Few times in my life have I admitted that there was something within my household that I could not move from room-to-room to place it where I wanted it. Even during those years in which I've been happily married, I preferred to do such handling, alone - even, sometimes, to the extent of moving tall bookcases from downstairs to up or upstairs to down. I thought that Archimedes embodied the right principle that, in essence, a person could accomplish darned nearly any physical tasking. Sometimes that meant removing drawers from a large chest-of-drawers (a highboy that I bought in Albuquerque), tying the handles of the doors together, and gently tipping the chest about its shorter horizontal axis, end-over-end to get it where I wanted it. Only within the past five years have I made a concession to aging by "allowing" Hunky Husband to "help" me in moving heavy items, such as his 65-pound printer, downstairs. His job was to stabilize the printer on my back as I sat on the stairs and scooted down to the basement level one step at a time. I'm sure that we used that methodology, also, the last time I took a 6-foot-tall bookcase to the basement. Then there is Bogie.
For those who may not know, Bogie is HH's and my younger daughter - a blogger, and the one responsible for my taking up blogging over 15 years ago. About five years ago, she bought a different house. That house has provided her with something on which to lavish her "spare" time and money. It isn't the first house on which she has worked, but it has been the first house on which she has done everything herself. (To follow her trials and tribulations, one may go to her House Work postings.) In skimming through those postings, the reader will find that not only has Bogie done the heavy lifting, by herself; but, she has learned how to do all sorts of things in fixing up the house to please herself. However, yesterday she wrote of moving things around and recommended a product that has made doing so much easier for her. In Progress!, she recommends Magic Sliders®.
Like Bogie, I have no relationship with the Magic Sliders® folks and they don't know that my blog exists; but, I have used various of their products for at least 10-20 years and I agree with her that they are super! That said, I not only have them on hand and in use; but, about five or six years ago, from my late sister-in-law's catalogue (I don't recall the company's name), I ordered a set that is called ezmoves®. The set includes a pry bar and eight large (3"x5") sliders, as pictured, below. With this set I have "easily" moved a heavy chest-of-drawers, a smaller chest of drawers and vanity table, and a stock cabinet that HH's father had given us, years ago, when he closed a drugstore. (The chest is so tall that I have to tiptoe to see into the top two drawers and it is made of dense wood.)
I don't know whether it is fortunate or unfortunate for her but Bogie has inherited a passion for independence from me. We just must do things our own way and for ourselves! She does great work!
Your daughter sounds great! As do you. In our house it's always been the other way around: Husband will attempt anything only summoning me to help when it's very definitely a two-man job. Like my desk that we bought second-hand and that weighs far more than it ought.
Posted by: Liz Hinds | October 08, 2018 at 11:58 AM
Liz--You get no argument from me when you write something nice about Bogie. As to who-does-what within a household, each household must determine their own ways of doing things.
When I was a kid, whoever was at home did whatever needed to be done. Part of the time, Dad and Mom worked different shifts so that one or the other could be at home. And...we kids were not always living with our folks at all times (elder brother lived with grandparents to attend school in Missouri for at least one semester while the rest of us were living in Oklahoma, for instance) and we frequently had one of my mother's siblings living with us. Our household was never static!
Posted by: Cop Car | October 10, 2018 at 12:19 PM
Not having anyone to act as a helper, or even a spotter, I try to do things as safely as possible. Since my shoulder injuries last year, I have an even larger appreciation for anything that helps ease the effort and was really delighted with the the Magic Sliders that allow me to move the washer and dryer with very little effort.
Yeah, in some ways I have turned into my mother :)
Posted by: bogie | October 14, 2018 at 05:07 AM
You have my sympathy, Bogie. I turned into my mother, so it is only fitting. *snickering*
Posted by: Cop Car | October 14, 2018 at 10:04 AM