How to Pack Your Kitchen

How To Pack Your Kitchen - So you are moving. As you pack up room after room and you feel like you are getting somewhere you come into your kitchen. The cabinets, the drawers, and don't forget about that one lone cabinet high above your refrigerator. Do you even know what you have stored in there? When is  the last time you looked in there? Your kitchen seems to be the biggest room to tackle when it comes time to pack up and move. There are so many gadgets and breakables and questions about how much space you have now and how much space you are going to have in your new home. Below we will look at some things you can do to make packing up your kitchen a little bit easier.

Take Food Inventory

No one likes to waste food, so as soon as you have a move date take stock in your food. Start with the food that you know you are not going to want. It is time to start minimizing your food so there is less that you need to throw out when moving day comes.

• Make a list of all food that needs to be eaten and find recipes that require them.
• Minimize grocery trips and keep new food item purchases low. Only buy essentials.
• Check grocery store locations close to your new home so you can easily shop once you have moved.
• Organize your fridge and freezer so everything is easy to find, use, or pack up.

Sort Your Kitchen

As with any room in your home you are packing, there is the process of sorting out everything before you pack it up. Plan out as much as you can before you pack. You want to make sure you do not pack up the essentials, so be sure to separate those things you'll need up until your move. Here are a list of things that may be essentials in your home.

• One or two sharp knives
• Plates,bowls, glasses, and cutlery (not all but enough to get by)
• One or two saucepans
• Non-fridge and freezer food that you will use up until the move
• A couple of dishcloths, dish towels, and oven mitts
• Coffee maker and toaster
• Cleaning materials and supplies.

These are things that you can pack up on your final nights in your home but will most likely need up until the day you move.

Packing Supplies and Materials

Gather together all the packing supplies you will need to pack up your kitchen. If you think you have enough, it is a safe bet to get more. These are supplies like boxes, packing tape, packing paper, bubble wrap, cardboard sheets, and permanent markers. Should you still have any original boxes for your small appliances, make sure you have those at the ready too.

Packing Up Non-Essential Items

As you start to pack up your kitchen here are a few good rules to follow.

• Do not pack boxes that are too heavy to lift around or move easily.
• Label all boxes clearly so you know what to unpack first.
• Label boxes with breakable items with “fragile.”
• Fill in empty spaces inside the boxes with packing paper or bubble wrap once the box is packed.
• Pack small items inside food storage containers. This saves space and wrapping time.
• Use dish towels to wrap up fragile items.
• Nest together like items like flatware and bowls.
• Secure the bottom of boxes with a good amount of tape, especially if there are fragile items in them.

Packing In The Last Week

Now that you have started packing up some non-essentials and know what you really need in that last week in your home, you can pack up everything else.

• Pack up all of your cans and dry goods, bagged goods, and boxed foods.
• Make sure that you do not pack these items too heavy or with other things.
• Wrap individual jars in packing paper and use packing chips to protect them.

As you pack up things like cooking utensils and cutlery in that last week, make sure and pack like items together. Take care to bundle same pieces of cutlery together with rubber bands so that they stay neat and together as well as placing all cooking utensils at the top of the box before you seal it up. This keeps them from getting bent or broken in the move process.

Tips For Packing Certain Kitchen Items

Last but not least here are a few tips for packing certain items in and around your kitchen.

• Flatware: put plates in boxes vertically, they will be less likely to get broken.
• Pots and Pans: tape lids onto saucepans and cookware.
• Cups and Glasses: section off a box with cardboard pieces so each glass has its own space and can travel securely. Pack fragile glasses like champagne flutes in their own smaller boxes before packing into larger ones.
• Small Appliances: remove all sharp blades and wrap them up separately. Should you still have the original box, you can pack the appliance into that box.
• Cleaners: place a sandwich bag over the top of all cleaner bottles and secure with a rubber-band. Pack these cleaners in their own box.

As you do these things it will ease the stress of the big moving day. Once all of your non-essentials are packed and you have those lat few items ready to load up, make sure your larger appliances are ready to go and all perishable food items are either used or donated. Take the time to plan out your packing and it can be a painless experience. Toss out things you know you will not use and donate those that others could use. Unpacking into a new kitchen will be more fun if you take the time to organize as you pack your old kitchen.