What do you move ?

I didn't want to hijack Scott's glasses thread, I saw his comment about measuring the whole room and move whatever customers want, that sounds scary, I lost one or two jobs yearly due to customers want everything moved, including pianos and China cabinets, I don't regret losing those jobs at all.
I feel the liability is far too great in moving heavy stuffs, not only physically but there are customers that take advantage in those situation, I had one a long time ago that demanded me to pay for her piano tuned because we bumped her piano with our wand slightly.
Not to mention some horror stories about moving any electronics and then customers claimed that it was working before we moved it around, actually that happened to me too once, a TV I think the screen was cracked, and they blamed us, I fought that one because I was there and the customer was there the whole time.
It's a crazy world out there and we need to be careful dealing with some of these scam artists, just a friendly reminder

I wont move anything that takes a special mover to move...piano etc....I stay away from entertainment centers 99% of the time.....I really dont move much at any of my jobs...I tell them its cheaper the more they do kind of a deal....most only move the small stuff and I move the other common items to move....end tables, lamps, night stands....beds when they want that. I avoid most as most only really care about main soiled areas....then the older lady wants dust cleaned out....as long as they get the trinkets off Im moving what they pay for.

I like to move everything except 2 classes of items:

1. Anything heavier than one man can handle safely.
2. Anything covered in trinkets

That means things like ET centers, pianos, Dinning room tables, etc. will not be moved and those tables with 200 porcelain dolls stay right where they are.

I like the jobs where you show up and they have the WHOLE house stacked in the tiled dinning room...to the ceiling! lol

Devon07 wrote:I like the jobs where you show up and they have the WHOLE house stacked in the tiled dinning room...to the ceiling! lol

Those are the best. All the furniture, ET center, coffee table, and a missing cat are all piled in the kitchen. When they say they want their carpets cleaned, they mean every inch of it.

Devon07 wrote:I like the jobs where you show up and they have the WHOLE house stacked in the tiled dinning room...to the ceiling! lol

Amen to this !!

It's rare but this is usually the coolest person we get to meet. They always seem to be fun from what I recall. This is the same person who pulls hose and wants to help roll up....they were a carpet cleaner and missed the calling. lol

I had one that was a former carpet cleaner...well, her Father-in-law was for 30 years.

When I finished up he came racing over with a truck full of fans to speed up the drying. When he came in and saw a couple of airpaths spinning and a carpet almost fully dry to the touch, he was in shock and acted like I just performed a miracle or something.

I guess it had been a few years since he retired from the game.

dont move much unless they are paying for it. we operate mostly on "cleared and ready to go"

but customers are made aware they can pay to have items moved, cleaned under, and replaced.


Ive tried it many different ways and I realized moving around furniture was my absolute least favorite part of the job and I want to enjoy the job.


Well move small end tables, chairs, small coffee tables and usually if a customer just needs one thing and asks were pretty easy going about it.

Jobs where they want everything moved isnt really what we target, we do about 10 of those per year and those bills are really really high.. let me tell ya

dp1 wrote:

Devon07 wrote:I like the jobs where you show up and they have the WHOLE house stacked in the tiled dinning room...to the ceiling! lol

Amen to this !!

It wasn't so funny a long time ago when using a portable. When they packed the bathroom full, and you needed the bathtub to fill the machine but couldn't get to it.

Oh dang Davey! never thought of that....I never used a porty except for upholstery cleaning and it was an "in-plant" set up....never on location.

I hear you AC.

the worst thing in carpet cleaning is trying to clean a smaller bedroom where they want the bed moved,   dresser,   night stands that are wedged between the bed and the wall.. just takes forever and tires you out. 


The last one of those I did I told myself,    never again..     its such a pain and even if they are willing to do .60c/sq ft I still dont really think its worth it.        With our room pricing we end up well over .50/sq ft on bedrooms with no furniture moving.  

The other thing is I got a little tired of moving furniture to find that all the spot really needs is vacuuming,   which they or a house cleaner can easily do.      

Then I thought it was really funny when I was reading on TMF and quite a few guys on there that do lots of furniture moving on every job said they mostly just dry pass under the furniture  LOL    

seems like a waste of time to me

OMG...AC! I just did a house with an oddly small room and it had only a queen size bed in it...I twisted it to get it at one side then was going to twist it back...I literally had it stuck corner to corner against walls, I was solo...I ended up flipping the mattress up and leaned against the wall....then thought...that works! I did the same with box spring and left it that way.....I blocked it to keep it of the damp carpet ....When I left I said...you want me to put the bed back where it was in that room?...knowing they would say nah!...they did I left! I about flipped out in that room.The house was empty except for beds and they were moving out otherwise I would have put it down.

I moved a bed today but it was same type of situation.. pretty much the only piece of furniture on the whole job the rest was empty and she asked nicely since the carpet was filthy dirty from last owners.

The bed just was moved into there it was a really dirty office or something before.

Its those innocent things that get you. I have two empties tomorrow side by side....one gets tile and grout cleaning as well as carpet...no seal!

Today I had an empty 3000sf double wide home....it went great other than my near fall on a slippery tile floor and no heat in the home until I was done.