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Moving is a hassle, but having the right equipment can make all the difference. You will be amazed at how much stuff you can accumulate over a few years of living in the same place, and packing it all up can be a hassle. A lot of your belongings might fit neatly into tidy, stackable boxes, but you will more than likely have furniture, appliances, and other large and irregularly shaped items that will be tricky to maneuver. Not only are these items difficult to move, but stacking them precariously in the back of a truck can lead to a bunch of other headaches as well. It’s best to make sure to stock up on the tools and equipment that can make that job a little easier.
Harbor Freight is known for offering power tools and other home improvement supplies at some extremely reasonable prices — especially when you can get coupons that offer a discount – but the company also sells a lot of things you might not expect. Many people might not know this, but several items in the discount store’s inventory can be useful for your next move.
I’ve been professionally reviewing products for four years, and I’ve often found that comparing prices and customer reviews of top-rated products from a retailer is one of the best ways to discover top-quality gear. With that in mind, here are five of the best Harbor Freight finds to safely and easily transport all of your belongings to your new home.
Moving blanket
The humble moving blanket is one of the most valuable things you can have when moving delicate furniture. You’re probably going to want a lot of these for your move. They’re great for bundling up large items that aren’t easy to pack.
Do you have a cabinet with glass doors or a big television that needs to be protected? A good set of moving blankets might be the difference between your property arriving at your new home safely and an afternoon spent sweeping shattered glass off your moving truck floor. It isn’t just breakables that benefit from moving blankets, though. Wooden furniture can be susceptible to scratches and dings in the moving process, and a thick, padded blanket can help keep that glossy veneer intact.
Harbor Freight sells moving blankets in five different sizes: 40-inch x 72-inch, 72-inch x 80-inch, 40-inch x 50-inch, 80-inch x 144-inch, and 72-inch x 78-inch — these range in price from $4.99 to $18.99, depending on the size of the blanket. The mid-sized 72-inch x 80-inch option is the most popular, so you will probably want to get a few of those. But you might want to pick up one of the larger ones for a bed frame or other large piece of furniture.
Hardwood floor sliders
Whether you’re moving in or out, you’ll want to ensure you’re protecting the hardwood floors. Few things will destroy your chances of getting your deposit back, like a big gash in the flooring. You also probably want to avoid spending hours on your hands and knees trying to buff out a scratch in your new home while there are still boxes to unpack.
One of the best ways to prevent that from happening is by using hardwood floor sliders. These are little pads that you can tuck underneath large pieces of furniture so that you can slide them across the smooth surface of hardwood floors without having to worry about damaging the furniture or the ground. They have a rubber texture on one side to help grip the underside of your furniture and a soft felted material on the other to easily slide across hardwood flooring. They’re best used on couches, cabinets, bed frames, and other large pieces of metal or wooden furniture you want to lift as little as possible.
Harbor Freight sells an eight-pack of these for only $4.29. They’re made by Franklin and are one of the higher-rated items in the Harbor Freight catalog, with a 4.7 out of five. What’s more, a single set will likely be enough for most movers since you probably won’t be moving more than a single large object at a time.
Stretch wrap
Next up, we have stretch wrap. This is basically the same as the plastic wrap you use to cover your food, except it’s thicker and stronger, and it often comes on a rolling pin similar to the kind used by lint rollers to make it easy to work with. This is one of those things that’s so useful that it’s hard to know where to even begin. You can use it to secure moving blankets on larger items. You can use it to bind boxes together once they’re on the truck, so you don’t have to worry about them moving around or falling over while driving. You can use it to contain a rolled-up rug. You can even use it to bundle long and unwieldy items that are difficult to pack, such as fishing rods, baseball bats, shovels, rakes, brooms, and mops.
One of the best things about stretch wrap is that it’s self-adhering but doesn’t use any chemical adhesive. This means that you won’t have to worry about tape residue or accidentally ripping the surface off of delicate materials.
Harbor Freight sells a couple of different brands: Franklin and HFT. Both of them make 5-inch x 1,000-foot rolls of .8 mil stretch wrap. Franklin also makes a larger and thicker roll of 18-inch x 1,470-foot, 2-mil stretch wrap for those who need a lot of coverage.
1,000-pound capacity hardwood dolly
You can’t always slide everything in your home, though. Sometimes, the best way to move heavy objects is with a good dolly. There are a lot of different kinds of dolly out there. Some are much better suited to lifting really heavy appliances, but they tend to be a little more on the expensive side, and most people usually end up renting them. There are a few options available for those who want to pick up something cheap, though.
Harbor Freight sells a hardwood dolly made by Franklin. This is a simple wooden frame on heavy-duty casters with carpet padding on the top boards to prevent damaging anything heavy that you might need to move on it. It isn’t ideal for moving something really big like a washing machine or a refrigerator. But you can certainly stack a few boxes on one and roll them around the house if you want to save your arms and back from any unnecessary strains. I stacked all my book boxes on one of these as I was packing them. Then, I simply rolled them to the front door when it got full and loaded them into my car. It might not seem like a big deal, but I was certainly grateful to have it.
4-in-1 convertible hand truck
Hand trucks are one of the most useful tools for moving heavy objects in and out of a house. Most people will probably want to rent one since they can be somewhat expensive, but that may not always be an option. You might be moving somewhere far away that doesn’t have a return store, or you might simply not have time to unload and move everything before the return window closes and just want to have one on hand. Whatever the reason, you can get a good-hand truck at a pretty reasonable price at Harbor Freight.
There are a few cheaper models, but the best one the retailer sells is the Franklin 4-in-1 Convertible Hand Truck. It’s both heavy-duty and versatile. Not only is it rated for lifting up to 1,000 pounds of weight — it’s also basically the Autobot of moving equipment. It can be used as a high-capacity hand truck for lifting heavy appliances like a washing machine or a refrigerator, or it can be converted into a 500-pound capacity rugged platform truck for loading up boxes and other stackable materials. Then, there are two other angled positions in between for a total of four different transport methods. This thing is a little pricy at $199.99, but its versatility and heavy-duty structure give it the potential to be the strongest piece of moving equipment in your arsenal.
Our methodology
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I’ve moved many times in my life and I know that having the right equipment can make all the difference. In my most recent move, I personally used several products that are comparable to those found on this list, which gave me a good starting point on items to recommend. I then compared items in Harbor Freight’s online inventory in order to make sure that I was recommending highly rated and competitively priced products. From there, I checked customer reviews on each item to make sure that there were no recurring issues that might have indicated sub-par manufacturing.
