17 tips for moving house with appliances

June 20th, 2013

Appliance Talk

Whether you’re a student renter living a nomadic urban lifestyle, or a home-owner upgrading to a better place, moving house can be a stressful and painful experience.

“Where’s Junior?”

In addition to packing your life into boxes to be entrusted to the care of two men and a truck, you also need to get your appliances ready to move them safely and without incident.

Here are some tips to keep in mind while getting ready for a move:

Do you NEED to move the appliances?

If you’re a renter, you may not own all of your home’s appliances, with certain items such as the oven and the rangehood often being counted as part of the house.  If this is the case, then you obviously don’t have to worry about moving these – though should probably give them a clean.

However, if you are the owner of a few large appliances, moving house can be a great time to think about an upgrade.  See if any of your family or friends could use your applainces, and once they’ve taken them off your hands, investigate the range available at Appliances Online, checking the measurements to make sure that they’ll fit in your new kitchen or laundry.

Check with your movers

If you’re engaging the services of professional removalists, check what requirements they have for moving appliances.

Different organisations have different preferences for preparation, and may not be able to move your appliances if they’re not ready to the right standard on the day.

Check with the manufacturers

If you’re worried about safely transporting an appliance, check with the manufacturer for if they have any moving recommendations specific to their models.

You can also contact Appliances Online if you need more general advice on proper appliance care.

Clean

Moving house typically involves a thorough cleaning of the space you’re vacating, for the benefit of the new occupants.  Make cleaning your appliances a priority as well, so they too can get a fresh start in your new home.

If you have a pyrolytic oven, now would be an ideal time to run its cleaning cycle, and reduce the grots inside the oven to fine dust that can be easily swept away.  Those of us not lucky enough to own one of these ovens will have to stick with giving the interior a thorough scrubbing, before emptying the fridge and wiping down its insides as well.

Empty everything

Anything that can easily come out of an appliance should be taken out and moved separately. Take the food and shelves out of the fridge (use an esky to store the food for the duration of the move), and the sliding racks out of the oven.

It may sound sensible to keep all of these parts in place and use the appliance as an effective storage container during the move, but this will most likely just make everything heavier, more difficult to move, and increase the potential risk of breakage.

Remember to take all of the discs out of your CD, DVD and Blu-ray players, as if they get jammed inside they can be very difficult to get back out.

Also, empty the vacuum cleaner of dust and the dryer’s filter of lint – why on Earth would you need to bring all of this with you?

Remove the gas bottle from the barbeque

Gas bottles are heavy and can easily fall off a barbeque during transport.

Though they do look ADORABLE when painted as a beloved children’s toy…

This and their flammability mean that some moveing companies won’t handle them at all, for safety’s sake.  You may need to organise your own transport in these cases.

Unplug everything early

A powered appliance often equals a hot appliance, which can make handling them difficult.

Unplug your appliances the night before you move so that their components have a chance to cool down before they are likely to be touched.

Keep track of your connections!

Remember, most movers are not electricians or plumbers and won’t be able to reconnect your appliances to water, gas or power.

A power board can often make it easier to keep track of your various cables.

When you disconnect your appliances for moving, snap a few photos on your phone of where everything gets plugged in.  this should make it much easier to set everything back up when you reach your destination.

Keep all of the cables and pipes together and stored in one place during the move, so you won’t have to dig through all of your possessions to find that one specific lead you need when setting everything back up.

Get rid of all ice and water

Defrost your fridge and freezer well before the day of your move (48 hours is a good bet), and wipe down any remaining moisture.  There’s no point in moving a freezer full of ice to your new house, and you don’t want moisture or condensation making the appliance slippery while you move it.

If you’re moving a dishwasher, washing machine, air conditioner or other appliance that involves water, be sure to drain it thoroughly and dry it off before moving.  You don’t want a sudden surprise leak on your hands when you’re hauling it into a truck.

When you disconnect water pipes, be sure to drain these as well.

Tape the doors shut

Yes, you could try and carry your appliance with the doors facing up, and let gravity do all the hard work.  But you never know how things are going to go when moving, and your appliance may need some rotating to fit through a door or down a corridor.

Tape the doors of your appliances shut, and no matter which way you have to turn them to fit them through the doors, down corridors or up the sides of the house, they’ll stay manageable, without the doors flapping in the breeze.

Stand up the fridge

As we’ve discussed previously, fridges are designed to operate from a standing position, with the refrigerant in its tanks and pipes settled in place by gravity.  When a fridge is layed down flat, these refrigerants can flow out of their proper positions, which can lead to the fridge being damaged when it’s started up again.

While you can lay down a fridge to move it across town, your best bet is always to let it stand for 24 hours before plugging it back in, to make sure that everything is absolutely in working order when it comes time to start again.

Keep remote controls, warranties and manuals together

Nothing’s more frustrating than losing these, and they can be tricky to replace – though PDF copies of many appliance manuals can be found on Appliances Online.

Pack well

If you’re worried about your appliances being damaged during transit, stuff their open spaces with pillows, blankets and other soft, light items.  Some moving companies can supply you with packing material if you don’t have anything available.

Washing machines can sometimes be tricky to move safely, as if the drum is allowed to move during transit, it could sway with the motion of the truck and damage the machine.  Check with the manufacturer or your removalists for the best way to stabilise the drum.  This sometimes involves using stabilising rods or filling the cavity with packing material.

For your TV, tape some bubble wrap onto the screen and pack it with soft items to minimise the risk of cracking the screen during transit.

Use original boxes if possible

If you still have the box and packing materials that your appliances came in, these are often one of the best ways to safely transport them.

This is more practical for use with small appliances, as not many of us hang onto the packaging of large appliances – in fact, Appliances Online can take yours away for free when we deliver your newly-purchased item.

Keep paths clear of obstructions

Moving can be a chaotic time, with stuff everywhere and no place for it to belong.  When moving large, valuable items such as appliances, it’s important to make sure there’s nothing to trip over or bump into in your way.

Clear everything you can out of the way before you move anything large.  If you live somewhere densely populated, talk to your neighbours and see if they can keep their cars clear so they don’t get in the way of the removalists.

Use floor coverings

Even when carried on a trolley, the weight of large appliances can sometimes damage floorboards and tiles, so it’s a good idea to lay down some floor protection when you’re going to be moving these about.

Spare cardboard boxes can easily be flattened for use as makeshift floor coverings in a pinch, and there are a few other methods available for you to try,

Protect yourself!

Keep your hands and feet covered and protected when shifting large items – these aren’t always simple to fix if they get damaged!

Got a tip for moving big items such as appliances?  Survived a big move and have a tale to tell?  Sharing is caring!