The best thing about hiring full-service movers is that they will take care of everything for you, including packing up your possessions in a safe manner and moving large and heavy furniture pieces and household appliances without any risk of damage to the heavy objects or to the floors, walls, or doorways of the place you’re moving out of or the place you’re moving into.
However, when you’ve made up your mind to move out without using the services of a professional moving company, then, all of a sudden, SAFETY becomes a major concern for you and the people around you. And so, to make your Do-It-Yourself as safe as possible, one thing you’re strongly advised to use is proper moving equipment.
And while nobody can dispute the usefulness, practicality, and versatility of the moving dolly, the next best piece of moving equipment you just have to have with you on the day of the move is… a pack of FURNITURE SLIDERS.
But what are furniture sliders? How do you use furniture sliders to move furniture easily and safely? Read on to find everything about those moving gizmos.
What are furniture sliders?
Furniture sliders are small pieces made of hard and durable plastic (or rubber) on one side (for carpeted floors) or spongy felt material (pads) on that one side (for hard floors). Also known as gliders, those small and seemingly unimpressive pieces of moving equipment can have different shapes and sizes – from round, square, rectangular, hexagonal shapes to small and large sizes.
What can you use furniture sliders for? The main purpose of furniture gliders is to minimize or eliminate altogether the friction between heavy household items – mostly furniture pieces and appliances – and the floor.
Using furniture gliders is super easy – you just place one slider underneath each leg or side of a furniture piece or an appliance and you are ready to slide that super-heavy object across the room effortlessly and without any risk of damage to the floor surface or the heavyweight piece you’re gliding along the floor. Find below the detailed instructions on how to use sliders to move furniture.
What types of furniture sliders are there? There are two types of furniture sliders you can choose from:
- Felt furniture sliders. As mentioned above, those gliders are made of felt pads or soft spongy material and are specifically designed for gliding heavy furniture items on hard floors without any damage to the floor or furniture. These padded furniture sliders are meant to be used on hardwood floors, ceramic tiles, vinyl, laminate, linoleum, and even cement floors.
- Plastic furniture sliders. Those sliding disks are made of hard and durable materials – mostly plastic but sometimes rubber, and are specifically designed for gliding heavy household items on soft carpeted floors without any damage to the carpet itself.
So, in summary, you need soft padded furniture sliders for hard(wood) floors and hard plastic furniture sliders for carpeted floors.
Solve the dilemma: Is it better to move furniture or buy new?
Advantages of using furniture sliders
Using furniture sliders during your DIY move comes with many indisputable advantages so it’s not really a question of whether you should use furniture sliders to make the move easier and safer.
- Floor protection. Furniture sliders will protect the floors in your home from getting damaged in the moving process. Hardwood floors are especially at risk of being scratched or dented if you try to drag heavy furniture along without any sliding disks underneath. Tiled floors can easily get damaged too if a heavy item is dragged along or dropped onto the delicate tiles.
- Furniture protection. Furniture sliders will also protect the furniture items or household appliances from getting damaged. How? Having your heavyweight items placed on “skis” will take the pressure off the furniture legs and will keep them perfectly intact.
- Injury-free furniture moving. Lifting and carrying heavy furniture and appliances can often lead to personal injuries to inexperienced movers simply because non-professionals tend to underestimate the complexity of the task at hand or they fail to use the proper lifting techniques that will keep them from harm.
- Effortless furniture moving. Furniture gliders will let you move across the room very heavy furniture or appliances with minimum effort. And you know how important it is to manage your energy during a self-move – after all, your energy will not be limitless. Besides, it can be fun to slide effortlessly a huge furniture piece only with one hand, right?
- Versatility. One great advantage of furniture sliders is that they can be used for a large variety of heavy household items. When it comes to furniture, they can be used for easy and safe sliding of tables, couches, bookcases, dressers, cabinets, beds, and so on. When it comes to appliances, the plastic- or felt-bottomed sliders can be used for gliding refrigerators, washing machines, kitchen stoves, and so on.
- Reusability. Once you get a pack of furniture sliders, you can use them over and over again. What’s more, you can use them in the new home after the move, for example, when you need to rearrange furniture pieces or move some furniture items in order to clean behind or underneath them.
- Affordability. Of course, one of the great bonuses of using furniture sliders to move furniture and appliances is that they are inexpensive. The cost of furniture sliders can vary substantially depending on the manufacturer and the quality, but still, you should expect to pay something in the range of $5-$15 for a pack of 4 quality furniture sliders.
So, without a doubt, furniture sliders are a low-cost investment that is worth every cent.
The only disadvantage of using sliders to glide heavy items along different types of floors is that those powerful tools are only meant to help you move furniture pieces and appliances within one room or to the next room if both premises are on the same level. When you need to move furniture and appliances outside your home, then you’ll have to use a furniture dolly in order to do it easily and safely.
Read also: What moving equipment to rent when moving by yourself
How to use furniture sliders?
The good news is that using furniture sliders to move heavy items within your home is very easy and straightforward. Here are the detailed steps on how to use sliders to move furniture and appliances:
- Step 1. Get helpers. When moving a not-so-heavy piece of furniture, you may manage to slide it safely on your own without any problems. However, when moving really heavy and bulky furniture items and appliances, then you’ll need at least another person to help you position the sliders correctly and slide the heavy item across the floor.
- Step 2. Empty the furniture piece. Consider emptying the furniture item before sliding it in order to make it lighter and easier to handle. When moving a fridge, you do need to empty it completely before moving it.
- Step 3. Remove items on top. Take down any items positioned on the top of the furniture piece – vases, picture frames, trophies, etc. – because there’s a great risk of them falling on the ground and breaking when you start sliding the furniture.
- Step 4. Get the sliders ready. Make sure you have the right number of furniture sliders – you need one for each furniture leg or side. Also, check again whether you have the correct type of furniture sliders – remember, you need plastic furniture sliders for carpeted floors and felt padded sliders for hardwood, tile, vinyl, linoleum, and concrete floors.
- Step 5. Tilt or lift the heavy item. How to put sliders under heavy furniture? Together with your helpers, you should tilt the furniture item or the household appliance slightly forward or backward until one of their legs comes slightly off the ground. Another way to do it is to lift the heavy item ever so slightly to make room between its leg or side and the floor.
- Step 6. Position a slider. While the heavy furniture or appliance is slightly tilted or lifted, have your helper position one slider underneath each leg or side of the heavy item. If you’re on your own, you can place the furniture slider on the floor, right next to the furniture leg, and the moment you tilt the big and heavy item, just push the slider under the leg with your foot.
- Step 7. Position all sliders. Using the above-mentioned techniques, position furniture sliders under each leg, side or edge of the furniture piece you want to slide around the room.
- Step 8. Initiate the slide. After you’ve positioned all furniture sliders correctly, start pushing the big and heavy item in the direction you want it to go – usually the doorway. So this slowly and gently, without any abrupt movements. If all is ok, you should be able to slide even extremely heavy items effortlessly. Whenever possible, you should push those heavy objects, not pull them.
- Step 9. Remove the sliders. When you’re done gliding a heavy furniture piece to wherever you needed it to go, remove the furniture sliders, one by one, by lifting or tilting slightly the heavy item and taking the gliders from underneath.
- Step 10. Reuse or store the sliders. Use the furniture sliders to move another piece of furniture or appliance, or store them for later use when you’re done with all the work for the day.
That’s it – now you know how furniture sliders work!
See also: How to move heavy furniture by yourself
Where to buy furniture sliders
Furniture sliders are must-have pieces of moving equipment when you’re moving without the assistance of professional movers.
Here are a few of the places where you can purchase a pack of furniture sliders:
- Online. Check Amazon and eBay for the best deals.
- The Home Depot
- Lowe’s
- Target
- Ace Hardware
- Walmart
You can also check your local hardware store for available packs of quality furniture sliders.
Furniture sliders are cheap – even the best furniture sliders on the market are pretty affordable. However, if you need them urgently and you just don’t have the time to get them, then you can try to use DIY homemade furniture sliders.
It’s really simple:
- 1) use pieces of thick cardboard on carpeted floors (or your old hard-plastic frisbees!), and
- 2) use old but clean thick towels or small pieces of area rugs on hard floors.
Must-read: Do you need furniture movers?
