apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

tip: put old towels or sheets under furniture you're moving so it slides easily with scuffing the surface or getting dirty.

I packed my entire studio apartment into one of those moving pods. I only got help for my bed and a large, unwieldy rug.

Putting together my six-foot dining table, and arranging a system of levers to get it right side up is probably my proudest single-DIY moment.

I'm just so glad to hear there are other serial rearrangers out there. I'm not alone!

My latest adventure in serial rearranging happened only last week. I was frustrated by our messy and chaotic at-home office and completely rearranged it while my husband was out at a meeting. He was a bit surprised when he returned because I had not only rearranged it but also ripped out the carpet (couldn't stand the poop-brown colour any more).

I don't know what I'll do with the floor yet, but I'm sure inspiration will strike.

Installing my A/C unit in my window (5th FL apt) as well as changing out an old kitchen light fixture with a new one. Yay for single girl power!

Taking a marble topped Saarinen coffee table into the basement by myself. Step by step carefully without pulling a single back muscle.

When I lived in Phoenix I found a 7ft long (HEAVY)wood sofa frame at a thrift store for 10 bucks. I knew I could get the cushions, so I bought it. Then I remembered-I drove a Ford Festiva.

The man at the store got half of it in the hatchback, then I tied it in (with the hatchback door up) and put a red t shirt flying off the back of it. It was very secure- but hanging out about 3 ft or so. I then drove across town- 20 miles or so in traffic- and got it out of the car and into my house by myself. I was a tennis instructor so I was pretty strong, but I think it took an hour to go about 20 ft.

That was the best sofa( when I got it done) and I sold it when I left town -and she was smart enough to bring a truck

I've been an avid lurker--is there such a thing? avid silence?--on this site for a few years, and for some reason I just had to comment on this post. I once moved my entire studio apartment in several trips using a beat up Toyota. My proudest moment? Moving my futon and frame down two flights of stairs by myself. Of course, I didn't fully experience the pride until I managed to crawl out from under my futon, which for ten minutes had me pinned to the staircase. LOL! But I guess that what moving single is all about: the joy and risk of having to be saved from runaway furniture...

I moved a 29-gallon fish tank (with water and fish) plus the stand across my living room.

I also moved a seven-foot-tall solid wood armoire with the 32-inch CRT TV inside it across the room.

I once bought an old library table from a thrift store, solid wood, 6 feet long 3 feet wide, and heavy as hell. I had to remove the legs and "roll it" into my apartment. Tipping it up on one side, rolling it to the next side, and so on. It was a lot of work, but I was so happy I did it myself.

Since my husband tends to be negative about possibilities, I moved a large L-shaped formica kitchen counter from the garage, where the fabricators had delivered it, to the kitchen, where I installed it. I made a sort of huge skateboard out of two by fours and wheels, and wangled it in single-handedly. Satisfying.

Wow, this blog couldnt have came at a better time. I have always been very independent. And the fact that i look younger than I am has instilled this kind of napolean syndrome/ i can do it by myself/ can't ever ask for help personality. It's not that i dont like asking for help. I just have a schedule, like everyone else. If I ask for soemthing to be done, i would like to have it done at around the same time i'm asking for the help. i dont ask for help 3 months in advance. so if i ask a relative or friend for help, and they are not able to help at that moment, i understand that they have other things going on- which is fine! i dont want anyone to stop what they are doing to help me because it really isnt necessary. I just bought a new house (a house! An actual house!) and i'm getting everything done for it by myself- it's just easier for me to do it this way. my mom wants me to ask relatives for help since they housed me for a yr till i got settled in a new state, but the truth is, i like to clean and assemble at night! I don't want to disrupt their lifestyle! But my mom thinks my actions are a bit ungrateful since i am not utilizing my family members, and after all, that is what family is for. it is a really good sense of accomplishment to know that in my early 20s, i have bought a house and can have it up and running by myself without the need of my parents, bf, or anyone! And if it's something i can do on my own, why involve other people? whenever there is soomething i can NOT do, i will call them up! But in the meantime, i'll be throwing my hair in a ponytail, putting on some sweats and calling it a Monday!!!!

This sound sooo familiar!!!
If i have someting on my mind, i have to do it. And when your home alone you get more things done. Really!
My boyfriend is the kind of person that sometimes don't approve my rearrange ideas.
When he's away a can do my thing. When he's back, he never wants to put stuff back on its place.
So... Mission completed!

When I was living in suburban Tokyo I moved a 30-some-odd-inch CRT TV from the city to my house via train. No caddy, no box, just me. My house was a 17-minute walk from the nearest station. I had to set it down on the street every now and then but it got there.

I needed to move my huge Ikea Pax cupboard from one wall to another, and the professionals who had put it together had told me I shouldn't do it myself as I might break the cupboard. Annoyingly my boyfriend lost the card of the guy who said he would do it for a low price, and I was broke so I did it all by myself, inch by inch. It took over an hour. And my whole body was in pain for about 4 days. It was probably a really stupid thing to do.

The craziest moving I ever did was the when I bought a desk and chair for a room I was renting. I had to use buses and trains to get to a store 5 cities away and my first purchase at the store was a luggage carrier to cart the two boxes on. The worst was wrangling that getup on and off the buses and then having to control the bundle as I walked downhill to my place. I couldn't afford to call a cab, I'd just moved to SF, and the sale prices were to good to pass up for real furniture that would get me off the floor.

The only moving I tend to do these days is trying out furniture people put in the halls at work. I've easily pushed tall bookcases and file cabinets using torn bits of cardboard underneath when even thinking about trying to get those same heavy objects onto a dolley or hand truck was courting disaster. The cardboard works so well I often leave it until I decide on a final placement.

I tend not to have issues moving at home because a few long, expenisve moves have taught me to live minimally. I even gave away my tv and a bunch of other stuff to avoid having to carry it up the stairs of my newest apartment.

I hate asking for help in general ( I'm working on it!) and even when I'm inclined to, if I get my mind set on rearranging I'm too waay too impatient to wait. So I've always moved precariously ginormous furniture myself, including recently, when I had a gut reno and had to move the entire contents of my apartment into my bedroom (where I lived for three months.)

I've found that those sliding moving disks are indispensable.
http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=14650628

Oh and once, in my younger, poorer days, I moved all my belongings (including crates of books) in many, many shifts via shopping cart on the subway. I looked like a homeless person.

Ha, i have this problem. I just moved a bunch of furniture painted a wall and put it all back on my own. I could have asked the BF for help, but i prefer to do it on my own actually. My apartment is so small, another person just gets in the way.

"I needed to move my huge Ikea Pax cupboard from one wall to another, and the professionals who had put it together had told me I shouldn't do it myself as I might break the cupboard."

I ripped out my old closet, assembled and installed my entire PAX wardrobe system together myself - sure the directions say two people, but when you're determined you can do anything. (The key was to install the drawers, doors, etc after the cases were put in place and screwed to the walls)

I also have ripped out all the wall-to-wall, underpadding, tack strips and vinyl floors in the apartment by myself - now that was a real chore! It probably would have been smarter to cut the carpet up in long strips to rolled it up and carry it out the door, but that would have been too easy!

My husband and I have owned a futon for many years. Being a young couple we've moved a lot in that time, so the thing has had to be disassembled and reassembled many times.

The first couple times we put it together, it involved an hour of effort and balancing and much swearing and mashed toes. We both decided it was definitely a three person job to hold up all the pieces and screw them together.

Then we moved once again, and the prospect of putting it back together was so disheartening that we just threw the mattress on the floor and said we'd put it together later.

The next day, I was home alone while my husband was at work - and I got the crazy idea to try it on my own. I set out the pieces on the floor, stared at it for a minute - and then realized I didn't need help at all. I used the moving boxes to prop up the pieces that needed to be held in the air, used a bit of the packing tape to hold everything together until I got the screws in, and it was easy as pie. I got the whole thing together in 20 minutes.

Needless to say, my husband was very surprised when he walked in the door that evening to see a finished futon sitting there.

I got a flat rectangular, carpeted movers dolly and it has made craigslist so much easier.

Love your post! I have moved refrigerators, stove & washer & dryers on my own......sense of accomplishment after a break up...but the anger of having to move all that crap on my own...made me realized that the next time I move will have to be when I'm married...if EVER...LOL!

I'd just like to say that I have one of those hefty boyfriends and somehow I'm always stuck doing the heavy lifting and furniture moving on my own. I've built an IKEA dresser, assembled a futon frame from scratch, put up a wall of shelves...basically I've done it all. And I do feel proud when the BF comes home and I can rub it in his face that I did whatover rearranging project he refused to help me with, without his help.

I once dropped an air conditioner out the window while trying to install it myself... (and thus began a long, hot summer...)

Other than that one disaster- I rearrange things on my own all the time. It really is sooo rewarding in the end.

Putting together an IKEA Noresund bed by myself, even though the little wordless directions recommend against it:)

I'm a second generation serial re-arranger. I just moved furniture from the basement to the second floor to redo my office. I have fond recollections of my Mom pushing our grand piano from one end of the living room to the other.

in college, moving half a block down and across the street into a new apartment. by myself. without a vehicle...

the hardest part was moving the futon mattress: too thick to fold into quarters, but too floppy just thrown over a shoulder with the ends drooping the ground and dragging on the asphalt...

I like to flip my mattress all by myself, which is a bit tricky given that the size of the room and the furniture makes it necessary to do this by the foot end of the mattress only!

I've also moved my fridge in/out of the kitchen, a few inches and tilts/turns at a time. Ripped up the linoleum from the kitchen floor, that was not a fun project.

There is something so incredibly satisfying about doing something by myself!

my biggest DIY accomplishment is after moving 6 times in 2 years, I can now put together my IKEA bed by myself in under 15 minutes. I am sure it's completely unsafe but so far I have been unscathed.

The longer I'm single, the more home improvement things I tackle by myself. Moving furniture up and down stairs alone, fixing things (recently sprinklers), painting changing light fixtures, etc. My friends and family have expressed surprise at the DIY/moving stuff I'm willing to try without someone to help me, but I don't know how you live to be single in your 30's without becoming self-sufficient!

And you are right, there is a great sense of satisfaction knowing that you accomplished a major task all by yourself. The thing that makes me laugh now is that when there are guys around to help out with a task like this, they treat me like I couldn't lift a feather. If only they knew I'm secretly Superwoman!

I've built a lot of furniture-from-a-box. Bookshelves. Vanity cases. Footstools. Assembled and disassembled my futon more times than I can count, for moving. I have a couch-in-a-box (just add water! well, elbow grease, really) on order and am planning on putting together an Ikea entertainment center on my own. I have a boyfriend who would help if asked, but I love the knowledge that I did it myself. And who can wait to start assembling when there's a box of goodies in your apartment?

The last time we moved, I shoved my queen mattress and box spring up a flight of stairs, around a corner and into my apartment, then dragged the bed upstairs, and put it back together all before my husband (then boyfriend) got back to the apartment with his car. Sometimes I am impatient. Sometimes this causes me a lot of bruises!

My mom and I both rearrange our houses so often, it's an illness. In fact, half the time I go over to my mom's house she opens the door and says, "Oh good, grab that side of the rug..." And there it begins.

Pretty well everything in my apartment has gotten solo rearranging treatment. Couch, book cases (I once moved and repositioned the shelves in it 3 times in one week), bed , desk. You name it. My most recent feat was carrying home a shelving unit that I found on the street. It is honestly 1 inch shy of my ceiling.
I have also rearranged furniture during my days in residence. The room was so small that I had to move desk, bed, and bookcase at the same time, little by little. The bed was one of those extra heavy ones with drawers underneath.
Future plans may involve new flooring (I cant stand the stained linoleum! Even if I am only staying for a year!) and sanding and painting or staining some pretty big bedroom furniture.

Great post. I'm married, but find myself rearranging things by myself while husband is at work to save an argument or having to explain a half-baked idea. I even did it after moving while I was 8 months pregnant. The nesting instinct is strong stuff! Then, I moved chairs, hung frames (climbing), etc. He was not happy, but I was!

Speaking of serial rearrangers, I was an English teacher for a while and one of the greatest papers I ever graded was written by a young boy. He wrote about how obsessive his mother was about rearranging furniture. She would ask him and his twin brother (and all their friends) to help her move all their furniture multiple times. Then, of course, she didn't like it and would have them put it back. They didn't mind helping, and would laugh about it. It was a great paper and I know that will be me and my son one day.

My mom made herself a little cart out of scrap wood and added small wheels and a rope to pull with.
She uses that thing so much, and I think it only cost her about $8.

as most of you out there, I was single once. I moved into an apartment to get myself out of the room matte situation. So I went to IKEA in Elizabeth NJ to purchase new stuff which would be delivered to my home at some date. One item I could not deliver, it was this bookshelf with metal sides that needed to be mounted to the shelves with the allen key. I dragged this dead weight box from IKEA in the bus to port authority, walked with it thru the subway system, to the 7 and N train. I lugged it down the stairs (no elevator subway sucks) and then brought it home. I could not resist erecting the bookcase so I did it on my own and since I wanted it to be very solid and not fall apart as soon as I put books on, I worked the allen key so hard that my hands were bleeding.
The following week the entire purchase arrived and installed myself a set of chairs and table, coffee table, floor lamp, and installed a hanging ceiling lamp.
I recall to have used this borrowed drill/screwdriver and I felt very cool. Great sense of accomplishment.

When I first moved in with my fiance I spent one weekend night unpacking (he works nights). I decided that the only place my desk would fit was in the location of a very large and heavy bookcase. Unfortunately we have wall to wall carpet (I usually prefer hardwood floors so in my rearranging I can use the towel idea) but somehow I got that bookcase across the entire apartment and in it's new location.

When he came home the next morning he seriously thought that I had begged one of my male friends to come over at like 2am to do it.

I assembled all of my six Ikea Billy bookcases-plus-extensions myself, and I put a few of them on little slidie things and have zoomed them all over the apartment.

However, the biggest challenge was when I ordered a credenza off eBay and it came quadruple-wrapped in a cardboard box taller than my head. Nonetheless I managed to that baby out of its mummy wrappings, get it upright, and move it into another room.

my mom & i are well known for being able to do ANYTHING ourselves without help. usually it's the two of us, but that's because we like working together, not because we need help! examples:

-packing up & cleaning our entire 5 person family home (that we'd lived in for almost 20 years) in ONE WEEKEND by ourselves

-moving a 700lb piano between houses

-ripping out the entire basement worth of carpet & scraping off 40 year-old underlay

we're pretty awesome.

I was at Home Depot yesterday buying doors and shuttes for my home. I forgot one thing.....my boyfriend

My mother was staying with me for about a week last spring. I had a burned-out light bulb in the ceiling fixture in the kitchen at the time, but I did not have a tall enough ladder to get up there to replace it (very high ceilings). I came home from work one day and my mom was cooking in the kitchen. She said, "Look!" and turned the light on. I assumed she had borrowed a bigger ladder from someone to replace the bulb, but no. She had placed an Ikea dining chair on top of the Ikea dining table (both pieces built by ME) and stood on the chair. This *still* makes me nervous to think about. I told her she should not have told me.

How timely! Over the weekend I finally was able to hang a custom mirror I had made. It was much heavier than I thought it would be, but little old me managed to get that 30 lb. mirror hung on Friday by myself, and so far, it's still on the wall! :) I stuck some heavy-duty velcro strips to the back and to the wall to help me hold it in place while I tightened the screws and bolts of the hardware.

I am the queen of assembling furniture. Other people just get in the way. :)

And since I live alone and hate asking for help, I get a lot done on my own. I have 14-foot ceilings and ever tried hanging a painting up really high without a ladder? I have! Balanced a side table on TOP of a couch to stand on. I am also afraid of heights but I was determined...Ok that was just stupidity but hey I didn't fall.

I moved my boyfriend's entire apartment across a cobblestone courtyard and into a new apartment using only one of those folding wire granny carts (with one of the wheels held on with a pipe cleaner). The hardest part was balancing a 36" CRT TV on the top of the cart as I simultaneously tried to tip the cart back (no more than about 20 degrees) and push it forward.

I'm also a serial rearranger, but every time I do something, my boyfriend comes home mad... after a week, he relents and admits that it *does* look better this way.

I've been lurking at AT for a few weeks now, obsessively, and just couldn't resist commenting on this wonderful post - made me so nostalgic for the single days of accidentally almost killing myself with furniture on regular basis.

When I first moved to Montreal for school at the age of 18, and they delivered all Ikea furniture two weeks later (Billy bookcase, Beddinge sofa bed, and a wooden kitchen table - to be used as a desk - ) I was resolved on assembling it all with just a Swiss knife and some kitchen tools. It worked, except the Beddinge was assembled backwards. The studio space was minuscule, so there was no way I could turn it around without taking it all apart and assembling the thing all over again on the opposite side. And the Billy was just silly - I'm 5'4" and really tiny - so moving it around a non-slippery carpet would've made a youtube hit, if youtube existed then. The esteem boost of getting it all done though, on my own, with a swiss army knife - probably one of the highest points of the undergrad experience.

I recently put together (& lifted up) an Ikea 4x4 Expedit all by myself, and when I moved from college to an apartment I did all of the moving myself, in a small car. Phew! I may take pride in being an "independent woman," but this last time I moved I was thankful to have my brother & cousins help me.

I am just like the original poster. People who know me, would know that I have a thing to rearrange my entire studio once every other month. It's an excellent challenge for me to figure out the best ways to live in a small area (just a bit under 350sqft). When moments like this strikes, I don't wait for my friends to come and help. I'd move my queen size bed, couch, book case, dresser, tv stand, etc around. If I liked certain furniture I saw at Ikea, I'd drag it home (like the dresser and my in-the-closet-desk and my bed) and assemble them. Moving furnitures is not a big deal. The biggest challenge is that I don't step on my cat while doing it....

i demoed a wall mostly by myself. Then I gashed my nose and got yelled at for doing it myself by the bf. Since, I haven't tackled any major projects (currently no health insurance, dont' want to risk it) and nothing is getting done. I'm contemplating demoing another wall, and building a new one...myself. we will see.

Once I finally started hiring movers for carrying my furniture around, I knew I had grown up.

I love seeing how many other people have the same "darn it I will just do it" attitude. I unfortunately learned it from my mother. I decided to surprise Mom one day and walked into my parents house to find my Mom trying to wrestle/balance a 6' slider and a huge hole in the kitchen. Needless to say, we had the slider at the Re-Store and the hole framed in by the time my Dad got home.

I once moved my mini fridge from my dorm room to into my 2 door cavalier all by my lonesome. It was possibly one of the most physically taxing things I've done in my life.

I'm not single anymore, but I like to wait for my husband to leave the house, then I do my little projects by myself so he can't veto my decisions. His vote always slows progress to a halt and truth be told, I have great taste and once he sees the finished project, he always likes it. :)

He is a wedding videographer, so Saturdays in the summer are game on.

you know those floating shelves that have 1000 screws in the hidden brackets? ......... while trying to put a screw in, it fell onto a plug in the outlet below that was just a smidge separated from the wall - the screw completed the circuit and - spark and flame! it almost set the cat on fire since she had been nearby probably wondering what the heck i was doing

"Once I finally started hiring movers for carrying my furniture around, I knew I had grown up."

you would hire movers just to move furnitures around? =) I wanna be a grown up like you!!

This post has made me very happy.

Serial rearrangers girl here!


Moving my 5foot wood desk through the window of one room, put it on a wheelbarrow, go around the house and get it through the window of the other room.

Lol, it was hilarious! But the sense of accomplishment was immense.

last summer i:
1. ripped out carpet, under padding and tack strips from 3 bedrooms and a long hallway in my home.
2. rented a wood stripper (the floors were in pretty bad shape) and purchased supplies from home depot.
3. stripped the floors in the bedrooms and hallway.
4. i had to use a palm sander to sand off the paint on the floor along the baseboards (the previous owner sprayed paint on the walls without protecting the floors).
5. applied 2 coats of water-based poly-urethane.

ALL BY MYSELF in 4 days...no one believes i did it on my own (including me!)
i am so pleased with the job i did and the MONEY i saved. no doubt that i can do anything i set my mind to.

i've lived in my current apartment for only 2 years. i've moved my bedroom furniture about 15 times.

i love a change.

and i love the challenge of being a single woman moving things, building things (including my coffee table) and painting things (this old picture frame i found in my grandparent's attic... funky with a cool teal paint job).

I'm definitely way more diy savvy than my bf. I tend to do home things (including serial rearranging) when he's not around. I think he likes coming home to a place that's a little different (and better) almost every time he walks through the door.

My sink was stopped up, so I took the pipes apart, removed the offending blockage, and put it back together again (that was the part I was worried about.) I felt like riveter Annie. :)

HA! That's exactly how I move my couch too!

Love this post!!! Did the sofa's really get flip flopped?

I love moving disks, in particular the "moving men" disks.

http://www.asseenontvguys.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=32

I got mine at bedbathandbeyond.

Kyle the blogger here!

I love hearing everyone's stories - I'm so inspired!

Thessa, your wheelbarrow story made me laugh out loud! I love it.

Keep on moving!

Kyle

If I was a normal person and tell my friends to come over to re-arrange my furniture , it would be all right, but my relation with my furniture came to a point that I can be considered a serial rearranger and I always come up wt a different idea (something better) and never get tired of it. So instead of being a laughing stock, I do things by myself and very proud of the end result (until the next time).

Couch, giant tv, cabinet, wardrobe, bed... :-))) nothing was able to stop me.

Also the other reason is once I decide on something , I have to do it now and my friends are quite the opposite, that waiting time would kill me... I do not understand why ppl say they never have the time, and things pile up and they live in a toxic environment that emotionally disturbs them. Sometimes I just want to tell them the difference it would make in their life...:-)))

Love this post!
I have taken my kitchen door off its hinges more times than I can remember to get big stuff in and out of my apartment.

I am the product of a small, clean freak, chronic furniture rearranging mom and a small, do-it-yourself, handyman dad and I've inherited all of these traits.

I have fixed broken hair dryers and handheld games; assembled furniture; moved box springs, mattresses, desks, tables, and armoires using nothing but a sheet and/or my puny muscles; repaired, hand sanded, stained, and painted damaged furniture (I got an armoire that was missing a foot so I made one out of clay, glued it on, and painted it to match); and I plan on sewing my own curtains, slipcovers, and pillow covers and reupholstering some old wing chairs.

I'm a craigslist/thrift store addict so me and my boyfriend's apartment is in a constant state of change. The only time I need his help is to pick up an item using his mom's van. Everything else I can and will do on my own. :))

I once moved a love seat from the first floor of my townhouse to the second floor. alone. There were only one or two "Lucy Ricardo " moments . At one point I was half way up the stairs, with the couch jammed into the stairwell below me, the phone was ringing, the doors were all locked and I did not know what I was going to do. First thing I did was to laugh, then I plotted and planned, shoved and shimmied and I got that sucker unstuck and up into my bedroom!

Ha! I just recently used the same sofa moving technique when I had to squeeze through a doorway, down a narrow hallway and around a corner. Then I had to load the sectional into the back of my hatchback to take to consignment. It took two trips and a lot of Tetris-style flipping to get it to fit in the car but I was determined to avoid the $40 pickup charge. My other big accomplishment is removing all the popcorn off the ceiling of my 1000 sf condo. I got pretty good with my technique and perfected the tools by the time I was done. It's amazing at how creative and strong we can be when we're determined!

I love knowing there are so many others out there. I am a night owl, and get these energy/creative spurts after everyone I know is in bed. I move lots of things my self, and have been doing it for years. I am now 64 years old, and hope I will always be able to move stuff by myself. My trademark strategies are to pull or push the heavy items with a sturdy old bedspead underneath, and to never give up. I always tell myself "an inch is further than I was a minute ago." It may take all day (or all night), but I always get the job done.

Last summer I decided to have a barbecue on my roofdeck but was a bit last minute on buying a grill. On the day of the barbecue, I was first one into Home Depot, picked up a moderate sized gas grill, lugged the somewhat awkward box out to my car and up four flights of stairs (all in already 80 degree heat), got up into my thankfully a/ced aptmt, put the grill together (in about an hour), lugged it up to my roof deck, all by noon when my friend and I hit the grocery store and started to cook... You can bet I was tired and sore when guests started arriving late afternoon but it was worth it and bbq was great...who needs a "hulking boyfriend"?

Thanks so much for this post! I too am a single, serial rearranger who will be moving (AGAIN), it's comforting to know that I'm not alone!

I'm so glad to see this issue on here!! My family is basically worthless and you seem to have no friends when you need to move!! I'm actually thankful for movers even though I have to pay them I know I can depend on them...

Living upstairs and having amassed some hand me down furniture that is bulky I can't say that itd be possible for me to haul my huge couch downstairs by myself.

I recently needed a new desk and knew that I wouldn't be able to carry one upstairs by myself.. so I just looked for one that I could carry piece by piece up the stairs and assemble myself. Also, I had to buy a new futon mattress which was extremely heavy and had to shove upstairs by myself (before I had a couch). I've always pretty much gotten stuck moving by myself too and one time my neighbor even felt sorry for me and helped me. :)

It's all about leverage. I once moved a solid marble coffee table from my trunk, across the yard, down a flight of stairs and into the family room using an old comforter, a wheelbarrow and a strong, "I don't need a boyfriend for this!" state of mind.

In university I moved all the furniture and stuff from my dorm room across campus in the middle of the year. The only hitch, I did it by myself - in the deep snow - with a dislocated shoulder.

I was proud, but stupid and in pain for days afterward.

It all comes down to this: you can't count on a man to move your crap for you, no matter what the myth says about big strong men moving stuff for us "dainty" girlies. So when I want something done, I do it myself. Furniture moving, bookshelf assembly, whatever I want done, I just figure out how to do it. Clearly, I'm not alone.

My mom's secret weapon, which I totally want to steal from her, is my 1970's-style skateboard - remember the thick, narrow, plastic ones? She uses it as a furniture dolly, has for decades.

good advice Jezebella!

After I got divorced, I had an impulsive, late-night craving to switch my living room with my bedroom.

Since the rooms are on opposite sides of my house, it involved pushing, pulling and dragging - a mattress, box spring, two dressers, a very large and heavy couch, an oddly proportioned corner TV unit, 3 bookshelves (including books), two side tables and endless pictures, paintings and odds & ends - through the living room, through the kitchen, and down a narrow hallway.

I did this all by myself, in the middle of the night, with no special equipment.

It's one of the most rewarding things I've ever done to my home. For many different reasons.

Last year, while driving, I found a nice wing-back chair left on the curb. It was in great shape, just needed a re- upholstering. Obviously, someone wanted somebody to take it...the legs were carefully placed on bricks for protection. I pondered it for a little bit, drove by it a couple of times, then decided to take it. I have a small suv with a lot of stuff in it, but I managed to move everything and make room for the chair...not easy...lots of angling. I had it recovered professionally, and it turned out nice. I have it in my sunroom. I was pretty proud of myself for the find and managing to put in into my car.

i'm the typical goofy diy'er. quick trip to not-oft visited ikea, prompted a sudden couch purchase. hey, i needed a small couch, and it was a steal @ $90. off reg price, only needed a cover. and they wouldn't hold it for a day or two.

having arrived home to the beloved condo by the beach @ 10pm, it felt way too late to to knock on new neighbor guy/gal's door. and i *had* to unload that puppy then and there, as i was due in carlsbad shortly after work the next day, no time to spare! i must have deliberated knocking, for about 10minutes.

only one flight stairs, but seriously uphill tender grassy area 1st, and steep stairs and landing w/layers of pebbles.. how to drag an unwrapped couch w/o destroying?? i don't know, but i did it. and quietly, other than my incessant giggling at the mess i'd gotten myself into. i was sure i was being watched by upper-level tenents! lifting and placing ea end of couch up grass a few inches at a time was tedious. w/o proper wrapping, i had to screw the feet on 1st. i believe i wrapped cardboard, paper bags, any plastic i could find, twine... prolly took me a good hour 1/2.. constantly adjusting the buffers, and i was sore for days. i coulda high-fived m'self, though, i tellya!

and yes, i too, inheret this from the mom. the woman's gonna be 60 in a few days and she *still* does this kinda stuff! crazy!

"I'm married, but find myself rearranging things by myself while husband is at work to save an argument or having to explain a half-baked idea..."

Um- yeah, that. And I use his ancient skateboard with the peeling Vision and Santa Cruz stickers on the bottom to move the stuff with.

Kyle Elizabeth Freeman!!! :\

Can I ask where the sofa is from?

yeah, nice sofa

and yeah, i'm a habitual rearranger - i do my best work after midnight

i've installed light fixtures, assembled and disassembled furniture, moved armoires, beds and couches, fixed faucets and toilets, you name it

my nemesis is a large TV - can't wait to replace it with a flatscreen so I can be completely independent

I find if something is hard to shift, getting down on your back and shoving it with your legs helps :P

Ive been there. I was the one who sat on the hallway floor and took it apart, then up peice by peice. I also move sofas on a regular basis, took on a king sized bed last weekened and a 8 foot desk the week before. Also if you cant budge it with your hands, crawl between it and the wall and push with your legs, works well. also counts as leg exercise

love this couch. where is it from??

I would LIKE to be a habitual re-arranger, but I get half way through things and then get super overwhelmed. My current apartment just became impossible to navigate and so my boyfriend came over and saved me from the mess. He built the rest of my furniture!

Now I am curing and I want to move my furniture around... this will be interesting (it also means that I need to clean UNDER things that have never seen the light of day, ick).

Me, too. I have a question: Why do so many of us get these urges to move entire rooms of furniture at night? Why don't these ideas occur to me on, say, a Saturday morning, when I have two days to do this and don't have to worry about waking my sane neighbors? Any ideas?

I usually put some beer in the fridge and act the helpless female. The only muscles I am in danger of straining are those used to voice admiration.

Nice angle going through the doorway! No square pegs going into round holes at your place (or do they? :)

If the Gentle Giant Movers get a peek at that pic you might be getting a phone call :)

I think my greatest moving accomplishment was when I decided to make a platform bed, with big drawer storage underneath, to maximize space in my rented small bedroom in the South End some years ago.

No car at the time, so I hopped on the subway and went to Sullivan Lumber in Somerville on the Orange Line; had the lumber guys cut plywood and 2-by-4's to size, based on my plans; had them bundle the like-size parts together so that I could manage to collectively move them from the store to the subway, onto the train, back to the SE (the Orange Line was elevated back then), off the train, and up to the 3rd floor bedroom for assembly.

(Okay ... I did get a friend to tag along for the fun and help with the toting ... so it wasn't so much a solo event, as it was just a bit nuts)

The best part of the whole thing, after getting the thing put together and everything finally organized in the small bedroom space, was remembering the looks from people as we made our way back through the subway turnstyles, onto the trains, off the trains ...

Subway tokens back then: 50 cents each.
Work gloves to carry the lumber with: $2 a pair.
Moving all that stuff without a car: Priceless (and loads of fun :)

R

man I loved this thread. i'm not crazy. I'm not crazy.
I do have a crippled arm/shouder from shoveling this winter, but I'm not crazy! If the arm would function, doing the Cure right now - everything would have moved. I'm not crazy.
I'm not crazy. You guys accomplished some great things!

i do this all the time and am so glad you posted! sometimes it's smaller stuff, like a chair, but i move my queen sized platform bed (which i've stacked up with both the 18" mattress and a box spring, so it is now reassuringly waist high), seven foot couch, three piece french provincial sectional, chairs and even my kitchen island all the time.

i've found redecorating since moving to boston both frustrating and slightly slow going, because i don't have a car anymore and so many cool places are off the beaten track. but still being able to move my home around myself gives me a renewed sense of momentum and energy that i don't think i would have if i had to wait for someone to come over and help!

I moved a queens size mattress down the street to my apartment on 2 skateboards, then up the stairs 3 flights through a tiny staircase. By myself. I was in pain the next day, but I'm proud