Using Moving Blankets, Straps & Rope for an Easier Move

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Nothing is more aggravating than spending hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars on relocating only to cause major damage to your health or your stuff in the process. Using moving blankets, straps, and rope can be surprisingly helpful when it comes to improving move efficiency, preventing injuries, and keeping your possessions in good shape. You can use the following tricks to sail through your moving day with minimum struggle and regret.

Using Moving Blankets

Also sometimes referred to as moving pads, it’s best to have a dozen of these around for every five cubic feet of trailer space you plan to use, or two or three pads per piece of furniture—you can never be too careful when it comes to protecting your stuff from permanent damage. Advanced level moving-blanket techniques include:

  • Using moving blankets with stretch wrap: Many people think to use moving blankets *or* stretch wrap, but using the two in combination will provide maximize furniture protection while minimizing loose, bulky fabric. Fold blankets around each piece of furniture, then secure them with a layer of stretch wrap.
  • Using moving blankets to slide heavy furniture: Not all heavy furniture needs to be carried. Some items are easier to slide across the floor, out the door, across the front yard, and up the ramp into the moving truck. Dressers, credenzas, coffee tables, and other narrow, heavy pieces of furniture that can be placed on their tops or sides are good candidates for this technique.
  • Using moving blankets to create a makeshift ramp: If you’re going to encounter a short flight of stairs while sliding a piece of furniture from one place to another, you can use folded moving blankets to create a soft surface to slide the furniture down.
  • Using moving blankets to sling unwieldy items: From mattresses to pottery wheels, some items are just plain hard to carry. You can use a moving blanket to create a sling so that you and a partner can more easily get a hard-to-handle item from place to place more easily.

Using Moving Straps & Rope

Moving straps are most commonly use to secure bulky appliances or pieces of furniture to a dolly, while rope is most often used to tie down items traveling to their destination in the back of a pickup truck. However, there are other ways you can use both of these tools to make moving easier:

  • Using specialized straps to easily lift bulky pieces: Both shoulder and forearm dollies can be used to move heavy appliances and furniture with minimal strain.
  • Using straps or rope to bundle soft goods: From rolling rugs and securing them to bundling pillows, blankets, cushions, and mats into easy-to-carry parcels, ropes and straps can come in handy for moving items that don’t fit naturally into boxes.
  • Using rope to create “handles”: By wrapping rope around boxes and other items as you’d wrap twine around a package or ribbon around a present, you can create handles that let you carry things more easily. While you may not want to do this with every box or piece of furniture, it can be a helpful technique for things that are difficult to carry. You can also string rope through mattress handles to give you something more substantial to hang onto.

Given the number of items that need to be transported from one location to the next during the move, it can be well worth your time to implement small process improvements that can yield big benefits and help guarantee a smooth, easy move.

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