Room to Room Movers: How to Rearrange Furniture in Your Home

Are you planning a major renovation of your home? Perhaps you are having new flooring laid out or just want to redesign the layout of your home?

There are many reasons why you may want to move the furniture around in your home and are wondering how you go about it.

The easiest and safest way to move heavy and large furniture around your home is to hire some help. Good room-to-room movers will be able to move your precious items safely and quickly, minimizing the effort and stress on you.

However, if you believe you have the skills and physical ability to move furniture around yourself, then this guide is here to give you all the essential information you need to move heavy and large furniture around without causing any damage, or worse still, injury to yourself.

Decluttering Your Home

Before you move any furniture, it is a great opportunity to get rid of all the clutter you have accumulated in your home.

If you have to empty a large cupboard or wardrobe before you move it anyway, why not use the opportunity to get rid of all the things you no longer need or want?

Your unwanted items can be recycled, donated to family, friends, or local worthy causes, or you can have a yard sale to raise some cash.

Just work on a room or cupboard at a time, creating three piles for donating, selling, or recycling.

How to Declutter Your Home Before Moving: 10 Decluttering Steps

How to Create a Floor Plan

Your first task is to plan the layout of your furniture and ensure that the pieces of furniture you want to move will fit into the available space where you intend to put them.

The best way to do this is to create a floor plan of your home.

There are many phone apps or online tools that will help you create a floor plan or you can choose to go old school and create one on paper.

It makes life a lot easier to work in whole numbers, so work out a scale for your plan.

When creating your scale always round down room measurements, and round up furniture measurements.

So, for example, 2 feet 8 inches becomes 2 feet 10 inches for furniture, and 20 feet 2 inches becomes 20 feet for room measurements.

How to Measure For a Floor Plan

This is what you should do when you want to create a practical floor plan.

How to measure a doorway or window

• Measure top to bottom and from left to right on the inside of the frame to determine the height and width of doorways, and whether your furniture will pass through them.
• Measure the outside of the frame when getting the measurements for your graph paper.
• Use the same method for measuring hallways, taking into account any tight corners or the turning angle you may need.

How to Measure a Couch

• From the outside of the armrests, the longest part of the couch, measure the length of the couch.
• Measure from the lowest point of the frame at the rear to the highest point of the armrest at the front to gauge the diagonal width of your couch.

How to Measure a Wardrobe or Cabinet

• From the top corner to the opposite bottom corner, measure the diagonal width.
• From the back to the front of the unit measure the depth.
• Measuring top to bottom will give you the height measurement.

Then work out the grid format you are going to use.

How Do You Scale a Floor Plan?

• Get yourself some graph paper and count how many squares wide and from top to bottom on the sheet there are.
• Use one sheet per room to make it easier to work with.
• The longest wall measurement will go along the longest side of the paper.
• Again, use easily divisible numbers. So 1 square equals 1 foot for example.
• Scale your rooms so that they fill the sheet which will make it easier to see and work with.

How Do You Make a Scale Drawing of a Room?

• Measure every dimension of the room, ensuring you measure from the outer sides of the door and window frames.
• Note which way doors and windows open and measure the arc.
• Don’t forget to take into consideration ceiling heights and the drop of light fittings.
• Make multiple copies of each sheet in case you want to make a number of alternative layouts.
• Then make cardboard cut-outs of your furniture. Use the same scale that you used for the grids. Just cut out squares or rectangles of cardboard to represent your pieces of furniture, and using colored cardboard will make it easier to see on paper.
• All that remains to do now is play around with the layout of the furniture until it meets your needs.

Things to Remember When Making a Floor Plan

• Note where electrical points, TV, and telephone cables run, and where air vents are.
• Consider if the light from a window will reflect upon the TV screen where you plan to place it.
• Note ceiling fan drops or how low light fittings hang.
• Consider which way cupboard doors, doors, and windows open.
• Avoid having furniture placed where it blocks natural light into the room.
• Avoid placing furniture near heat sources.
• Consider how you will move around the room, will furniture block the natural pathway or are they too close together?
• Think about how you will use the room and how the placement of the furniture will affect that.

Common Floor Plan Mistakes to Avoid

• Not aligning lifestyle with aesthetics: A common mistake is to layout a room to be visually pleasing whilst not taking into account how the room will be used. Do you need to create small functional areas or large open family spaces?
• Not thinking it through: Whilst large open spaces are great for the family they are very expensive to heat, and will the smells from the kitchen invade your living space?
• Have you created a safety hazard? Does the layout create any safety hazards or block fire escapes, for example? Is there just too much furniture crammed into the room to make it a usable and livable space?

How to Create a Floor Plan When Moving

How to Move Heavy and Large Furniture

It must be stressed that moving heavy and large furniture around can be dangerous for you, and may also result in damage to your furniture.

If you are in any doubt as to your physical ability to move heavy furniture then hire movers to do it for you.

How to Move Heavy Furniture Around Your Home

• Ensure the route you are taking is clear of tripping hazards.
• Double-check that the furniture will safely pass through hallways, up or downstairs, and through the doorways.
• Dismantle as much of the piece of furniture as you can to make it lighter.
• Remove shelves and drawers.
• If possible, slide rather than lift heavy furniture.
• Make use of load-carrying equipment rather than relying on body strength.
• Hook couches and chairs around corners to get them through door openings.
• It is easier to stand a couch upright when hooking it around a doorframe.
• Get as much help from family and friends as you can.

How to Get Friends to Help You Move Heavy Furniture

Equipment to Move Heavy Furniture

• Dolly: Also known as a hand truck, these are very useful pieces of furniture moving equipment and can easily be hired.
• Flatbed Dolly: A platform with four wheels at each corner that you place the item being moved onto. Note that you will need help to lift an item onto a flatbed.
• Lifting straps: Also known as moving straps. These straps are placed around, or under an item to lift it which results in less strain on your back. It usually requires two people to lift an item using these straps.
• Furniture sliders: Slip the sliders under the feet of the item being moved and they will glide easily over the carpet or hard floors. Left in place, they will help you easily move furniture in the future should you need to clean behind them for example.

How to Disassemble Furniture for Moving

How to Use Proper Lifting Techniques

• Adopt a stable position: With your feet slightly apart, place one leg slightly forward of the other to maintain balance. You may need to move your feet when lifting to keep your balance.
• Secure a good grip: It may help you to wear non-slip gloves so that you can get a firm grip on the item you are moving.
• Keep the load close: Keep the weight of the load as close to your body as possible.
• Start off right: As you adopt the lifting position it is better to bend your knees and back than stooping down.
• Don’t flex your back: As you start to lift don’t straighten your legs before you begin to lift.
• Keep it close: Keep the heaviest side of the object closest to your body and as close to your body as you can as you lift it.
• Avoid leaning sideways or twisting: Keep your shoulders level and facing in the same direction as your hips. Avoid twisting or leaning sideways which will lead to injury.
• Look ahead: Keep looking straight ahead, avoid looking downwards.
• Keep it smooth: Avoid jerking or snatching movements which will increase the risk of injury.
• Know your limits: Test the weight before committing to lifting it. If you are unsure that you will manage to safely lift the item then get help.

How to Lift and Carry Heavy Furniture When Moving

Tips for Moving Heavy Furniture

• Moving furniture over carpet: Slide, don’t drag: When moving furniture it is easier to use furniture sliders. Cardboard or plastic lids make great furniture sliders and will help your furniture glide over carpets easily.
• Moving furniture over tiles or wood floors: Place old towels or blankets under the item being moved and drag it. Slightly tilt the item backward and slide the blanket under the bottom of the item. This will prevent scratches to your floor as well as make it easier to move the item of furniture.
• High and low lifting method: You will need help when using this technique. With one person at the rear of the item and one in front, tilt the items backward. The person at the rear takes the weight of the item against their body whilst the person in front lifts the item from the bottom. Maintain this position to move the object but communicate clearly if you need to stop and rest.
• Rollers: Very large and heavy items of furniture can be moved using rollers. Solid pipes and thick round fence poles are perfect for this method. Just lay out a few rollers on the floor in front of the item being moved. Tilt the items backward and slip a roller under the front. Gently lower the item back down onto the roller and steadily roll it forward. As each roller is exposed behind the item, bring that roller to the front of the other rollers.

Moving items of heavy furniture between rooms may seem like an easy task but there are many risks involved. Be sure to check that your household insurance covers any damage that you may cause to your home or furniture as you move it around.

How to Move Heavy Items by Yourself

And as we said before, your health and safety should be your number one concern. Your local movers will be only too happy to move your furniture for you, so if you want a quick and easy way to move your furniture around, then give them a call.

You can find local room-to-room movers in your area and get a free quote in just a few minutes. It costs nothing to ask and you may be surprised at just how reasonable their charges are.