Captain Dapper's Best Tips for Re-Arranging Furniture Alone Using Socks, Lids & Leverage to Move Heavy Furniture

I've been moving furniture since ... well, actually, for as long as I can remember. My mom was a chronic re-arranger and so whenever the mood would hit and she'd decide to shift the furniture around the room, I'd be enlisted to help. I think I was just six-years-old the first time I was tasked with pushing chairs and tugging sofas around the living room.

Later, when I had my own bedroom, I would often re-arrange my furniture. It was a big square of a room and in the course of the five years that it was mine, I had my bed in every position imaginable, including a brief period when I floated it in the middle of the room. I only had a few pieces of furniture to work with but rearranging it was a fun way to release some of my angsty, antsy teenage energy. 

Over the years I have decorated and redecorated more apartments than I can count. I seem to always be home alone when the decorating inspiration strikes so I've become quite skilled at moving large pieces of furniture on my own. Mind you, I am not a large man. At 5'9" and 135 pounds, no one is going to mistake Captain Dapper for Superman. 

That first bedroom and some of my first apartments were carpeted so it was relatively easy to slide furniture from one side of the room to the other. When things were really heavy, like the prized console stereo I had inherited when my aunt redecorated her apartment, I would get a low grip on them and pull them across the room like some sort of primate. 

So there's my first tip: get low. When you're trying to move a heavy piece across the room, get low on it to create leverage and then push or pull. Needless to say, remove the contents of the heavy furniture to make it a little easier.  

The key to moving furniture is finding ways to slide. Lifting is for chumps - or people with really strong backs. I am neither. Sliding furniture on carpet can be pretty easy. Some chair legs may stick on the carpet so here's another tip. Put the furniture legs on plastic lids - takeaway containers and lids are perfect for this - to make sliding it across carpet easier. 

Most of my adult apartments have had wood floors. This has made rearranging furniture a breeze. Pieces on casters and those with protective plastic or felt pieces already in place slide across the floor with ease. For furniture that will scratch the floors, here a tip's: use old socks. Lift the corners of the furniture and place socks under the legs. This will help you slide the furniture across the room easily while preventing scratches in the flooring.

Now, go forth and rearrange your furniture. But please, dear reader, try not to hurt your back. I'm a blogger, not a doctor. If you injure yourself while moving furniture, you're on your own. (Although I promise to send you muffins while you recuperate.)

Image: Jason Loper