You may love your house plants, piano and pool table, but when facing a move to McKinney, you may want to consider leaving them behind. Perhaps the new owners would want your aquarium, your art work, or your large basement home furnishings. Most of the stuff you own is straightforward and relatively easy to move. But there are some things—usually the delicate, large and awkward things – that you may not even want to take with you due to the hassle involved.
DIY moves make picking up and transporting items like fish tanks and pianos quite unsafe, cumbersome and difficult on your own. Of course, it’s always best to hire movers – they’ll take those things and more.
Challenges With Moving Difficult Items
1. Pianos
Pianos top the list of things that are extremely difficult to move. Not only are they large and awkwardly sized, they have a lot of moving parts that could get damaged en route, such as legs and keys. The prospect of moving these large musical instruments is exactly why so many people prefer to just leave them behind or give them away for free. Unless your upright or spinet has a lot of sentimental value, you may want to leave it. You could technically move a small one by yourself and a couple friends, but it may not be worth the hassle.
Baby grands and grands may also be left behind, but if you must take it with you, you can’t get away with anything other than professional, skilled help.
Moving a piano of any size on your own can pose a risk of damage to the unit itself, as well as surrounding areas such as walls, stairs and floors. Of course, there’s always a risk to the people moving it. A tweaked back, neck or broken toe are all possibilities.
Same goes for organs, harps, and other large instruments. Get professional help for these too.
2. Fine Art and Antiques
These sensitive belongings likely cost you a lot of money and are very delicate. You don’t want to leave their packing and transport up to just anybody. In order to ensure your fine art and antiques make it to your new home unscathed, you should hire professional movers for this task, or just leave them behind. Perhaps the new owners will pay you for them. If not, you can pay someone to buy them and remove them on their own dime.
Same goes for wall-length mirrors, statues, and any other large, fragile items. It’s just not worth the hassle.
3. Cumbersome Furniture
You may wonder how you even got that huge sectional into your basement in the first place, but you may just want to chalk that up to being the 8th Wonder of the World. This may prompt you to recall the iconic Friends episode where all the shouts of “pivot” didn’t help get the sofa up the stairs. So, why are your giant furnishings so hard to remove?
First off, perhaps you bought a custom piece, such as an entertainment center, bar or sectional. In that case, it was likely brought into the home in pieces, and assembled in the room. If you had hired a carpenter to make you an entertainment center in the first place, for example, it may be worth a call to see if they would come back and dismantle it professionally so no damage occurs.
For standard items that snap or click together, like sectionals, your movers can take it apart and remove it in pieces. Just be sure to let them know of this possibility beforehand.
Basement furnishings are especially hard to extract from the home. That’s because there are usually tighter spaces, stairwells and handrails to contend with.
If you have a sub zero freezer in the basement, chances are the appliance store technician brought it in and set it up. This means you’ll have to either leave it there or hire professionals to get it out.
4. Aquariums
Most movers cannot take living things like fish. They can, however, move the actual tank, provided it has been emptied. This is something you may want to ask the new owners if they want to have. But if you’re committed to taking Nemo with you, you’ll have to do the work first.
- Drain the tank of water, keeping a bit for your fish to stay in for the trip. Put that extra water in a bucket or bag, depending on the timing of your move and how far you have to go.
- Stabilize those containers as much as possible and place them in your car for the trip.
- Put together the tank in the new place first thing.
- Float the containers in the tank so your fish get used to the temperature before releasing them.
5. Houseplants
A move can be very stressful to plants, and often times they don’t survive the trip. Ask the new owners if they would like them. Many would be more than happy to keep them for you. If you decide to take them with you:
- Repot the plants in plastic pots a few weeks before the move.
- Bring the plants in your car.
- Regulate the temperature to ensure they don’t get too hot or cold.
- Place the plastic pots inside the new house for a couple weeks so they can adapt.
Contact Around the Block Moving Company
If you are moving to McKinney and there’s some question as to what you should bring or leave behind, just call us. We’ll let you know what our team can and cannot handle – that list is short but nonetheless there are some things we can’t take, such as perishable food and open paint cans. Get a free quote on your McKinney move when you contact us at 214-433-6764.
