How to Lift and Carry Heavy Boxes and Furniture When Moving

Everybody knows that heavy lifting is an inseparable part of every house move. Even if no furniture is being moved to the new home, there are still loads and loads of heavy boxes to be lifted, carried out of the house, and loaded into the moving vehicle.

Lifting and carrying heavy boxes and heavy furniture is all about safety – your own safety, the safety of others, and the safety of the property you’re moving out of and then the one you’re moving into. But while property damage is bad, personal injuries are way worse in every regard imaginable, so they must be prevented at all costs.

Read on to learn how to lift and carry heavy boxes and furniture without hurting yourself in the process.

The proper lifting techniques below will teach you how to keep injuries away from Moving day, but first, it’s important that you understand the nature of those moving injuries – remember that prevention is still the best medicine.

Types of injuries from improper lifting

Using the proper lifting techniques described below is of paramount importance simply because they will keep you from getting injured on the day of the move. Don’t make the mistake of underestimating a situation where heavy lifting is required – each house moving case is different and therefore, you’ll have to rise to the occasion accordingly.

By getting familiar with the most common moving injuries, you’ll be willing to take things more seriously and thus prevent any bad accidents that, unfortunately, may prove more costly than you could ever imagine.

NOT knowing how to properly lift and carry heavy boxes, or reasonably heavy furniture pieces, can lead to the following personal injuries:

BACK injuries

The most common back injuries when lifting heavy items during a move are:

• pinched nerves,
• strains,
• herniated disks.

When lifting fairly lightweight things, you tend to only strain the muscles of your arms.

However, when lifting heavier objects, you’ll also activate the weak muscles of your back.

So, if you do the lifting incorrectly or the load is too heavy, then the resulting stress on your back will be more than it can handle safely.

MUSCLE injuries

The most common muscle injuries when lifting heavy things when moving house are:

• muscle strains (mild, moderate, severe),
• muscle contusions,
• muscle cramps.

Of course, your muscles and connective tissues will do all the hard work when it comes to lifting and carrying heavy boxes and furniture during a move. Different muscle groups work all the time in everyday activities, but when they get strained beyond their healthy limits, various muscle injuries can easily occur.

Injuries to HANDS, FEET, FINGERS, and TOES

The most common injuries to hands, feet, fingers, and toes when lifting heavy boxes or furniture when moving are:

• cuts,
• scrapes,
• bruises,
• sprains,
• breaks.

Loss of concentration or fatigue can easily lead to injuries to your extremities. One wrong step can cause you to lose your balance while exhaustion from all the hard work can force you to lose your grip when holding and carrying a heavy item.

Safety Tips to Avoid Injuries When Moving

How to lift and carry heavy boxes and heavy furniture

Now that you know what types of personal injuries you could sustain when lifting and carrying boxes and furniture, it’s time to learn the proper lifting techniques – a series of safety rules (DOS and DON’TS) that will map out the right methods of using your physical strength effectively and safely to move heavy objects (reasonably heavy, of course) on your own, without having to ask your friends to help you out or pay professional movers to do it for you.

Here’s how to lift heavy boxes and how to lift heavy furniture RISK-FREE:

1. WEAR good footwear

Before you start lifting and carrying heavy items on the day of the move, it’s important to make sure you wear the most comfortable pair of shoes you have.

The thing is that even if you do follow all the right lifting techniques to keep accidents away from your doorstep, you might still get hurt due to using the wrong footwear on the most dangerous and unpredictable day of the entire move.

When lifting and carrying heavy boxes and furniture, you need shoes that

• have anti-slip soles made of rubber (excellent traction),
• are closed-toe (better protection for your toes),
• are flexible enough (freer movements for your feet),
• offer protection for your ankles (minimum chance of ankle injuries).

In most cases, sports shoes are a good and safe choice.

2. ASSESS the situation before you lift a heavy object

Haste can often lead to injuries on Moving day, so before you lift something that looks uncomfortably heavy, you should always assess the situation carefully to figure out whether you can actually handle the load safely or whether you will need assistance of some sort.

As a rule of thumb, you should limit the weight you lift and carry by yourself to 50 pounds. Consequently, when you’re about to handle a load that’s more than 50 pounds, you should get a helper or use a moving dolly.

However, considering the repetitiveness of moving heavy boxes around and how your body will tire out quickly from the constant strain, it’s best to limit your boxes or furniture pieces to 40 pounds – it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

Don’t try to prove to yourself or to your friends just how strong you are – pushing yourself to the limit is a risky endeavor on Moving day when dangers are practically everywhere and physical strength alone is often not enough to keep you out of trouble.

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3. MAINTAIN a stable base with your feet

Before lifting heavy boxes or furniture, you should always remember to

• KEEP a wide and stable base with your feet,
• POSITION your feet shoulder-width apart,
• HAVE one foot slightly forward (usually the non-dominant one),
• MAINTAIN a good balance with the other foot. 

Using a wide stance before lifting a heavy object will distribute the weight of the load across your entire body, thus preventing the concentration of too much strain on one specific area. As you will see below, proper weight distribution is a vital concept in keeping yourself injury-free throughout the move.

4. MAINTAIN a correct back posture

Injuries while lifting boxes and furniture can happen instantly – well before you have the time to undo them.

The moment of lifting a heavy object off the ground is a critical strenuous activity because it requires a strong focus on lifting power, thus hiding a great potential for injury, especially to your back.

You must avoid back injuries at all costs!

Before lifting a heavy box or a furniture piece off the floor,

• KEEP your back as straight as possible (always!),
• HAVE your shoulders back,
• LOOK straight ahead.

It’s important to keep in mind that you should let your strong lower limbs do the hard work on Moving day, not your upper back.

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5. BEND your knees (ALWAYS!), never bend your back

Some powerlifting techniques are much more important than others, and here comes the most essential rule when lifting heavy furniture and boxes during a move:

Bend your knees, not your back. Always.

But why? When you bend your knees, you’ll use the leg muscles (the strongest muscles in the human body) as a lifting mechanism, so the risk of injury is virtually zero provided that you’re comfortable with the weight of the load.

However, if you do the mistake of bending your back instead, then you’ll place a lot of stress on the back muscles which are many times weaker than your leg muscles. As a result, you could end up hurting your back pretty badly.

So, remember, don’t arch your back, just bend your knees to get low so that you can have your hands onto a box or a piece of furniture that needs to be lifted and carried to the moving vehicle.

6. MAINTAIN a good grip on things

A poor grip on whatever it is that you’re carrying can cause you to drop the load onto the floor (property damage) or worse – drop it onto your feet and toes (personal injury). The chances of accidents increase when you’re already too tired, when the palms of your hands are sweaty from the summer heat or from the strenuous work, or when the load is too heavy or too awkward to be held comfortably.

Make sure you wear high-quality work gloves to improve the grip and keep your hands and fingers protected at all times. Whenever applicable, hold heavy items on their designated handles or special openings to eliminate the risk of dangerous incidents on Moving day.

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7. CARRY the boxes close to your body

When you’re carrying heavy boxes out of your home, or moving them into your new house or apartment, make sure you keep those heavy containers close to your waist as you’re walking.

Here’s why you should do it: by having heavy objects more or less centered in relation to your own body, then you’ll be able to remain stable for a prolonged period of time simply because the load you’re carrying will stay close to your center of gravity. It’s a law of Physics, so you’d better believe that it works.

Maintaining your stability is especially important when you’re carrying heavy boxes downstairs or upstairs. For best results, you should try to also keep your elbows tucked in and your eyes upright as you’re walking toward where you want to go.

8. MOVE your feet, DON’T twist

As mentioned above, Moving day accidents can happen before you know it. What will happen if somebody calls you by name while you’re carrying heavyweight boxes or furniture items? You’ll turn around at your waist, of course, to see what they want from you. And that could prove to be a big mistake.

When carrying heavy objects, you should never twist your back as that may lead to a back injury. Instead, always move your feet together with the load in order to turn around. Unfortunately, many people forget about that critical detail simply because turning around at the waist is the more natural movement… unless your body is put under a lot of strain at that very moment.

Also, you should not bend while moving heavy items around – rather, you should always squat down using the power of your legs.  

9. KEEP boxes below your waist level

Staying safe and injury-free during a move often comes down to using your common sense.

So, while lifting and carrying heavy boxes and furniture close to your body as a way to maintain your stability, why would you risk lifting overweight objects over your head?

Unless you trust your physical strength and endurance, you should only lift and carry heavy items up to your waist. Otherwise, the extra strain in your back muscles and arm muscles from the uplifted load may lead to injury, usually a pulled muscle.

Also, lifting heavy loads above your head may cause you to lose your balance due to the sudden disruption of the weight distribution.

10. MOVE smoothly and slowly

It can be really dangerous to make any sudden and abrupt movements while moving boxes and furniture because any quick and unplanned motions can trigger surges of great strain on specific areas in your body.

Make an effort to move smoothly when you’re carrying a heavy load and always use small and carefully measured steps when going forward or backward. Haste can really make waste, so take it slowly and one step at a time no matter how badly you’re behind schedule.

Don’t forget that your health and the health of the loved ones around you are your number one priority during a move. Therefore, if you do feel nervous about handling heavy boxes and heavy furniture, and you have this weird feeling that something bad is about to happen, then eliminate any dangers and risks from the equation by hiring professional movers.

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