A Tip For Moving Furniture Around the House With Plastic Sheet

If you are rearranging furniture in your house, or even moving it to a new location, professionals have a few tricks of the trade to make moving easy and smooth.

The sheet I use is clear heavy duty sheet. It is four times the thickness of those flimsy 'one use' furniture covers, and more like the 'scuff proof' grade used by sofa manufacturers.

Indeed furniture shops / warehouses may be the place for the amateur mover to scrounge some old sheet.

If you are moving a wardrobe, refrigerator or chest of drawers, plastic sheet is a useful tool:
Fold up the sheet so it is a least 4 folds thick. You should end up with a long rectangle, and the piece to be moved will be placed on one end of it... You will pull on the other end. The sheet should be of a width sufficient to take the piece but also pass through doorways without scrunching up and jamming.

You may not even have to move the furniture to get the sheet underneath: You can tip up one end of the piece (just a few degrees), and shovel enough plastic underneath it, then put the piece down and tip up it's other end to pull the plastic out.

Not only can tall objects be easily moved through doors, but tight right angles in corridors can be optimally traversed.

Heavy fridges become easy to move.

We also use plastic sheet to move pianos: When a piano has to be up-ended 90 degrees to get into a doorway from a tight corridor...

We usually remove the bottom frame (kick board), the desk (the panel the written music sits on) and the key cover. Take care that the piano's top lid does not overhang the sides... If it is so constructed, the lip of the top may collide with metal carpet edging... in which case a cushion (well placed) between the plastic sheet and the upturned side of the piano will keep the lip off the ground

The process of pulling on the sheet is smooth and controlled, so a lot of bumping is avoided: It is kind both to your furniture and to your house.

Mostly two people are needed: One to tip up the furniture whilst the other arranges the plastic. One person should push the piece while one pulls on the plastic. Two to watch both sides and call out to avoid bumping and scraping.

On the other hand, the technique can at a pinch allow single handed maneuvering in some circumstances.

I always use plastic sheet for soft furnishings, like sofas and mattresses. Sofas that have to be up ended to get through doorways can scuff or even tear. Use heavy sheet secured with parcel tape to encase the piece.. and always take the feet off first.

Mattresses are heavy and pick up dirt easily. The heavier they are, the more certain it is that they will touch the ground.

Another trick my clients enjoy is to pick up a single mattress, sheets, pillows duvets, cuddly toys and all, and wrap it up tight in sheet. After moving, we then unwrap it and place it back on the bed ready for use with a minimum of redressing.

Plastic sheet can really make moving easier.

Heidi