The refrigerator must be your first love when it comes to kitchen appliances, but the love is gone when you need to prepare it for relocation. Fridges are bulky, heavy, and might be complicated to relocate. Whether you’re relocating locally or moving long distance, you’ll need to take certain steps to make the fridge safe for move. How to prepare and relocate your refrigerator safely? Here are the steps you can take to make your fridge prep an easy experience.
Get the Moving Supplies for Fridge
Relocating a fridge won’t be an easy-breezy thing since it is a massive and quite heavy item. Lifting a fridge is not recommended and that’s why you should have a moving dolly on hand. Aside from a dolly, you should get a screwdriver, measuring tape, moving blankets, moving rope, or tape, and since you can’t do it by yourself, at least one or two more people.
Clean & Defrost
This one goes without saying, but before you move your fridge an inch, you should make sure to have it clean and defrosted. Throw, give away or store your food in a cooler if you can. If you want to save your food, make sure it can stay cool enough for the duration of the move. The fridge should be dry and cleaned for the moving day.
Measure Fridge and Doorways
Whether you are DIYing the relocation or getting help from your Chicago moving company, you should measure the refrigerator and the doors it should go through. If it went in, it will be able to go out, but you might have to remove both doors to have it happen scratch-free.
Disconnect, Slide, Move
This is another no-brainer, but the appliance needs to be properly unplugged and prepared before you move it anywhere. If you are doing it on your own (with some more manpower), be careful while sliding and tilting the fridge. With any heavy item, make sure to bend the knees and keep your back straight to prevent injuries.
Not to mention extra attention if you have to go down the stairs with the dolly the fridge is on. Use a plank to push the fridge into the moving truck and – congratulations. The first part of the tiring work is done. Now you will repeat it to move it into the new home.
Wait Before Plugging In
Once you’re all set in a new place, check the instructions for how long you should wait before unplugging the device, which can be between one and three days.