Almost every family we work with is surprised by this, and almost always in the same direction. A suite that reads as "one bedroom" on a brochure holds far less furniture than a one-bedroom apartment, because the rooms are smaller, the layouts are fixed by plumbing and windows, and a good deal of the floor has to stay clear for someone to move around safely.
The good news is that it is entirely knowable in advance. What it requires is a tape measure and half an hour, done while the furniture is still in the old house rather than on a truck outside the new one.
Get These Six Measurements First
- The dimensions of each room, wall to wall
- The width of the suite's entrance door, with the door open
- The width of the narrowest point of the corridor outside the suite door
- The internal dimensions of the elevator, and its door width
- The width of every internal doorway in the suite
- The dimensions of the storage locker, if there is one
The Doorway, Not the Floor Space, Is Usually the Problem
This is the thing families most often miss. A suite may have room for a sofa and still have no way of getting one in, because the piece has to come out of an elevator, along a corridor, round a turn and through a door that opens inward and takes six inches off the opening.
A standard interior door is around thirty inches, and once the door leaf is accounted for the practical opening can be considerably less. Any piece with a fixed dimension larger than that has to be dismantled, taken in on its side, or left behind.
The corridor turn outside the unit door is the second hidden constraint. A long sofa can travel up an elevator perfectly well and then be unable to pivot into the doorway, which is not something anybody discovers on a floor plan.
The Pieces That Almost Never Work
- Full dining suites — the table often fits, the chairs and the clearance do not
- China cabinets, hutches and wall units — tall, deep, and there is rarely a wall for them
- King-size beds — the room is usually built around a double or a single
- Large sectionals — length, and the corridor turn
- Reclining sofas — they need clearance behind that a small room does not have
- Desks with a hutch, and anything with a separate top section
- Deep bookcases — the depth is what fails, not the height
- Freezers and second fridges — usually not permitted anyway
The Pieces That Usually Do
- One good armchair or recliner — often the single most important item
- A double or single bed, if the residence permits a personal bed at all
- A dresser or chest of drawers of ordinary depth
- One or two bedside tables
- A small round or drop-leaf table with two chairs
- A narrow bookcase or a small side unit
- A television on a small stand or wall-mounted, if permitted
- Framed photographs and pictures — take more of these, not fewer
Ask the Residence What It Provides and What It Forbids
This varies enormously and it changes the whole exercise. Many residences provide a bed and will not permit a personal one. Some provide a fridge, some do not permit an additional one. Most restrict what can be fixed to walls, and many require anything electrical to be in sound condition.
There are also frequently rules you would not guess: limits on the number of pieces, restrictions on candles, halogen lamps or space heaters, requirements about extension cords, and rules about what can be stored on a balcony.
Ask for all of it in writing before you plan the furniture. It takes one email and it prevents the worst version of moving day.
Leave More Floor Clear Than Feels Necessary
A suite is not a display. Someone has to move around it, possibly with a walker, possibly with a care worker, possibly at three in the morning without the lights on.
That means clear routes from the bed to the bathroom and from the chair to the door, no rugs to catch a foot, no furniture at the corner of a route, and enough space beside the bed to get in and out safely. It is worth sacrificing a piece of furniture for.
When in doubt, take less. Adding something later is easy; a room that is too full has to be un-filled by somebody.
The Storage Locker Will Not Save You
Nearly every family counts on the locker to absorb the difference, and nearly every locker is smaller than expected — sometimes the size of a small closet, sometimes in a basement at the end of a service corridor.
Measure it. Then work out honestly how many boxes it takes, and remember that anything in it has to be retrieved by somebody who may not find a basement corridor easy.
How to Do the Exercise
Take the room dimensions and mark them out on the floor of the old house with masking tape. Then put the furniture you are considering inside the tape and see what is left. It sounds crude and it is remarkably convincing — particularly for someone who is not persuaded by numbers on a page.
Then check every chosen piece against the narrowest opening on the route in. Anything that fails needs dismantling or replacing.
This is also the point at which the argument about the dining suite tends to resolve itself, because it stops being a matter of opinion.
Get the measurements, including the doorway and the corridor turn. Ask the residence what it provides and what it forbids. Take fewer, better things. Leave the floor clear. And do the tape-on-the-floor exercise before anything is packed.
If you would like us to work through it with you, send the suite's floor plan and photographs of the furniture. It is the most useful half hour in the whole move.