Underground Moving

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Other equipment which it's good to own are a dolly for carrying things on flat surfaces and a hand-truck with creepers for going up and down stairs. These will save your back but aren't really necessary at first unless you're moving refrigerators, washing machines or pianos. You might pick up an old dolly from another mover for a few dollars . . . and you can rent a handtruck from U-Haul for three bucks a day or borrow one from a kindly superintendent for use within his building. You should always carry a couple of old blankets to protect furniture from scratches and it's a good idea to collect a bunch of cardboard cartons or wooden crates to carry small stuff like dishes.

As for labor . . . that's you and your closest friends and you don't have to be a big husky guy to move furniture. You'll develop strength and stamina gradually and a lot of the skill is simply pacing and know-how. For example, anyone can learn to balance a heavy box :N on his or her shoulders . . . and that's that's much easier than carrying it in front of your chest.

Two people can get a sofa or dresser up stairs best if the strongest person goes behind, keeping the object level and high up, parallel with the front person. If the dresser's too heavy, take out the drawers . . . if the Castro convertible is killing you, remove the mattress and tie the seat to the frame. Take those screw-on legs off coffee tables and beds and you'll be able to maneuver much easier on stairs and in the van. When you have to move up five or six climbs of stairs, it's best to do a couple of flights at a time and rest or, the way down. Customers appreciate a steady reasonable pace rather than a mad dash and the dropping and breakage that may go with it.

And women can do it too! At first we used to apologize to our customers, "Uh, the second man you're hiring is a girl." The response was either hysterical laughter, shocked silence or a hearty "that's outasight." . . . but no one ever objected. After working daily for a few months, I didn't need to apologize anymore because I could do the job as well as the average man.

A few people became almost apologetic watching me lift and haul (I guess they thought I was straining my ovaries or something) and they'd plead with me to rest, despite the fact that they were paying me $4 an hour. I'd wither them with a disdainful grin and keep on working.

I even ran a weekly route by myself, transporting cartons of books to a warehouse in New Jersey. The first few trips, the foreman's ferocious stares told me my female presence was unwelcome in that masculine stronghold. But once he got used to me, the foreman would greet me with a "hi, sweetheart" and call hi men around to watch me heave boxes into the van.

I think that the uniqueness of a man-woman moving team even helped our business. People would call up for a job and say, "Make sure the chick comes along. This I gotta see."

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MOVING TO A SMALL TOWN'

Wanda Urbanska

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