How much does it cost to ship a sofa: courier, platforms or a pickup at your door

The short answer

Shipping a sofa through a shipping platform starts at €81 for a two-seater and €100 for a three-seater, VAT excluded, with no packing and no floor service (prices read on 25 September 2026). The courier for private senders takes parcels up to 31.5 kg and 175 cm; dedicated transport with pickup at home is on a quote.

The figures come from the public iospedisco.it page, which gives them as "starting from": the final price changes with distance, size and extras. The courier's limits are those in BRT's general terms for private senders.

Smoves was born in Milan in 2026, collects from homes around Milan, Monza and Bergamo and has 4.4 out of 5 on Trustpilot. I ship sofas, so this comparison was written by one of the interested parties: bear that in mind.

How much it costs to ship a sofa: the three routes compared

Before asking for a price, work out which of the three routes your sofa belongs to. You don't get to decide: the tape measure and the scales do, with all the tenderness of a ticket inspector on a regional train.

If the answer is "neither of the first two", there's furniture transport with home pickup: we come and collect it from your home, and you don't have to find the courier.

Shipping a sofa by courier: the limits decide before you do

To ship a sofa with a standard courier it has to fit the parcel limits. On BRT's online platform for private senders a parcel can't weigh more than 31.5 kg or be longer than 175 cm, and the longest side plus the base perimeter can't exceed 300 cm (BRT general terms, read on 25 September 2026).

Now try lifting one end of your three-seater. If a noise escaped you, you already have the answer, and the courier's 31.5 kg is a footstool with ambitions.

On the same platform there's no floor service, and unpacked items don't travel. In plain words: Her Majesty the Sofa gets carried down by you, wrapped like a museum piece, and left at street level waiting for someone who won't come up.

Then there's the refund: a flat €80 if the parcel is lost or broken. It applies to any parcel, from a lamp upwards, so if Her Majesty is worth more than a few cushions, say so before shipping her, whoever you hand her to.

Shipping platforms: from €81 for a two-seater, VAT excluded

Platforms that resell couriers have a dedicated option for sofas. On iospedisco.it a two-seater starts at €81 and a three-seater at €100, VAT excluded (read on 25 September 2026).

"Starting from" is the most important part of that sentence. Professional packing, assembly and dismantling, pickup and floor service are listed on the page as extras, meaning on top of that number.

It works well if the sofa is already packed, on the ground floor, and you have an afternoon to book, print the label and wait. It works less well on a fourth floor with no elevator, where the starting price stays on the ground floor and you don't.

Two-seater or three-seater: what pushes the price up

On the same platform, going from two to three seats adds €19 to the starting price. It's the smallest difference in the bill: these five things do the rest.

• Distance: a shipment within the region doesn't cost what one to another country does.

• Weight and size, because the price is worked out on the packed parcel, not the bare sofa.

• The floor, both where it leaves and where it arrives, with or without an elevator.

• Packing, if you don't do it yourself.

• Dismantling: a sofa with its feet unscrewed and its arms off is a lower parcel that's easier to turn on a landing.

How to ship a sofa without it arriving in pieces

Start with the tape measure, not the packing tape. Measure the sofa, then the door, then the turn of the stairs: a sofa that won't fit round the landing won't fit even if you explain it's for its own good.

Unscrew the feet and put them in a bag tied to the frame, with the screws inside. It's the most underrated tip in any move, because the feet are the first thing to snap and the last thing to be found.

Then the packing: plastic sheet over the fabric, cardboard or blankets on the corners, and the cushions in a separate bag. If we do the packing it's a paid extra, and if more than the feet needs taking apart, dismantling is added on a quote.

When the courier isn't enough: we come and collect the sofa

Dedicated transport is the route for the sofa the courier turns down, or the one that will never reach the ground floor on its own. It's the least cheap route on paper, and the only one where Her Majesty the Sofa doesn't have to become a parcel first.

We collect it from your home, anywhere from Novara to Brescia, and ship it to the address you give us, in Italy or abroad. You don't need anything in storage with us. Someone has to be there at pickup: you, or a person you've delegated.

You'll find the price in the quote, before you confirm: ask for it on the furniture transport page, telling us what there is, where it leaves from and where it's going. If the trip is to another country and the sofa isn't the only thing leaving, there's the page on international moving from Milan.

And if the sofa has to wait because the new place isn't ready, it stays in our warehouse: that's furniture storage in Milan, at a monthly rate per size.

Is it worth shipping? Selling or disposing of a sofa in Milan

The awkward question comes before the quote: what is the sofa worth, to you and to the market? If shipping costs more than the sofa, the sofa is asking you for a favor.

Selling it second-hand is the simplest route when it's in good shape and from a brand people look for. Whoever buys it usually comes to collect it, and the stairs become their problem.

Getting rid of it in Milan costs little or nothing. AMSA collects bulky waste for free at street level, up to 2.5 m and 50 kg per piece, with furniture taken apart and one booking every 30 days; a collection from inside your home exists, for a fee (terms read on 25 September 2026).

If you'd rather take it yourself, the AMSA recycling centers are free for residents with ID: via Olgettina, via Corelli, via Pedroni and via Riccardo Lombardi, Monday to Saturday 8am to 8pm and Sunday until 7pm. You can drive in with a rented van too.

What a chair sticking out of a box taught us

A customer once left us open boxes, with the flaps pulled up and taped over the top: nearly double the volume. Half a chair was poking out of one, an iron rod out of another, like two periscopes.

We loaded every one of them, on the agreed day. Since then we explain to everyone how to pack, before the pickup rather than during it.

With a sofa the lesson counts double. A badly packed sofa takes more space, gets damaged more and, on any price list, weighs more on the bill: Her Majesty the Sofa travels better when she turns up tidy.