A refrigerator is the heaviest thing most kitchens own, and it’s also the appliance most likely to arrive at pickup day half ready: still humming, still full of condiments, with a puddle forming under the freezer. None of that is hard to fix. It just needs doing the day before rather than the morning of.
Start a day or two ahead
Empty it completely. Food, ice, bottles in the door, the forgotten jar at the back of the crisper. A unit with anything inside is heavier and harder to carry safely, and loose contents shift on a stair at exactly the wrong moment.
Defrost it. Switch it off a day or two before the pickup and leave the doors open with towels underneath. Frost in the freezer turns into water, and water that’s still in there on pickup day ends up on your floor, the hallway and the stairs. A drip tray at the bottom may need emptying too.
A baking tray on the bottom shelf of the freezer catches most of the melt, and a fan pointed into the open doors speeds up a stubborn defrost.
Take out the loose parts. Shelves, glass panels, crisper drawers and door bins all come out. They can go with the refrigerator, but they travel separately rather than rattling around inside it.
On the day
Make sure it’s ready to move. Every appliance needs to be disconnected before pickup, including electrical, gas, and plumbing connections. For a refrigerator that usually means it’s unplugged, and if it has an ice maker or a water dispenser, the water supply line has been shut off and capped. If you aren’t comfortable doing that, a plumber can do it in a few minutes.
Tape the doors shut. A strip of painter’s tape across each door stops them swinging open as the unit tips back onto a dolly.
Clear the path. Move rugs, chairs and anything on the floor between the refrigerator and the exit. Prop open any door that closes on its own.
Check the doorway
A full size refrigerator is commonly 30 to 36 inches wide, and an interior door is often 30 or 32 inches. Those numbers don’t always work together, which is why the doors on a refrigerator sometimes come off before the body goes through a frame. It’s a routine step when it’s expected, so measure the narrowest doorway on the way out and mention it when you book. There’s a whole guide on this: measure the doorway before the pickup.
One extra step for anything that keeps things cold
Refrigerant must be removed by a certified technician before pickup. This applies to refrigerators, freezers, wine fridges, ice machines, dehumidifiers and AC units. Book that first, then book the pickup for a day after the technician has been.
Quick checklist
- Emptied, including the door bins
- Switched off and defrosted a day or two ahead
- Shelves, drawers and bins taken out
- Unplugged, with any water line shut off and capped
- Doors taped shut
- Path to the exit clear, narrowest doorway measured
With that done, your Loaders carry it out and take it away, and the only thing left to do is wipe down the floor where it stood.
