I’ve done this with three friends, moving a couch from one part of the city to another, around 7pm at night. At first carrying seemed easy, but it soon got awkward and tiring. Then we ended up being able to very easily put it on our heads while arms kept it balanced and made excellent progress.

Cops pulled up next to us around halfway, “Sorry guys, I have to ask. What the fuck are you doing?”

“We’re moving this couch from one friend’s place to the other.”

“Yep, thought it’d be something like that, but I had to ask. Be careful crossing streets.”

Near the end, middle guy was resting it on his head too much, it burst through the fabric and he was temporarily couchhead.

Honestly, pretty effective, I used to balance the mattresses on my head when working in a dorm. Many societies used this approach to move things, and with three of them the have the definition of a geometric plane.

Upright bass player…yep, not the traditional way to carry it, but damn has the head-balance come in handy a few times.

Us carrying the boat we built from cardboard and plastic table covers down to the lake.

carry 50 pound bags of dog food like a hat, you almost don’t notice it.

Sometimes English feels like the lost-sock bin in an apartment building’s laundry room (yes, “kingly”, “regal”, “royal”, and “queenly” are almost synonyms), but I’m delighted to learn English borrowed “formic” along the way.