People ask me all the time, “What should I do to prepare my home for delivery of my new power reclining sofa, loveseat, chair, new Tempur-Pedic mattress, new bedroom furniture, whatever?”

Great question, first of all, if I had a furniture at Gallery Furniture they would give you a 4-hour window. The driver should call 30 minutes out and let you know you're going to be there.

What we ask you, the homeowner, to do is clear all the pieces where the furniture is going to come into your home, it's going to go down the hallway, into the family room, clear of the sconces off the wall, clear out whatever might get in the way and impede these drivers.

When they get to your home, they're going to do a walkthrough before they bring the furniture in to see where it's going to go to make sure everything will be fine, move the things off the wall, and please, children, I know they want to watch, but they need to be under control because children are our most valuable people, we don't want them to be hurt by this furniture.

Please put the dogs up, we've only had three drivers bitten by dogs in my career, but all three were not good, so put the dogs up.

Manage your wonderful children, show us how to get there, move everything out of the way and our drivers will come in with their shoes on, a lot of people want to have drivers take shoes off, for safety reasons, we don't do that, but they'll be respectful of your home.

And if you're concerned about your home being damaged, micromanage the delivery, we'd love for you to do that. Get in front of them, show them what to do, plan it out, it'll all be fine but prior proper preparation prevents poor performance.

Prepare your home so when they get there, all the obstacles are out of the way, that the kids are safe and happy, the dogs are put up, everything will go lovely on your delivery.