What’s a Furniture Dolly, and How Do I Use It for Moving?

What Is a Furniture Dolly?

What is a dolly for moving furniture, and why is it different from the dollies you normally see in offices or stores? Most people are familiar with the utility dolly, or hand truck. These L-shaped dollies have two wheels, a small platform, and bars that rise up to a handle. They're used to move stacked boxes or smaller appliances.

Appliance dollies are similar, but they come with straps and are designed to handle the size and weight of appliances like fridges.

A furniture dolly is different. It's a rectangular platform on four wheels. It usually rises a total of about 6 inches vertically and doesn't come with any handles. While other types of dollies help people perform specific types of transport jobs, the furniture dolly can be a much more general and essential moving tool.

Benefits of Using Furniture Dollies

If you're short on help or want to protect your back, a furniture dolly can reduce some of the heavy lifting of a move. Benefits this type of dolly provides can include:

• Reduced strain when moving heavy furniture. By allowing you to roll rather than carry items, a dolly reduces the physical effort required to transport dressers, bookshelves, filing cabinets, and other heavy pieces.
• Better ability to navigate tight spaces and corners. The low profile and maneuverability of a furniture dolly make it easier to turn wide pieces through tight spaces.
• Decreased scratches and scuffs on floors. Lifting and dragging furniture can gouge hardwood or snag carpet. A dolly keeps legs, corners, and other surfaces off your floors.
• Reduced risk of injury. Using a dolly helps distribute weight evenly and lowers your chances of straining your back or dropping something on your foot.
• A faster-moving process. With a dolly, you can move larger items quickly and with fewer people, which comes in handy during DIY moves or when you’re on a time crunch.

What Can You Move With a Dolly?

Kevin Kato, a professional mover with more than 20 years of experience, has this to say about furniture dollies:

Furniture you might move with a dolly includes:

• Dressers and chests of drawers
• Sofas and loveseats
• Bookcases and shelving units
• Dining tables
• Desks
• Filing cabinets
• Sideboards
• Armoires and hutches

While furniture dollies are great for many items, they’re not ideal for everything. Irregularly shaped or very narrow items may tip or slide, especially if they’re top-heavy. Furniture dollies won't work well on stairs or uneven terrain, so you may need to carry items or use a stair-climbing dolly for those situations.

Where to Get a Dolly

Sold on the need for a furniture dolly for your next move? You can buy or rent one. Home improvement stores like Home Depot and Lowe's typically sell furniture dollies, and you can also order them online if you have time for delivery. Moving supply stores may also offer furniture dollies for sale or rent. And if you hire help for loading and unloading, your moving team will likely show up with a furniture dolly or two.

Kevin notes that furniture dollies are quite affordable:

But before you buy or rent a furniture dolly, make sure you're getting one that can hold up to your moving needs. Consider what you need to move, including the size, shape, and weight. You'll need a dolly built to hold up under the relevant strain.

Should I Move My Furniture Myself?

Even with the right tools, knowing how to move heavy furniture takes planning and a bit of caution. A furniture dolly makes things easier, but it doesn't eliminate 100% of the risks or the need for some core strength. This is especially true if you're working on your own or dealing with stairs, narrow doorways or hallways, or slick floors.

Common hazards to keep in mind include:

• Back strain or muscle injury from improper lifting or sudden shifts in weight
• Pinched fingers or crushed toes if an item tips or slips off the dolly
• Damage to walls, floors, or door frames while maneuvering oversized furniture
• Tripping hazards such as cords, rugs, or loose items left in the path
• Falls on stairs if you can't use the dolly and the item is too heavy to control manually

When you're loading a moving truck, rearranging furniture, or just getting an old sofa out for donation pickup, plan a proper path and consider getting help for the heavy lifting.

If you're short on help or want to concentrate on other things while someone else does the heavy work, HireAHelper's platform can connect you with local and vetted moving labor. Going with pros can be a safer, faster way to get work done, and you won't have to ask your friends and family or slip on a back brace.

How to Load a Furniture Dolly

"Putting a piece of furniture on a furniture dolly is just that," says Kevin. "Carefully lift a piece of furniture up and place it to where the furniture dolly is located on the center-most flat surface of the furniture."

While it sounds simple, there are a few more steps you should take when loading furniture on a dolly.

Map your route

Decide how you're getting the furniture out of the room and then out of the house. This isn’t just about picking a path; it’s also about making sure your furniture can actually fit through it.

Measure doorways, hallways, and tight corners before you start moving anything. If you find an area that's too narrow, you may need to remove doors, take furniture apart, or rethink your exit strategy altogether. Planning this in advance helps you decide how to load the furniture on the dolly.

"If you aren’t going to be able to angle that long dresser into a hallway, there’s no sense in sitting it horizontally," says Kevin. "Likewise, if your armoire just barely clears the top of the doorway, you probably won’t get it through on a dolly."

Decide which part of the furniture is "down"

Kevin provides insight into how the pros do it.

Empty out furniture

Taking things out of furniture makes it lighter and easier to move, but it obviously adds to the packing and loading work. You’ll need to use your judgment about what furniture should be emptied.

Kevin notes that a chest of drawers with only clothing can likely be moved without emptying it, but bookshelves and armoires should be cleared of items before you move them.

Secure doors and drawers

Whether you decide to keep things in the furniture or not, you still need to secure anything that can slide or swing open on its own. Use large mover’s rubber bands or lengths of string. Some people choose to wrap their furniture with pads before moving them, and this can keep doors and drawers closed. However, Kevin says to keep in mind that furniture pads and moving blankets can make it more difficult to maintain a firm hold if you have to carry items up or down stairs.

Loading Furniture on a Dolly Vertically

Moving a dresser — or any other long piece of furniture — with a dolly requires you to consider loading it vertically. Kevin says, "This is probably the most precarious way to both load and transport a piece of furniture on a dolly because, well, physics."

But it may be necessary if you need to move a long or tall item through narrow spaces. Here's how to do it:

• Position your dolly on the floor close to the side of the long piece. Have a friend standing by.
• Lift the side of the furniture opposite the dolly until the side facing down touches the dolly.
• Raise the item onto the dolly while your friend holds the dolly in place. Keep pushing until the item is in a vertical position, keeping a firm hold to prevent tipping or rolling away.
• Take time to get this bit right and ensure the furniture is well-balanced on the dolly. You may need to put it down and start over while your friend repositions the dolly.
• Use at least two sets of hands when rolling the item across the floor and down the hall. Kevin says, "The person in front steers and watches for obstacles while the person in the back pushes gently. Both need to constantly be on guard to make sure the item doesn’t begin to tip, even slightly."

Kevin adds this pro tip: If your dresser has a lip or overhang that extends beyond the surface of the side resting on your dolly, let that lip hang over the edge so the dresser sits flat and vertical.

Loading Furniture on a Dolly Horizontally

The basics of loading furniture horizontally are the same, though Kevin notes geometry makes this work a little easier. Here's what you should do:

• Put the furniture on the floor sideways so that the face-down piece is on the side temporarily.
• Position the dolly on the floor near the face-down side of the piece.
• Working from the same side of the piece as your dolly, pull the top of the piece toward you, lowering it slowly until it's balanced on the dolly.
• Maintain control by keeping the dolly in place with your foot.
• Lay the item flat and push the dolly.

"Assuming your piece is sitting square and balanced on the dolly, pushing it across the floor should be a relative piece of cake," says Kevin. "Just take care taking those corners since those top and bottom ends are now sticking way out in front and back of the dolly."

While you can use a dolly to move furniture horizontally in this way on your own, Kevin and most pros recommend a buddy system. It's just easier to move furniture with help.

Loading a Sofa on a Dolly

Moving a sofa depends on how the sofa is constructed. Its weight, balance, and shape all affect how you load it onto a dolly, and if you don’t account for these, you risk damaging the furniture or injuring yourself.

• If the sofa has a hard surface under the back upholstery, center your dolly behind your couch and tip your couch on its back onto the dolly.
• If your sofa has a frame that leaves a hollow area under the upholstery, position your dolly where it will support the couch without tearing through.
• If the sofa back has no support, put a piece of plywood on the dolly to compensate, and rest the couch on that.

Things to Watch Out For

By now, you’ve got a solid understanding of how to move furniture with a dolly — but there are still a few important precautions to keep in mind. These extra steps aren’t just nice-to-haves; they can help you avoid injuries, protect your furniture, and make the whole process smoother.

• Keep an eye on the ceiling. Hauling tall furniture on a dolly might put light fixtures, smoke alarms, and other ceiling-mounted items at risk. Remain aware of the space around you so you can navigate it without damage.
• Measure door openings. "Unless your front door (or any door) swings 180 degrees," says Kevin, "the edge is going to be sticking out. Subtract half an inch from your measurement — if your furniture is wider than that figure, it can't fit through the door."
• Be careful not to crush knuckles or fingers between door jambs and furniture. "Trust me, it hurts!" Kevin notes. Go slowly, especially through doors and around corners, to keep your hands and fingers safe.
• Keep an eye on the floor. A throw rug, the uneven spaces between floor tiles, and even something as small as a Lego can stop your dolly. Meanwhile, whatever is sitting on top of it keeps moving forward. This is a recipe for your furniture getting damaged or you getting hurt, so double-check that the way is clear. It helps to do this step before you’ve started moving something with a dolly.
• Be careful using dollies on ramps. Long or large furniture items might make ramp angles hard to navigate and scrape on the ramp as you try to push up it. Instead, Kevin says to consider whether you can turn your dolly 90 degrees and push furniture sideways up the ramp. If the piece has drawers or doors, position them facing upward.
• Avoid using furniture dollies on stairs. Instead, carry furniture carefully up or down stairs with the help of one or more friends. Or, hire professional moving help to do the heavy lifting — especially if you're worried the furniture won't fit down the stairs.