SEE ALSO: How to ship furniture across country cheaply. Large furniture with legs such as desks or tables cannot be slid on carpet on their own as the legs tend to dig into the fabric and resist any attempts to be pushed or pulled across the floor. Kitchn is a source of inspiration for a happier, healthier life in your kitchen. How do I Calculate the Mortgage Interest Deduction Value? Brookhaven National Laboratory: Safe Lifting and Carrying Techniques, Apartment Therapy: 5 Tricks for Moving Furniture, How to Obtain Preapproval for a Home Loan, How to Loosen Blade Nuts on a Snapper Mower, How to Compute the Angle of a Chair Rail Up a Staircase, How to Remove the Front Wheel on a Cub Cadet Tractor. I appreciate that you included safety recommendations, such as never lifting heavy pieces above your head. 8. Regina is an architect who lives with her husband and children in Lawrence, KS. All rights reserved. We then unwrapped the credenza and slid it (on its top) up the “ramp” of blankets laid over the stoop. Article by Home Stories A to Z.

When using professional moving services, you allow strangers into your home and entrust them with... Are you moving house during the coronavirus pandemic? In case you have no friends to count on at the moment, don’t hesitate to hire the pros for best results. Hand trucks are similar to basic dollies, but they can tilt backward, a useful feature when it comes to tackling staircases. Lift the object onto the hand truck. When moving heavy furniture by yourself, it’s imperative that you are well familiar with the proper lifting techniques in order to avoid personal injuries of any sort. Wheel the item to the top of the stairs. Be sure to have a friend help you do it to prevent the furniture piece from tipping over while in motion. The First Step to Moving Heavy … Had it just been me and my husband, we would have tried to each take an end of the credenza and lift it and carry clear from the truck to the house. That saved us from doing any lifting whatsoever and completely eliminated any chance of dropping and damaging the furniture. My best friend and I are moving to a new house but his furniture and artwork are very, very heavy; I’m glad that you also recommended calling a professional with experience in case you’re not entirely sure how to do it safely. Thanks again for the tips! The thing to remember here is that sliding large and heavyweight pieces of furniture along hardwood floors is not usually recommended because even sliders might leave marks on the floor. ), upstairs or downstairs, then these very tips for moving heavy furniture at home are exactly what you need.

How to Move Heavy Objects Upstairs by Yourself This past November, I attended a blogger trip. If you want to learn how to move heavy furniture on your own – on carpet, on hardwood floors (without scratching the floor! It was inside. Brute strength may have served you well back in high school. Otherwise, you risk wrecking your back, your house and the item you’re moving. How to maintain social distancing when moving during the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), 10 common mistakes parents make when moving with children, How Facebook and Twitter can help you move. Believe it or not, the number one safety rule is to lift with your legs, not your back. C hances are, there are movers near you who can help you move that fridge, bed, or whatever else makes your back ache by the mere thought of picking it up. In her heyday, she said, she was able to get in there and substantially help to move the large pieces she delivers.

Enlist a friend to help if possible. While keeping your back straight, bend at the knees and use the unparalleled strength of your lower limbs to lift heavy and move heavy furniture; Whenever possible, it’s always more preferable to push heavyweight furniture pieces than to pull them; If you are forced to turn while holding and/or carrying heavy furniture at home, do so with your feet and not with your hips; Always keep heavy household items close to your body and in relatively central position in relation to your body; Never lift heavy furniture pieces above your head. By retaining one blanket under the credenza once indoors, we simply slid it into place in the dining room on a blanket across the hardwood floors.

1 / 14. Need to move a boulder? However, her decades of experience have left her with some amazing insider’s tips that she used to walk us step-by-step through moving our prized (and heavy) new possession into our home. Moving Furniture Cheap Furniture Furniture Nyc Furniture Ideas First Apartment Essentials Apartment Hacks Best Ladder Building Stairs Basement Layout. She graduated from Syracuse University in 2007 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in musical theater. If you have rooms with hardwood floors, then learning how to move heavy furniture without scratching the floor is essential. Slowly roll the hand truck down the first step. Keep your spine straight as you lift; bend from your knees rather than your waist, and lift with your legs rather than your back. As a LEED Accredited Professional and longtime contributor to Apartment Therapy and The Kitchn, her focus is on healthy, sustainable living through design. When moving heavy furniture at home, stairs will surely prove to be the ultimate challenge for you. Moving to a new home has never... Children take comfort in routine and familiarity – they feel safe in their well-known house... There’s little doubt that moving to a new home is tough. The principal points to consider when handling heavy furniture pieces are: IMPORTANT: You are strongly advised to have at least one friend (preferably two) to help you move really heavy furniture pieces. Roll the hand truck down the stairs one step at a time. 43. One such challenging task is moving heavy furniture by yourself – that is, without professional assistance. Requesting a professional estimate can reduce moving costs by up to 25%. “I have a bad shoulder”, she explained as she led us toward the truck. Center the object on the hand truck to balance its weight. Carry Tall Items High and Low. Only then should you actually use a proven trick to move heavy furniture – to secure wooden planks underneath the furniture piece to serve as a loading/unloading platform, wrap the planks in moving blankets and then slide your furniture along the stairs on those sturdy planks with at least 3 other people to help you out. Article by Remodelaholic. If an object comes apart, consider carrying it downstairs in pieces. Once we reached the front steps, we laid a cushion of several more quilted blankets out over the steps. Do you have any helpful moving tips that have saved you in the past? So, what is the best way to move heavy furniture? What to do when your best friend is moving away. But today, she does the driving only. Required fields are marked *. The crazy busy period of moving house is all about completing one challenging task after another. The quilted blue blankets that wrap furniture for protection from scratches and dents are multi-purpose. So far, so good. Tie it securely in place with straps or bungee cords. It’s good to know that there are furniture sliders that can help me lift my own furniture just by sliding each part under every leg or corner. How Do I Calculate Home Value to Loan Ratio?

Once your super heavy household items are ready to be moved, here’s the equipment you will actually need to get the job done.

Mitchell also regularly edits websites, business correspondence, resumes and full-length manuscripts. But it wasn’t carried in by two heavy lifters in white gloves.

How much to move dining room table upstairs?

Your email address will not be published. Thanks for these useful tips on how to move heavy furniture. Rather, a 60-some year old woman stood at the door and pointed us to the 35-foot moving truck that contained the seven-foot-long, solid teak beauty. But it wasn’t carried in by two heavy lifters in white gloves. When you hire movers to transfer your belongings from your old home to your new one, they arrive with heavy-duty equipment to keep them -- and your possessions -- safe. https://todayshomeowner.com/video/tip-for-moving-heavy-furniture-in-your-home And voila! My husband and I have a lot of huge furniture pieces in our current home, and we’re finding it hard to relocate them now that we’re moving to another house. This is a good time to remind you that some pre-move jobs are tougher and much more demanding than others, and as such, they will require your utmost attention. Self Moving Tips for Do-It-Yourself Moves. Instead, as the saying goes, we were taught to fish and will forever have this helpful knowledge in our back pockets! We laid the still-wrapped credenza on a blanket spread out on the ground and simply dragged the furniture to the house (on grass, mind you… it probably would not have moved well over concrete). Oftentimes, the weight of your pieces is not the only thing to worry about – their shapes and sizes come suddenly into play as well. Tilt the hand truck backward so some of the weight of the object leans against your body. If you have a helper, send him down a few steps ahead of you.

I’d ask around where I can buy these furniture sliders you’ve mentioned and use them for loading our things into the railroad flat car we’ll soon rent. How to Make Traction on Stairs With Paint, How to Plant a Windmill Palm in a Container. But this tip from our helpful moving lady that smartly utilized those blue quilted blankets saved our backs and quite possibly our new piece of furniture (I would have hated to see what a drop would do to it). Stand behind the hand truck and hold its handles. Or maybe wrestle a refrigerator down a flight of stairs? Please share below! © Copyright 2020 Hearst Communications, Inc. Oftentimes, the weight of your pieces is not the only thing to worry about – their shapes and sizes come suddenly into play as well.

In the end, I was thankful that our mover was not a big, burly man who would have done it all for us. Last weekend, the long-awaited mid-century modern credenza my husband and I had purchased arrived at our home. Your best bet? Remove any shelves, hutches or stored items from the object and bring them downstairs separately. How to move heavy furniture by yourself - use your head, not your back. Instead, call in professional furniture movers who have the experience, equipment and know-how to move heavy furniture quickly and safely. Once we had the credenza off the truck, the blankets were our primary tool in getting the piece from point A to B. Lift each corner or leg of the furniture piece, place a slider underneath (the smooth edge of the slider should be pointing towards the floor) and push the heavy object in the desired direction from a lower section as opposed to from the top. When moving heavy furniture at home, stairs will surely prove to be the ultimate challenge for you. Rather, a 60-some year old woman stood at the door and pointed us to the 35-foot moving truck that contained the seven-foot-long, solid teak beauty.

Therefore, it’s best if you use a moving dolly with soft rubber wheels that are known to be floor-friendly. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. “I have a bad shoulder”, she explained as she led us toward the truck. I think I’ll start looking for crane services because we do have some heavy things on our roof terrace.