Wouldn’t it feel nice to have professional help whenever you’re moving heavy furniture?
While this might sound like a dream to anybody who’s ever moved before, it’s not always a reality. Sometimes, you have to move heavy furniture with just a friend or two.
And sometimes you might have to move it all by yourself.
Whenever you’re moving heavy furniture, there’s likely a right way and a wrong way to do it. If you do it the right way, you can make the moving go a lot smoother and quicker.
Not to mention, you’ll also be acting in a much safer way. Improperly moving heavy furniture can lead to muscle strains and even serious injuries.
This is where we come in. Make sure that you keep on reading this article in order to learn the top tips for moving heavy furniture!
1. Assess and Make a Plan
When you need to move heavy furniture, it’s important that you make the process as efficient as possible.
You should take an inventory of all of the heavy items that you’re going to need to put into the moving truck.
You should figure out when you need to load each item and where you’re going to put it in the truck.
Generally speaking, heavy furniture will go toward the back of the truck bed and around the sides as a way to balance the load and keep all of your valuables safe.
This means that you’re likely going to be doing the heavy lifting right from the start. You’ll then fill the gaps in with lighter boxes and smaller pieces of furniture.
Make sure that you carefully figure out the order of how you’ll be loading the furniture. The heaviest and biggest pieces should be lifted first.
While it might seem like an unnecessary step, creating a plan of attack is going to save you a lot of effort and time.
It’s certainly preferable to having to rearrange your heavy furniture later on when it’s already on the truck.
2. Gather Your Equipment
You’re not the first person who ever had to lift heavy furniture by themselves. And that’s a good thing.
That means that there are some really amazing innovations out there for amateur movers.
These devices can be rented or bought, so decide if you’re only going to make use of them once or will need them for future moves.
Here’s what you’re going to need to move heavy furniture on your own:
Moving Straps
Also known as furniture straps and lifting straps, these handy items are able to transfer some of the weight off of your arms and back when you’re lifting heavy furniture.
This can make it a lot easier to carry heavy items.
These straps are adjustable, so make sure that you customize them for the size of the furniture before you lift.
They should also be adjusted to fit the size of your body.
Furniture Sliders
Furniture sliders are an absolute must if you need to move heavy furniture by yourself. These devices tend to be made out of single-part of multi-part plastic.
They’re placed under each corner or leg of the piece of furniture that is being moved.
These plastic pieces will help the furniture glide easily across the floor, even on a surface such as carpet.
Furniture sliders work by making an easily mobile barrier between the floor and the furniture.
This reduces the friction that makes it difficult to move heavy furniture. Plus, you greatly reduce the chances of you damaging the carpeting, tile, or wood.
Furniture Dollies
There are two kinds of furniture dollies that you should know about if you intend to move heavy furniture on your own.
With that said, you’ll probably be alright if you just had one kind of dolly on hand.
The first kind of furniture dolly is a hand truck with two wheels. The other kind is a square platform that has four wheels.
The hand truck has a smaller base than the square dolly.
However, the hand truck is able to vertically distribute weight which makes it a good choice when you’re trying to move tall furniture.
Make sure that you secure your furniture to the dolly with additional straps or ropes before you start to push it.
Mattress Sling
It can be very frustrating when you’re trying to move a mattress that’s heavy and flopping all over.
And even though a lot of mattresses come with handles, that doesn’t mean you should use them.
Those handles aren’t really meant for carrying. In fact, they’re really just there to help you put the mattress into position. Because of that, the handles aren’t very secure.
An easier way to move a mattress is with a mattress sling. You can even make a mattress sling on your own.
Run a rope sling through the handles of the mattress.
Then, slide a five-inch piece of one-inch PVC pipe over the rope ends. Now, loop and tie each end in order to make a comfortable and simple sling grip.
Flip over the matters so that the sling is on the bottom and you should be good to go!
3. Break Furniture Down Into Its Smallest Parts
When it comes to heavy furniture, you want to break down each item as much as possible.
This means taking off all of the pieces that are removable. That includes things like drawers, legs, knobs, cushions, and whatever else you can take off.
You can then move those pieces separately. It’s also useful to break down items like bed frames and sectionals.
If you have to remove a screw at any point or other small pieces, then make sure that you store these small materials in a bag.
Label each bag so you know where the pieces are supposed to go.
You also want to use high-quality screw extractors so you don’t end up stripping any screws.
If you’re looking for the best screw extractors, then follow this link for more information.
4. Follow Proper Lifting Techniques
As you can likely deduce from our list of necessary equipment, you’re going to want to drag, push, and slide heavy furniture a lot more often than lifting it.
This will put a lot less stress on your body and will make the whole process a lot easier.
However, when you encounter a staircase or you finally need to load the furniture into the truck, you’re going to have to do more than sliding and dragging.
Safety is always going to need to come first. So before you begin to lift, it’s important that you know the right way to do it.
Bend At Your Knees, Not At Your Waist
The most important thing that you need to remember when you’re lifting furniture that’s heavy is to carry the weight in your legs, not in your back.
In order to correctly settle the weight, squat down at the knees for the initial lift instead of bending over.
This is going to put most of the weight onto your legs and arms when you raise, instead of onto your back.
Carry Items Close To Your Body
You should do your best to carry heavy furniture close to your body instead of away from your body. This is going to accomplish a few different things.
First, it’s going to help your body keep balanced. It’s also going to get your shoulders and upper arms involved in the lifting.
This is a much safer alternative to putting the weight on your forearms.
Don’t Twist Your Body While You’re Lifting or Carrying
You should keep your body as straight as you can while you lift and move with a heavy item of furniture.
Twisting or making fast movements can cause you to injure yourself.
If you need to turn or twist, then let your hips lead you. You should follow with the feet, instead of doing it the other way around.
Always See Where You’re Going
Another very important safety tip is to always see where you’re going.
It can be hard when you have a sofa blocking your field of vision. But you should never allow yourself to become completely blinded to where you’re going.
And because your body tends to go where your eyes are pointing, you should keep your head facing forward instead of pointed at the ground.
5. Getting Up and Down Stairs
If you need to move heavy furniture down a flight of stairs or up one, you’re going to end up facing an added layer of complexity to an already difficult task.
Unfortunately, there’s usually no way around it.
In order to move heavy furniture on the stairs, you’re going to need to work with a partner. This isn’t the time to be a hero and do it all on your own.
Carry the item high and low. This means that the person higher on the stairs will carry the item from its top surface.
The person lower on the stairs will carry the item from its bottom surface.
You should go slowly and the person at the bottom should set the pace as they’re in the more vulnerable position.
You also need to keep in mind that looks can be deceiving.
If the item is small but heavy, you’re still going to want to have two people working on the job. Move your way down the stairs deliberately and slowly using the high to low strategy.
Remember, it’s not worth risking a serious injury just to get a job done a little bit quicker. Take your time and don’t rush the process.
6. Remove Your Door Stop Molding
Sometimes, an extra half-inch is all that you need in order to get your furniture out the door.
You should first try to remove your door. However, if that doesn’t give you enough space, then pry the door stop molding off.
This should give you an extra 3/4 inches.
7. Ramp It Up (and Down)
Ramps can help you get over curbs and annoying bumps without having to actually lift. You can use blocks, scaffold planks, or lumber to build ramps to move items.
8. Have a Plan for Unloading, Too
The job isn’t don’t when all of the heavy furniture is unpacked from the moving truck. Instead, you can truly consider yourself finished when all of the items are placed in their proper spots in your new house.
Because of this, just like how you created a plan and prioritized how you were going to get everything out of the old house, you’ll have to do the same for how you’re going to unload it all.
This is going to save you from having to move the heavy furniture off of the truck and into your home only to move it all over again.
However, in order to save time, you can wait until all of the furniture is off of the truck. You can then start putting all of the furniture pieces back together.
The Importance of Using These Helpful Tips for Moving Heavy Furniture
As we can see, moving heavy furniture might be difficult but it can be made much easier too. By following our tips listed above, you’ll be able to grab a friend or two and move out of your home with relative ease. Just make sure to take it slow and to act deliberately.
Are you looking for other helpful articles like this one? If so, then make sure to check out the rest of our site today for more!