obvious. Most double wardrobes are somewhere around 180 to 200cm wide. A standard UK doorframe gives you about 76cm to work with. You don’t need to be particularly good at spatial reasoning to see the problem. Even if the ground floor is workable, you’ve still got the stairwell to deal with at the other end — and I’ve yet to see a terraced or semi-detached landing with enough turning radius to carry a full wardrobe around the corner. Dismantling a flat-pack takes 20 to 40 minutes. That’s a reasonable trade.
Man with a Van Booking – The Van Man Co.
- Studio flat / few items: 30-60 mins
- 1-bed flat: 60-90 mins
- 2-bed house: 90-120 mins
- Add 15-30 mins per floor for stairs
If additional time is needed, it's charged at the hourly rate.
Estimate
Compare van sizes
How your booking & deposit works
Your video's too large to upload here
Videos up to 50 MB can go through the form. Anything bigger needs to come over WhatsApp — we'll attach it to your enquiry.
Tap Open WhatsApp below to send your video to us now, then come back and tap Continue to send your enquiry. Your details and photos go through either way.
There is one situation where you might get away without bothering: a small narrow single wardrobe, ground floor, short clear route to the van. If that describes yours, still walk the whole route and measure the tight spots. Don’t assume. Doorframes are rarely as wide as they look.
If you’re using man with a van, they’ll sort out the assessment when they arrive. If it’s just you, the measuring is your job.
What you’ll actually need
Probably less than you think. Cross-head screwdriver, flat-head, Allen keys. That covers most flat-pack wardrobes including IKEA PAX and most high-street ranges. A cordless drill helps a lot once you get into cam-lock territory — undoing those by hand on a 3-door wardrobe gets old quickly.
Don’t underestimate the zip-lock bag situation. One container for everything sounds fine until screws from three different fittings are mixed together and you’re trying to reassemble something at 9pm. One bag per section, labelled with masking tape, taped to the panel it belongs to. That’s the system. It works.
Taking the thing apart
Empty it completely first. Sounds obvious but shelves and hanging rails left inside panels during a move are almost always what gets damaged. Out of the wardrobe, packed separately, before you touch any fixings.
Doors come off before anything structural. Hinged ones usually lift straight up off the pin. Sliding doors you push up into the top channel first, which gives you enough clearance at the bottom to pull them free. Leave the handles on — unscrewing them separately just adds more loose parts to keep track of.
From there, work top to bottom. The top panel first, whether it’s cam locks or cross-head screws. Then the back — usually thin MDF, pinned or stapled. If it’s at all flexible, take it fully off rather than leaving it half-attached. Back panels left loosely connected to the sides tend to crack at the fixings somewhere on the motorway. Side panels last, unbolted from the base. Older or non-standard wardrobes can be a bit different, but that sequence holds for most things you’d pick up from a furniture retailer. If you’re dealing with something more unusual, furniture disassembly done by someone who’s seen it before is worth considering.
Before any panel gets moved out of the room, label it. Left side, right side, top, back, base — one strip of masking tape on each. Takes a minute. Saves a lot of guesswork at the other end. Hardware all goes in one labelled zip-lock bag, taped to the base panel.
Van size
Dismantled wardrobe panels are long and flat — typically in the 180 to 220cm range. A medium van handles one wardrobe alongside a reasonable load of boxes. A full bedroom’s worth of furniture is large van territory for most one-bed flats. Anything bigger than that and you’re probably looking at a Luton. For house and apartment moving where the wardrobe is just one part of a bigger load, the total volume across everything is what determines the van, not any single item.
Protecting the panels
Edges and corners are where wardrobes get damaged in transit. Panels shift around more than you expect, especially on longer journeys. Bubble wrap the edges first, tape it down, then wrap the whole panel in a moving blanket or an old duvet. Stack them face-to-face with a blanket layer between each pair. Keep heavy items off the top of the stack — they go beside it, not across it.
Mirrored doors need their own treatment. Wrap each one in bubble wrap on its own, load them upright against the van wall. Flat is not a good idea with mirrors.
In the van
Panels go in first and sit flat along one side. They become a natural divider that boxes can lean against without sliding around. Heavier solid pieces — drawer units, bases, anything chunky — go low and toward the cab end. Ratchet straps matter here. Panels that look stable when the van is parked will shift on the first roundabout without something holding them. Take the hanging rail out and wrap it separately as well, otherwise it scratches the finish panels on every bump.
Putting it back together
The thing most people get wrong: they assemble the wardrobe in the middle of the room and then try to shuffle it into position. You can’t do this once it’s built. Get the base into its exact final spot first, then build up from there.
Both side panels go on before the top. If you have a back panel that needs to slot into channels on the sides, that goes in before the top is fitted — you genuinely can’t get it in after. Top panel last, then tighten everything up fully before touching the doors.
Check the frame is square before hanging anything. A frame that’s slightly off will make the doors bind or leave gaps, and its not obvious whether the problem is the frame or the door fittings. Measure the diagonals or run a level across it. If the measurements match, hang the doors. If they don’t, adjust the base first.
What if it can’t come apart?
Some wardrobes — solid wood pieces, older armoires, anything genuinely antique — weren’t built to be disassembled and will be damaged if you try. For those, you need a large or Luton van and two people who know what they’re doing with a big single piece. Taking the doors off the hinges first is still worth it; it reduces the footprint and makes doorframes less of a problem.
If the piece has any real value, it’s worth paying a joiner to disassemble it properly before the move. The cost is usually modest and the alternative — a cracked carcass or a split joint — isn’t worth saving the money on.
Fitted wardrobes that are built into an alcove or constructed as part of the room are a different matter. They generally don’t move. The carcass stays. If you’re leaving one behind, figure out what you’ll need at the new address before the move, not after you’ve arrived and realised there’s nowhere to hang anything.
