Lessons I've Learned After Moving Furniture One Too Many Times

Moving furniture can lead to pain and injury if you're not careful. Learn four important lessons about lifting, balance, strain, and why rushing always backfires.

"Ouch" is what I want to say. And with that being said, let's get onto what caused that 'ouch'. You've read the heading, so you probably can already imagine what I'm talking about, right? 

When you look at a piece of furniture, pause, and think to yourself, "I can move that on my own, no biggie." But it is, in fact, a biggie - a huge biggie - because you're not taking any measurements and you're not second-guessing your decision. You're going off nothing more than confidence and momentum, and that rarely ends up well. 

Usually, this happens during something harmless, like moving a couch to see how it feels or pulling a dresser away from the wall to clean it. It's familiar, so it feels safe. 

Sooner or later, though, that illusion falls apart. After you've done a few of these, you notice a pattern. There's that one spot on your body that always flares up, and you repeat the same mistakes because they don't actually feel like mistakes. 

So all of this has inspired me to turn that pain and regret into something useful. So, without further ado, here are a few of the lessons I've learned after moving furniture WAAAAY too many times. And also, why you should think twice before doing the same thing.

As you can see, none of this is ideal, so let me tell you about the lessons I learned after moving furniture way too many times and why you should think twice about doing the same. 

4 Lessons Furniture Teaches You

It's funny now, imagining your teacher looking like a huge couch. But hey. It wasn't that funny then.

Once you move furniture enough times, patterns start to show up.

Heavy Pieces Don't Always Look Heavy

Some of the hardest pieces to move are the ones that look like they're not going to be a problem at all. 

A low cabinet, for instance, or a narrow bookshelf looks totally doable, which gives you false confidence.

The moment you lift the thing, the weight shifts, and the balance goes off. 

Suddenly, your body is doing a lot more work than you expected, and this teaches you a very simple lesson. Before you start lifting anything, it's a great idea to stop and actually inspect/analyze the thing you're trying to move. Think about how it's built, shaped, and where the center of balance is. Is there friction if you move it? Will it ruin the floor or just your spine? Things like that.

Doing It Once Is NOT the Same as Doing It Often

Should be self-explanatory. But let's just point it out a bit to make a point. An important point. And that is that you lifting something heavy once seems ok. You've done it. It's now behind you, and that's it.

If you do it over and over, on the other hand, things change. They change quite a bit. 

Repetition increases strain even when each move feels fine on its own. 

That's true at home and in other environments, as well, anywhere where lifting is part of the routine, like situations that involve dealing with a lifting injury on the job. 

After a few repeats, the difference between once and often will become impossible to ignore. 

'Just for a Minute' Is How Trouble Starts

You're probably not planning a whole project around moving furniture, am I right? 

You decide quickly and then get to work. But that's exactly how problems start.

This usually happens when your footing is a bit off, or when your hands are in the wrong spot, you lose your balance, and basically, you come to the realization that this whole thing is too awkward to move on your own. I can't stop thinking about that "Pivot!! PIVOOOOOT!" scene from Friends. I know it's not the same. But yeah.

A bit dramatic? Maybe. But it sure is memorable.

Long story short -- if you rush things, you'll turn something that should've been an easy 'just a minute' job into something chaotic.

Your Body Keeps Count

Unless you're already injured, you probably won't feel any discomfort during the actual move. You'll feel it later that night or the next morning, when you bend down and feel something pull. Ouch.

What people don't realize here is that it's really tricky, because all these little moments feel harmless enough when you isolate each one. But the problem with all that is that all those 'harmless enough' moments stack up into something that's not harmless anymore.

You don't always connect them to a specific lift; your body does. 

Conclusion

When you really think about it, moving furniture should have more honesty in it. 

And I know that sounds like it doesn't make sense, but it actually does. Don't you think that you should be more honest with yourself about what's worth moving? Or how much effort something takes? Or about the fact that there's no room to refresh in the entire world that's worth limping around for?

And no, I'm not here to tell you to NEVER ever rearrange your home. That's not the point. The point is that you should stop forcing your body to do too much because it's not an unlimited resource. It's got limits.

So, learn to pause. Learn to ask for help. And suddenly, all of this furniture-moving shenanigans becomes SO much easier.