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When renting a moving van you can also rent or buy blankets to wrap around your furniture to protect them while moving. They are typically not too pretty, most often gray, made from cotton fibers from recycled fabrics. What are such blankets called?

A small filing cabinet partially covered by a thick speckled-grey blanked with a single blue stripe. On the floor in front of the filing cabinet, there's another folded-up blanket that's also thick and gray, but more stripy than speckled.

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    In Danish we call them (directly translated): moving blankets, dog blankets or scout blankets. Aug 25, 2014 at 11:11
  • I never knew up to this point, that you go and buy/rent these things for moving. We always have them prepared and sewed at home, or we just use blankets. Thanks for the info. (:
    – Neeku
    Aug 25, 2014 at 11:33

4 Answers 4

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In the US, they are called moving blankets, moving pads, and occasionally furniture pads or furniture blankets. [Google Images]

The term furniture pad is also used for anti-scuff devices attached to the bottom of furniture.

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  • From my experience in the UK, I'd also call them moving blankets. As you called out, a furniture pad would usually refer to an anti-scuff device for chair legs and other similar applications.
    – Michael
    Aug 25, 2014 at 14:41
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    For any non-primary English speakers' reference - at least in the Southwestern United States, a speaker would not recognize any of these terms (with the possible exception of "furniture pads") without the context that someone was changing addresses. That is, these terms are pretty specialized. Aug 25, 2014 at 15:23
  • @ChrisB.Behrens These items are usually gotten from a hardware store, a big box store or a moving company. All of those seem to use one of these terms. An Arizona moving company uses furniture pads.
    – bib
    Aug 25, 2014 at 15:31
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    Yeah, and if you tell me "hey, we're moving to a new apartment, can you swing by Home Depot and pick up some moving blankets", I would know what you were talking about. If, however, you said, "I was so poor I slept under a moving blanket", I would think that your bedding had fleas :). Aug 25, 2014 at 15:38
  • @ChrisB.Behrens As usual, context is king.
    – bib
    Aug 25, 2014 at 15:52
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I just moved. The U-haul store called them "furniture padding". I have usually called them moving blankets.

http://www.uhaul.com/MovingSupplies/Protective-stuff/Furniture-Pad?id=2670

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Do you mean a painter felt? Here is one of the results I got with this words from google image search:

Painter felt

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  • No, sorry that is not what I meant. It looks the same, and is probably made in the same way, but the blankets for moving are much thicker, maybe like 4 layers of the painter felt. Aug 25, 2014 at 11:09
  • I used those for moving. They sold them in different "strengths".
    – skymningen
    Aug 25, 2014 at 11:13
  • They appear to be multi-purpose: Furniture Moving Blanket/Painter Felt/ Paint Mat Aug 25, 2014 at 11:20
  • I guess you could use the thick ones for painting, and the thin ones for moving, but that is not how they are normally sold and used. At least not in my country :) Aug 25, 2014 at 11:38
  • right: mover's padding is in fact painter's felt.
    – Fattie
    Aug 25, 2014 at 11:56
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Strictly speaking they are

coarse blankets

They are still used by some Armed Forces in place of covered duvets. However, as their use for bedding outside of that context is pretty rare nowadays, I find them most commonly referred to as

moving blankets

because of their usage (as already stated by bib).

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