Back, neck, shoulders and arms generally experience fatigue. Another set of effects of manual handling can be cuts and bruises or even fractures resulting out of some unpleasant unexpected incident. Muscles or bones both are equally prone to such accidents.

People who are physically incompetent due to any of the reasons either age factor, women who just gave birth, smokers, drinkers, or underweight fellows can come up against a situation where lifting heavy or light objects repetitively, even for a few days can damage their muscles or create bone problems.

Difficult to grasp

But heavy objects are not necessarily large too. And large objects don’t always have to be heavy but difficulty in lifting can still exist if there are no proper handles or gripping aid. For example, a bed mattress that lacks any loops or handle on sides is challenging to move from one place to another. The weight is not the only issue in this case; the mattress is a large object and can be difficult to get a hold of, even for short distances if there are no lifting aids attached.

Anything having sharp corners or edges or containing any dangerous material is again hazardous to handle or lifted and presents a great deal of danger to people carrying any such object in case of collision.

Unstable or wobbly objects

For example, anything that contains any sort of liquid is hard to carry because its centre of gravity doesn’t stay still causing the lifters to exert extra effort to keep the object held as firmly as possible. Additionally, it presents the lifters with the danger of losing their balance along with the wobbly load.

Out of reach objects

In an attempt to lift or carry an object must first be approached and if it is placed someplace that is difficult to reach injury risks increase because arms and spine all become more prone to twisting and bending while going after something heavy which is out of easy reach too.

Nature of the job

Now, moving and packing have an obvious job nature, carrying objects from one place to another, small and big all kinds of stuff. What challenge this kind of work presents to increased injury chances is.

Too much work

For a person having his or hands already full an additional workload of packing and moving can be exhausting. A person not well-rested can cause damage to his or her body because of the insufficient recovery time. If there is too short period available for packing and moving, removalists are the best options because an imposed increased speed while carrying and loading can be injurious to muscles and skeletal system.

Lack of space and odd postures

Emptying junk out of garage and attic that are jam packed presents extra challenge of making way through narrow spaces and difficult to reach objects. Such lack of space or overloaded situation exerts extra challenge on a person to bend and twist and move through and carry around stuff. The more twisting and turning involved more are the chances to twist an ankle or wrist and the more repeatedly a person must process through such space the more strenuous it gets.

Work is not only done by muscles that get involved in movement but also those muscles are working to maintain the posture. For example, when we reach for a box lets’ say, our arms stretch out while the legs stay still. But that doesn’t mean leg muscles aren’t working. They are maintaining the balance and carrying weight in their own way. On the other hand, when we successfully lift a box, we may start walking while holding it. This time the arms stay still, and legs move. But sets of muscles at both sites keep working in each case in their own way.

Surrounding

The working conditions and surroundings play an important role in the safety of a task. What may the surroundings add to the injury risks?

Space availability

Lack of space gives rise to odd body postures and the load of materials carried can cause a person to trip or lose balance.

Uneven or unstable floor

If the floor is slippery, uneven, load moving involves lots of stairs the chances of tripping increase. If a person carrying load steps over a skateboard by accident, his or her chances of getting injured are almost hundred percent.

Weather

Too hot or too cold temperatures make the working conditions hard. High humidity causes sweating that leads to exhaustion quickly. Chances of getting dehydrated increase too. If the house is not well-ventilated that gives rise to similar temperature and humidity issues. Too cold, and numb hand and feet makes it difficult to carry stuff around.

Familiarity, experience or training or lack of it regarding carrying weights, add to the injuries and strains

Age: fellows thirty and above experience more injuries and strains with activities like moving

Physical appearance: that is height, weight and overall strength of a person counts too. For example, too fat or too thin people are more likely to experience back problems when involved with lifting activities

Lifestyle conditions: those who smoke or drink over the healthier limits is more prone to injuries.

History of injuries or back problems can cause the re-occurrence of such issues from the past.

Choice regarding the personal safety clothing items and equipment like shoes play a vital role in the increase or decrease of injury risks.

While hiring a removalist may look like an unnecessary expenditure to some, there are solid reasons why they should consider it. Removalists are equipped with heavy lifting tools. Then they are trained about using those equipment’s and other safety measures that ensure their safety as well as the wellbeing of the goods involved.

Even then there is no fool proof guarantee that they might not get into a mishap at all why should you risk your health and well-being when there are people out there who can take care of it. As far as the charges are concerned, they might be lowered if you leave the big load for them and do the loading job partially with them helping with the smaller stuff.

Bottom line

• To be extra sure whether to invest on hiring removalists try the following:
• Assess thoroughly all the potential risks regarding health and safety related to all the activities that would be involved in each step from packing to loading and unloading.
• Is there anything that can be done (0ther than hiring removalists) to subtract or minimize the risk factors for those who will be doing the moving job (you, friends, family members).
• What parts of the job are more likely to cause the injury and are there any possible preventive measures?
• Thoroughly assess the house you’ll be packing from, the surroundings and the destination home and its surrounding.
• Assess all the people you are considering getting involved in the moving process.
• Review the precautionary measure you are planning and check if they’ll be enough and effective as planned or not
• Honest answers to all above questions will help you estimate what can be more costly in the future, doing the job yourself or hiring professional removalists?