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When moving large, heavy items you don’t want to injure yourself in the process. Below are some tips to help you prevent injury and also damage to your items.

Think it through before you start

Before you rush at it, carefully look at the large items and take measurements and get an idea of how heavy they are. Then make a plan to help the move go smoother. Decide on how much help you will need from family or friends, or if you need to hire a professional mover. Also, decide on what moving tools you will need. In addition, you will need to remove as many things as possible before you start. For example, remove furniture legs, shelves and handles, and remove drawers or at the very least empty them. This reduces weight and makes it easier to move the items.

Protect your items During the Move

When moving, wrap your items with moving blankets, cardboard and bubble wrap. Make sure to tape the covering to the item so that it doesn’t fall off when you are moving it. This also protects you when moving the heavy item, in case you lose your balance and bump into something.

Push a heavy item instead of pulling it

Pushing a heavy item is much easier on your body than pulling it. Pulling also places much more strain on your back than pushing. However, you don’t want to scrape the floor so put down cardboard, a moving blanket or an old sheet under the heavy item. This also helps make the pushing easier. Also, you can consider buying furniture slides or gliders that will make pushing much easier. These are basically plastic disks that fit under heavy furniture, so that it will glide easily across the floor when you push it.

Buy tools to make your move easier

Moving and lifting straps, sometimes called a shoulder dolly, take the weight off of your back, and they leave your hands free help to manoeuvre. They also place less strain on your body by lowering the centre of gravity on the item that you’re moving.

Stair rollers attach to heavy items so they can be easily rolled down the stairs. The rllers should only be used by more than one person, and only if they can safely guide the items down the stairs.

A hand truck or utility dolly is an upright tool with two wheels used to stack heavy boxes. Also, a furniture dolly is flat and has four wheels, and sometimes the hand truck can be converted into a flat, furniture dolly.

Turn a chair on its side to go around corners

A large chair can be difficult to move, so turn it on its side so it looks like an “L” and move it back-first through the doorway. Then hook it around the door frame and ease it through the opening.

Stand your couch on its end to move it

Turning into a room with a horizontal couch can be extremely difficult. Therefore, before you enter a hallway, turn the couch on its end and slide it to the doorway and then manoeuvre it through. If it’s taller than the door opening, simply tilt it away from the doorway and push it through the opening.

Carry a tall, heavy item on its side

Tall items like a wardrobe or a dresser are awkward to move. Two people should move the item and turn it backward at an angle, and have one person carry the top while the other carries the bottom. This is especially effective when going up or down stairs.

We know that moving is very stressful, and we hope that these tips help things go smoother.