Moving to a Bigger House: How to Plan an Upsizing Move

An upsizing move is a move into a larger home, and it is planned differently from a downsizing move. You are not deciding what to let go of. You are deciding how a bigger house gets furnished: which pieces come from where, what is still being made, and what has to be in place for the first night there.

Most advice for people past retirement age assumes the next home is smaller. A real share of the clients we move in Florida are going the other way, and that move needs its own plan. Our upsizing services are built for it.

Why people move into a bigger house

Family stays longer. When the guest rooms are real rooms, visits tend to run longer than a weekend, and the grandchildren come more often.

A collection outgrows the house. Art needs wall space and wine needs a cellar. Collections keep growing after a house runs out of room for them, and a larger home is often how that gets solved.

Two homes become one. Plenty of our clients split the year between Florida and New England. When they sell one house and keep a single larger primary home, the contents of both places have to end up in one.

Why it is harder to plan than it looks

Most moves go from one address to another. An upsizing move often pulls from several: the old house, a second home, a storage unit, and whatever the designer has on order. Those pieces arrive on different dates, and the closing date does not wait for any of them. Custom furniture often takes months to arrive.

Room size is the other problem. A great room twice the size of the old living room can't be furnished from the old living room. Move the old furniture straight in and the space looks empty, and the usual response is a second round of buying. It is better to decide placement before anything is loaded.

How to sequence an upsizing move

1. Inventory every location. Include the second home and any storage unit. Photograph each room, and sort every piece into keep, replace, or sell and donate.
2. Measure the new rooms and make a floor plan. Do this before packing, not after. If you work with a designer, ask for their furniture plan and the expected delivery date of everything on order.
3. Bring the pieces together in one place. Furniture and art from Naples, New Hampshire and anywhere else are consolidated in a climate-controlled warehouse, inventoried once and checked for condition. We have 44,000 square feet in Naples and 20,000 in Barrington, New Hampshire.
4. Hold what the house isn't ready for. Floors get refinished and paint takes longer than planned. Anything fragile or sensitive to humidity, such as art, wine, antiques and upholstered pieces, should wait in controlled storage, not in a garage or a unit.
5. Deliver in order and set the rooms. The primary suite and kitchen come first, then the rest. Designer shipments are received and inspected before they are installed, and each room is set to the floor plan so the house is usable when you walk in.

Art, wine and other things that need more care

A collection is often the reason for the move, and art, antiques and wine need handling that furniture doesn't. They move on the same plan as everything else, with the same inventory and the same storage, so nothing falls between two companies. See how we handle fine art moving and fine wine handling.

Questions to ask any mover before you hire

• Can you pick up from two states and deliver everything under one plan?
• Where do pieces wait between pickup and delivery, and is that space climate controlled?
• Do you receive and inspect deliveries from my designer's vendors?
• Are the people who pack my old house the same people who deliver to the new one?
• Do you own the trucks and the warehouse, or is part of the job subcontracted?

How William C. Huff handles upsizing

William C. Huff has been moving families since 1908. We own our trucks, employ our own crews and run our own warehouses, and trucks run between New England and Florida on a regular schedule, so bringing two houses together is routine work for us. Designer receiving, inspection, storage, delivery and installation come with a dedicated project manager, and we work from your designer's floor plan.

Frequently asked questions

What does upsizing mean when you move? Upsizing means moving to a larger home than the one you have. Unlike downsizing, the work is mostly about furnishing and sequencing a bigger space, not reducing what you own.

How do I furnish a bigger house after moving? Measure the new rooms, make a floor plan, and move only what fits the plan. Store the rest until you decide, and plan custom pieces around their delivery dates.

Can I store furniture until my new house is ready? Yes. Climate-controlled storage is available in Naples and Barrington, so furniture, art and wine can wait until the house is ready for them.

Can you combine furniture from my Florida and New England homes into one move? Yes. Our trucks run between the two regions regularly, so pieces from both homes can be consolidated and delivered under one plan.

When should I start planning an upsizing move? As soon as you have a contract on the new house, and earlier if custom furniture is on order.

Plan your upsizing move

To talk through a move into a larger home, call us in Florida at (239) 263-8081 or in New England at (800) 247-5564, or request a quote on our website.

William C. Huff has been handling white glove moving since 1908.