You know the feeling. It's 7, you've finished dinner, there's nothing good on tv, you've exhausted the internet, and suddenly you have the urge to rearrange your studio/bedroom/living room. But there's only one of you and some pretty heavy furniture. With enough motivation and stick-to-it-ness you can probably move anything with brute force. But there are some easier ways to get the job done with breaking your back or inviting murderous thoughts from your neighbors after moving furniture around all night:
Rearranging Furniture one of the easiest and cheapest ways to improve a space and we've found it to be endlessly gratifying. But doing it alone can be daunting. Here's what's helped:
On Hardwood or Concrete Floors:
• Slip a square of felt under each leg of what you're moving and it should glide fairly effortlessly across the floor. If the floor is bumpy you might want to fold the felt over for an even thicker pad.
• Dishtowels can also work in a pinch.
On Carpet
• These furniture sliders make gliding furniture across carpet easier than you'd think. The hardest part is just getting them under each leg.
What have you used?
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Blankets. I've slid a huge wardrobe from one room to another (wood floor) on a blanket.
Socks and towels.
I'm so glad there are people like me out there. . .
sigh. .
Socks, with rubber bands tied around the top.
To move furniture over rugs/carpet, I put a few paper plates under the furniture feet
I once moved a 250 bath tub from my truck into my house with the swivel method! Take a corner swivez forward, swivel opposite way etc.
i have a heavy, wood, queen size bed that i had to move across carpeting. i used a car jack to raise up each corner just enough to slip in furniture sliders. i was then able to move the bed without much effort. :)
I re-arranged stuff last night! I've been wanting a new, tall nightstand that would double as extra storage but I didn't feel like spending ~$80 on a new piece. Last night I finally realized I could use my tall Ikea shelf that was holding 3 things in the kitchen.
The nice part is that it's only $15, so if I need it back in the kitchen I can just pick up another one... hopefully that won't be necessary.
When I was in college, I de-lofted the bed in my dorm room (which was perched above the desk) solo. My roommate had gone home the night before, my parents wouldn't be there until the next day, and any of my friends who were still around were studying for finals. Five words: one corner at a time.
You know how some people read a book late at night when they can't sleep? I always get the urge to move stuff. The people who live below me probably wouldn't be too happy so unfortunately I just have to lay there and imagine what it will look like when I do it in the morning.
I have those "moving men" furniture gliders -- they really are a godsend. I have a bad back, but after I got these I was able to move an extremely heavy, large, awkward wooden armoire, huge heavy old bookcase and several other bulky furniture pieces easily. The only thing to watch out for is the potential to scratch hardwood floors.
If you shuffle furniture often, it's worth getting an inexpensive furniture moving dolly:
http://www.bigmenstools.com/product.jhtm?id=300&tc=replacethistrackcode&utm_medium=shoppingengine&utm_source=nextag
They are about $25 at my local Home Depot. Heck, you can buy one, use it and return it if you need to. But I keep two of these around. I've moved HUGE furniture with them (with the help of another person for balancing).
thanks for the paperplate tip!!..have used the blanket/towel/corner by corners method..survival!!
Dear oakland,
So I am not alone doing things like that, too.. When I tell my friends they say I am weird because I rearranged my books by color, changed furniture locations, always move things around etc...
Relief...
Before moving: Google Sketch-Up.
I use cardboard from my recycle bin to move the things that are on carpet.
My Dad has a huge 350 pound safe that was in his closed (which is like 5 feet by 3 feet) and the door is just an inch wider than the depth. We used the shimmy method (since only one person could be in the closed)and then a piece of cardboard to get it over the carpet lip to the bedroom. Worked wonders.
And I too am a "random" rearranger. I used to rearrange like every other month. Suprisingly I've only rearranged my living room 1 time in the past 2 years and the bedroom never!!
Uh oh...this post might have determined what I'm doing tonight before bed.....
Can anyone identify that table? It's hard to find a good oval table.
I use a bath mat to move drag stuff very easily around the hardwood floors in my apartment. Just flip the bath mat upside down, with the rubber part on top, and it kind of 'sticks' to the bottom of the furniture you are moving, while the other side of the mat has smooth fabric, and glides gently along the floor. Works perfectly more me every time.
Gah, I JUST moved stuff XD Fortunately, neither piece was particularly heavy (...okay, the chest was MASSIVELY heavy, but thankfully I could just shove it straight across the tiles), and I'm only a little sweaty. (Hey, it's nearly forty degrees celsius here!)
Home Depot has a set of those plastic glides for moving furniture that come with little fleece socks for hardwood and other hard surface floors. Use them "nekked" for carpet, add the socks for hard floors. (I don't see why you couldnt put real (old) socks on the glides you already have for a similar result.) Glides are REALLY worth the investment!!
Just switched our front load washer and dryer around (they were installed with the doors hinged in the center so they opened into each other, making switching batches of laundry unnecessarily awkward.) I'm 4'11" and about 120 lbs. and the room is way too small for two people, so I swivel walked the dryer out by myself , did the same laterally with the washer (which was way heavier), then moved the dryer into position. The trickiest part was hopping up onto the dryer to get into and out of the space behind for hooking up the dryer vent hose... But now the laundry rooom finally makes sense!
KTG, thanks, I didn't notice any links. Too bad it's so expensive!