It makes a lot of sense to hire furniture movers to disassemble, pack up, and move the furniture you wish to move with you to the new home.
After all, most furniture pieces are big and heavy – a tricky combination that may turn Moving day into a dangerous affair if you try to do it on your own – that is, without professional assistance.
The best thing about hiring the pros is that they will move your furniture safely, with no damage to any of the pieces or any property damage such as scratched floors or chipped walls when taking the bulky units out of the home.
Still, if you happen to be organizing a self-move, then you’re going to have to rely on a couple of moving equipment pieces that will make your job both easier and safer: a MOVING DOLLY and FURNITURE SLIDERS.
Read on to learn everything you need to know about furniture sliders: what they are, what they are used for, and why you should use them during your DIY move (advantages).
Also, you’ll learn how to use furniture gliders (detailed steps), where to buy furniture sliders, and even how to use homemade furniture sliders.
What are furniture sliders?
Furniture sliders – also known as furniture gliders – are small pieces of moving equipment that will enable you to slide big and heavy household items such as furniture appliances easily (almost effortlessly) and without any damage to the floor.
What are furniture sliders made of? Those unique moving equipment pieces are made of hard plastic or durable rubber on one side and felt material on the other side – these are the so-called multi-surface furniture sliders.
It’s important to note that some furniture movers are manufactured entirely of durable rubber or hard plastic (both sides) while there are those that are made of felt only (both sides). These specialized gliders are used only on one type of floor – either carpeted floors or hardwood floors – see below for more detail.
The sizes and shapes of furniture gliders can vary greatly from model to model and from manufacturer to manufacturer. Their sizes can be anywhere from roughly 3 inches to about 7 inches while their shapes can be round (most often), oval, square, rectangular, or hexagonal.
What are the best furniture sliders for carpets? For carpeted floors, always use furniture sliders that are made of hard materials – either plastic or rubber. This way, the sliders will glide smoothly along the soft carpet effortlessly and without damage of any kind to the carpet itself.
What are the best furniture sliders for hardwood floors? For hardwood floors, make sure you use furniture gliders that are made of soft materials – most often felt or spongy matter. This way, the furniture movers will not damage the hard floors in any way but will glide easily along the surface. Such felt furniture sliders are also suitable for ceramic tiles, vinyl, laminate, linoleum, and cement floors.
The sole purpose of furniture slides is to eliminate the friction between super-heavy household items and the floor. With the help of those useful moving equipment pieces, heavyweight objects will glide with zero effort and zero damage across various types of floors.
When you’re moving house without using the services of professional movers, the fact that you can move your heavy furniture across the room with minimum effort and no floor damage is exactly what you need to pull off a successful DIY move.
The good news is that those gliders can be used for moving a large variety of large and heavyweight items found in the home such as:
Dragging large furniture along the floor is a very bad idea, especially when it’s antique furniture.
beds,
tables,
desks,
dressers,
wardrobes,
cabinets,
sofas,
refrigerators,
washing machines,
dishwashers, and even
pianos.
How do furniture sliders work? The use of furniture gliders is easier than you think. Basically, all you have to do is position one slider underneath each leg or side of the furniture or appliance you want to move across the room and then start pushing gently the heavy item in the direction you want it to go – in most cases, toward the door.
Find below detailed step-by-step instructions on how to use furniture sliders when moving from one home to another.
When you’ve made up your mind to move without hiring movers, you should welcome any help that comes your way. Luckily, the usage of furniture sliders is highly recommended during Do-It-Yourself moves simply because they have many advantages that make them unreasonable NOT to use them.
Here are the major reasons why you should use furniture sliders when moving by yourself:
Protect floors. The usage of furniture gliders will keep the floors in your home perfectly free of damage simply because the big and heavy furniture and appliances will glide across the floor surface without ever touching it directly. Hardwood floors and tiled floors are rather prone to damage when you’re moving furniture, especially if you make the mistake of dragging a heavy piece across the room.
Protect furniture. One of the major problems when trying to move big and heavy furniture is that the legs bear all the weight and if the piece is moved incorrectly, those legs can easily get broken. The use of furniture gliders will take that extra strain from the legs and will enable the heavy object to start “floating” a few inches above the floor as if you used a levitation spell on it.
Minimize effort. High-quality furniture sliders will let you slide a heavy item with almost no effort at all. This house moving scenario is ideal for you since you should be looking for ways to conserve your energy on Moving day. As a rule of thumb, whenever you are given the opportunity to do something easier and safer during your self-move, you should do it without thinking twice about it.
Prevent injuries. It’s always risky to lift and carry heavy furniture and bulky household appliances, and personal injuries are never out of the question. One great advantage of using furniture sliders when moving is that you won’t need to carry any heavyweight pieces at all. Coupled with a moving dolly and a few helping hands from your friends, the sliding disks will ensure an injury-free move from start to finish.
Inexpensive. Without a doubt, one of the best things about furniture sliders is that they are perfectly affordable. Even though the price can vary depending on the quality of the gliders and the place you buy them from, you can expect to pay anywhere from around $6 to $14 for a pack of 4 furniture sliders. The price usually goes down the more pieces you buy within a set – for example, a pack of 16 gliders costs around $20.
Easy to get. You can purchase quality furniture sliders from the nearest home improvement store or you can buy a pack of furniture gliders online – whichever purchase method is more convenient for you. Either way, those pieces of moving equipment are super easy to find before your move-out day.
Versatile. One great advantage of furniture sliders is that they are very versatile – that is, they can be used for sliding effortlessly and damage-free not only pieces of furniture but also big and heavy household appliances such as a refrigerator or a washer. In reality, you can use those sliders for moving across the room any type of large and heavyweight objects in your home, including a piano.
Reusable. After you buy a pack of high-quality furniture sliders, you can use them over and over again whenever you need them. Once you are in the new place, you can use them for moving heavy furniture and appliances around the room, for example when you’re cleaning, remodeling or just looking for the perfect Feng Shui configuration within the new home.
Easy to maintain. You’ll be glad to learn that the furniture gliders you purchase require little or no maintenance. When you’re done using them, just wipe them clean with a damp cloth and wait for them to dry out before you store them away.
Easy to store away. The sliding disks are super easy to store away because they are compact enough. They will comfortably fit in a small moving box which you can store in the closet, garage, or any other storage room in the new home. Don’t forget to write on the box what’s inside it for easier identification the next time you need those furniture sliders.
How to use furniture sliders – Step-by-step instructions
Before moving a big and heavy furniture piece, make it as light as possible by removing whatever items are inside it and on top of it.
Using furniture sliders is fairly easy and straightforward.
And yet, you should be familiar with the basic steps of doing so to avoid possible trouble.
How do furniture sliders work?
Step 1. GET helpers if you intend to move furniture or appliances that are too heavy for one person to handle. In most cases, you should be able to manage it with one other assistant, but for safety reasons, the recommended number of helpers is 2, excluding you.
Step 2. PREPARE the heavy item you’re about to slide across the room. When it’s a furniture piece, make sure it’s empty before you attempt to move it. When moving a fridge or a dishwashing machine, ensure they are empty as well. Also, remove any items that are placed on top of the heavyweight piece you’re trying to move.
Step 3. PREPARE the furniture sliders. There are two important things to keep in mind here: 1) you need a slider for each furniture leg or edge, and 2) check whether you have the right type of sliders. REMEMBER: Use soft-padded sliders on hard floors and hard plastic or rubber sliders on soft, carpeted floors.
Step 4. PLACE the sliders, one by one, under the legs of the bulky furniture pieces or household appliances. How do you do it? Together with your helpers, tilt slightly the heavyweight item forward or backward so that its rear or front legs can come a little bit off the ground. Do this step slowly and carefully.
Step 5. POSITION a slider under each leg while the heavy item is slightly in the air. The best way to do it is to push the sliding disk under each furniture leg with your foot to prevent unlikely but still possible injury to your fingers. Whenever that’s not possible, use your hands to slide the sliders under the furniture legs but be EXTREMELY CAREFUL to NEVER keep your fingers directly underneath the legs or edges, not even for a second.
Step 6. START sliding slowly the heavy object toward where you want it to go once you’ve positioned properly all the furniture sliders underneath each leg or edge. If you’ve followed the above steps carefully, you should be able to slide almost effortlessly the big furniture piece or appliance toward the door. In most cases, it’s preferable that you push the heavyweight object instead of pulling it. If the heavy item won’t budge, check whether you’ve used the right type of sliders and that they are placed correctly.
Step 7. REMOVE the gliders when you’ve reached the destination spot. Do it in the same way you positioned those gliding disks – tilting slightly the heavy household item and removing the sliders from each leg or edge, one by one. Again, this step can be dangerous so be very careful to avoid untimely injury to your fingers, hands, toes, or feet.
Step 8. USE the sliders again to move other heavyweight items around the room or store them away when you’re done with them.
When you’re moving by yourself, furniture sliders are must-have pieces of moving equipment to have on Moving day… unless you’ve decided not to move any furniture pieces or big house appliances.
Those gliders will make your work so much easier and safer, especially when combined with a moving dolly – the workhorse behind each DIY move.
So, an important question is where to buy furniture sliders ahead of the scheduled move-out day. Luckily, the most popular home improvement stores or supermarkets should have a rich assortment of furniture sliders for your move:
Your local hardware store should also have furniture sliders for your house-moving needs.
And, of course, you can always purchase such gliders online, from Amazon or eBay, for example.
As an alternative option, most local moving companies will offer furniture sliders for rent. However, considering the low price of a pack of gliders and their tendency for repeated use, you’d be better off purchasing quality furniture sliders and storing them after the move for whenever you might need them again.
Frisbees can be excellent alternatives to original furniture sliders.
You already know that furniture sliders are affordable pieces of moving equipment that can be extremely useful come Moving day.
Thus said, sometimes it’s not about the money but about the lack of time – you may happen to need such sliding disks urgently.
And if that’s the case, then you’d be interested in learning whether you can use any type of homemade furniture sliders for the intended purpose. The good news is that YES, you can.
For sliding heavy items on hard floors (hardwood, tiles, vinyl, linoleum, concrete), use clean thick towels or pieces of area rugs. Keep in mind that those towels or area rugs will most likely get destroyed in the process.
For gliding heavyweight furniture or appliances over carpeted floors, use pieces of thick cardboard… or your old Frisbee made of hard plastic.
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