What I Learned from a Pro about Moving Heavy Furniture

Last weekend, the long-awaited mid-century modern credenza my husband and I had purchased arrived at our home. But it wasn’t carried in by two heavy lifters in white gloves. 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. “I have a bad shoulder”, she explained as she led us toward the truck. Uh oh.

It turns out that the delivery person we had hired was a nice little woman who travels back and forth across the country delivering furniture to both coasts, everywhere in between, and Mexico, and Canada. In her heyday, she said, she was able to get in there and substantially help to move the large pieces she delivers. But today, she does the driving only. 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. The tip that helped most:

Use those blankets! The quilted blue blankets that wrap furniture for protection from scratches and dents are multi-purpose. Once we had the credenza off the truck, the blankets were our primary tool in getting the piece from point A to B. 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). That saved us from doing any lifting whatsoever and completely eliminated any chance of dropping and damaging the furniture.

Once we reached the front steps, we laid a cushion of several more quilted blankets out over the steps. We then unwrapped the credenza and slid it (on its top) up the “ramp” of blankets laid over the stoop. And voila! It was inside. 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. Once it was aligned with where we wanted it, we just had to flip it off of the blanket and onto its feet.

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. 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). In the end, I was thankful that our mover was not a big, burly man who would have done it all for us. Instead, as the saying goes, we were taught to fish and will forever have this helpful knowledge in our back pockets!

Do you have any helpful moving tips that have saved you in the past? Please share below!

(Image: US Cargo Control)