It’s Friday afternoon, so somewhere in the country a sofa is about to meet a staircase.
We get called after that goes wrong fairly often. A wardrobe wedged on a landing. A gouge down a freshly painted hallway. A dining table that went in through the patio doors four years ago and will not come out through anything.
Almost none of it is about strength. It’s about the twenty minutes of measuring that nobody does.
So if you’ve got something big to shift this weekend, here’s how to do it properly.
Measure the gap, not the furniture
A standard internal door in England and Wales is 762mm wide and 1981mm high. Plenty of Victorian and Edwardian houses are nothing like that, which is why you measure rather than assume.
Then measure the item three ways: width, depth and height. A sofa that won’t fit through a door standing up will often go through on its side or back, so work out which way round it’s going before you pick it up.
And measure the whole route, not just the first door. The place it usually fails is the turn at the bottom of the stairs, the newel post, the radiator halfway down the hall, or the ceiling slope at the top of a loft conversion.
Then make the gap bigger
A few minutes here changes the job.
Take the door off its hinges. It’s two pins and a screwdriver, and it buys you useful inches on both the width and the swing.
Take the feet off a sofa or bed. Take the doors and mirrors off a wardrobe. Empty the drawers, then take the drawers out. Cushions off, and the back panel off if it unbolts.
Move the furniture that’s already in the room out of the way first. Nobody wants to discover the coffee table halfway through.
Lifting, the boring but important bit
There is no legal maximum weight for lifting in the UK. The Health and Safety Executive is clear that its guideline figures are not safe limits, but they’re a useful reality check. Even in the best position, with the load held close to the body at around waist height, the guideline is 25kg for men and 16kg for women. Lift higher, lower or further from your body and those figures drop quickly.
A two seater sofa is a lot more than 25kg. So is a fridge freezer, and so is a chest of drawers with the drawers left in.
Which means the honest advice is to get more hands. If you’re lifting anyway:
- Get your feet planted before you take the weight.
- Bend your knees, not your back, and keep the load close to you.
- Never twist while you’re loaded. Move your feet instead.
- Push rather than pull where you can.
- If you have to shuffle because you can’t see past it, put it down.
Two people, one voice
The most common injury on an awkward lift comes from two people doing different things at the same moment.
So agree who’s calling it before you start. One person counts, one person says down and stop, and the person going backwards down the stairs is the one who gets to set the pace. Walk the route together first, and move the cat.
Protecting the house
- Lay old blankets, flattened cardboard or a dust sheet along the route, especially on carpet and wood.
- Tape cardboard round the doorframes at the pinch points. A doorframe corner is what does the damage, to the furniture and the wall.
- Lift, don’t drag. Unless it’s on carpet and built to slide, one screw head on the underside of a wardrobe will write its name right across a laminate floor.
- Watch the light fittings and the stair spindles. That’s where tall items catch.
The ones that need a bit more thought
Fridges and freezers. Keep them upright if you can. If one has to be laid down, stand it upright for a few hours before you plug it back in. If you’d rather not wrestle it yourself, we do white goods moves too.
Mattresses. Bag them. A mattress collects every bit of dirt on a hallway floor and they’re awkward to clean.
Glass tables and mirrors. Carry them upright, on their edge, never flat. Blanket them properly and never rest them against a wall without someone holding them.
Televisions. Upright, and in the original box if you still have it. Flat is how screens get cracked.
Pianos, safes and anything cast iron. Don’t. Really. That’s what our piano removal team is for.
When to stop and ring someone
If the answer to any of these is yes, it’s worth getting help rather than a sore back on Monday.
- Does it need two people or more?
- Are stairs or a tight turn involved?
- Is it irreplaceable, expensive, or someone else’s?
- Has anybody in the room got a dodgy back, knee or shoulder?
We move single items as well as whole houses, so this doesn’t have to mean booking a full move. Plenty of our work is one sofa, one wardrobe or one appliance, and your local branch will quote you for exactly that. Have a look at our large item moves.
Most jobs are priced by the hour, with a day rate on bigger ones. Ask your branch for the rate, any minimum, what’s included and what could change it.
With 70+ branches across the UK there’s usually one close by. Find your nearest branch or get a free quote. It’s a lot cheaper than redecorating the hall.
The short version
Measure the route before you touch the furniture. Take the doors off. Get an extra pair of hands rather than a better grip. Agree who’s counting. Blanket the walls, not just the sofa.
And if it’s a piano, put the tape measure down and give us a ring.
Written by Cat Robson-Scarborough, co-founder of Your Man With A Van.
