4 Injuries You Can Avoid By Calling Professional Movers

If you’re looking to kick back, put your feet up, and sit sedentary all day without a care in the world, then you probably shouldn’t plan on moving anytime soon. Anyone who’s had to move in their life knows just how much of a physical burden it can be, especially if they were the ones that were doing the moving.

While everyone likes to joke around about how exhausting moving is, the reality is that its serious business, and can actually lead to grievous injuries if you’re not careful. While injuries during moves are more of the exception than the rule, it’s also not as uncommon as you would think. Due to the nature of constantly bending over and moving large furniture, disasters can happen if you’re not being careful.

This is one of many reasons why we recommend calling Spyder Moving Services if you’re planning on moving — there are several injuries you could sustain if you do it yourself. Let’s take a look at a few of them.

Back Injuries

Chances are if you ever read a list that relates to moving injuries, back problems are going to be at the top of the list, and for good reason — there’s no injury that’s more commonly associated with lifting heavy objects.

Back injuries come in many shapes and sizes. You can actually damage your back with a pinched nerve or herniated disk, or you can just work it so hard that it aches, despite not having a clear “problem.”

Old people throwing out their back is a visual gag that we often see in movies and TVs, but this is something that can actually happen if you’re not careful.

How to Avoid Them

Your back is the casualty of you not engaging the right muscles when you’re lifting objects. The idea is that your upper body doesn’t really have all the strength to pick things up off the ground, so your back engages its muscles to pick up the slack, but it happens in a way that puts a strain on said muscles. Do it enough times, and you’ll find yourself with an achy back — and if you push it hard enough, something will eventually figuratively or literally snap, leaving you with a much more serious injury.

The trick is lifting properly. Don’t bend at the waist to pick things up. Instead, crouch down with your legs into something that resembles a squatting position, and then use your legs to push yourself back once you’ve picked up the item in question. This puts the physical burden mostly on your thighs and core, which are much more naturally tuned for these kinds of movements.

Crushing Injuries

If the most common type of injury comes from lifting heavy objects, it naturally follows that the next most common injury results from dropping them.

Indeed, nasty things can happen when exceedingly heavy objects are mistakenly dropped. At best, you might smash your finger or toe and be annoyed for a week or so. At worst, crushing injuries can be fatal or result in severe hospitalization. It all depends, of course, on the context.

Feet and hands are the most common casualties of heavy objects being dropped, for obvious reasons — but if you’re not careful, one’s entire body can be smashed by a piece of furniture that’s being poorly handled on a flight of stairs. Or, even worse, children might find themselves underneath them.

How to Prevent Them:

Crushing injuries are among the most avoidable types of moving accidents. All it takes to avoid them is caution and restraint.

• Don’t Lift Too Much: Only lift objects that you know without a doubt you’re capable of handling. If you suspect it’s too heavy, err on the side of caution and recruit a second person.
• Always Have Enough People: The same applies to objects that need multiple carriers — if four people need to move the couch instead of two, so be it.
• Keep Kids Away: Firmly enforce the rule that kids are NOT to be around large furniture that’s being moved. Have other adults aware of their locations at all times.
• Use Dollies and Straps: When possible, furniture should always be strapped to a dolly or hand truck for safer and easier handling.
• Clear the Stairs: Make sure that there’s no one in the stairway that could be crushed if the furniture was accidentally dropped.

Cuts and Bruises

While getting cut, bruised, or scraped is comparatively tame compared to destroying your back or crushing the bones in your body, it’s still one thing you could do without. Due to the sheer amount of disorganization and random objects everywhere during a move, it’s easy to cut yourself or get bruised during the process.

This is especially true when objects aren’t packed well. Heaven forbid somebody packs cutlery poorly, lest it accidentally cuts or stabs someone unexpectedly. Poor packing can also lead to objects falling and breaking, leaving you vulnerable to cuts and punctures from broken glass or porcelain.

How to Avoid Them

The key word here is organization. Messy moving spaces are a quick way to get yourself hurt, and that’s why it pays to have things arranged so that you’re not walking through a warzone with every trip to the moving truck and back.

Objects on the floor can cause one to trip and fall. Badly packed items can bruise and cut. Broken glass can pierce and puncture. Not looking ahead can cause head-on collisions between two people. The list goes on and on. Our advice is simple — just be careful!

Sprained Ankles

This is an insidious little injury that’s all too common on moving day, unfortunately. Sprained ankles aren’t that bad in the long-run, but they will debilitate your walking ability for a couple of weeks, and you can forget about doing any more walking the day of.

Sprained ankles most commonly occur when one missteps to a serious degree, placing too much weight on their foot in an angle that isn’t natural to its movement. Naturally, this often happens when people move, as you’re quite often going up and down flights of stairs bearing heavy objects.

How to Prevent Them

First, as we mentioned with some of the other injuries, it really helps to be spatially aware and alert. This is arguably the best way to avoid foot injuries, and you’ll be able to take proper care when you’re going down a step, instead of letting it take you by surprise with a giant box in your hand.

You can also benefit from having ramps! Wheelchair-friendly ramps can turn a stairway into a slope, making for a more gradual and easy descent, while also making the path more smooth for dollies or hand trucks.

Avoid Injuries By Calling Professional Movers

We’ve listed several injuries and various ways to prevent them, but you know what’s the easiest way to not get injured on moving day? By calling professional movers! At Spyder Moving Services, moving is our job, and you can bet our bodies are up to the task of lifting and moving your heavy furniture, and keeping it cleanly organized.

At Spyder Moving Services, we assist in residential moving, commercial moving, long-distance moving, and student moving in the Oxford region and surrounding areas of Mississippi. Contact us today!