How to pack a kitchen for moving
The room that takes the longest and gets left until last. Plates on their edges, glasses upright, and why small boxes are not optional.
Pack a kitchen from the least-used items to the most-used, over several days rather than in one session. Stand plates on their edges rather than stacking them apartment, pack glassware upright in a divided box, use small boxes for anything dense, and fill every gap so nothing can shift. Keep one box of daily essentials open until the last morning.
Start earlier than feels necessary
The kitchen is the room people leave until last and it is the one that takes longest. It has more items than any other room, most of them are breakable, awkward or heavy, and you keep needing them right up until the day.
The way around that is to work backwards from how often you use something. Start a week or two out with the things you touch a few times a year, and finish on the last morning with the kettle.
- Serving dishes, the good glasses, seasonal and specialist equipment
- Cookbooks, storage containers, small appliances you rarely use
- Most of the pantry, minus a few days of food
- Everyday plates, glasses and cutlery, down to a couple of sets
- The last box: kettle, mugs, a plate and a knife each, and the coffee
Small boxes for heavy things
This is not a preference, it is the whole game. A large box filled with plates is too heavy to handle safely, and a box that is awkward to carry is a box that gets dropped or that fails at the bottom.
Dense things go in small boxes: plates, tins, glassware, cast iron, appliances. Light and bulky things go in large boxes: plastic containers, linens, the contents of the pantry that weigh nothing. If you can elevator a box comfortably with one hand under each side, it is right.
Tape the bottom of every box across the seam and then across it again at right angles. Kitchen boxes fail at the bottom more than any other kind.
Plates go on their edges
Wrap each plate individually in packing paper, then stack the wrapped plates and turn the whole stack onto its edge in the box, so the plates stand vertically like records in a crate.
The reason is how breakage happens. A flat stack takes the full weight of everything above it through the face of the bottom plate. Standing on edge, a plate is enormously stronger, and the load travels down through the rim instead.
Pad the bottom of the box with crumpled paper first, and pad the top before you close it.
Glassware, upright and divided
Glasses and stemware go upright, never on their sides. Wrap each one, and use a box with cardboard dividers if you have anything you would be upset to lose. Stemware in particular breaks at the join between bowl and stem, and a divider is what stops two glasses knocking together at that point.
Wrap the stem separately before wrapping the whole glass, and put a twist of paper inside the bowl. Heavier tumblers go on the bottom, delicate things on top.
The awkward items
- Knives: sheath the blade in cardboard and tape it, then wrap the whole thing and label it clearly. Nobody should discover a chef's knife by putting a hand in a box.
- Cast iron and heavy pots: bottom of a small box, wrapped, with lighter cookware above.
- Small appliances: pack the cord with the appliance and tape it so it cannot whip about. Original boxes are genuinely better if you kept them.
- Oils, vinegars and anything liquid: tape the lid, bag it, and stand it upright. If it leaks, it ruins everything it is packed with.
- Spices and open dry goods: bag anything already opened before boxing it.
- Sharp lids and blades from food processors: wrap separately from the bowl.
Fill every gap
A half-empty box is a box whose contents are going to move, and movement is what breaks things rather than impact. Fill the gaps with crumpled paper, dish towels or the linens you have to pack anyway.
The test is simple: close the box, pick it up and tilt it gently. If you hear or feel anything shift, open it and add more filling.
Label the side of every box with the room it is going to and mark the fragile ones clearly on more than one face.
The last box
Pack one box that stays with you rather than going on the truck. Kettle or coffee maker, a mug each, a plate, a bowl, a knife, a sponge and some dish soap, a roll of paper towels, and something to eat that evening.
The first night in a new place is not the night to be opening twenty boxes looking for a teaspoon.
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Common questions
How to pack a kitchen for moving: the short answers
For an average household, several hours of concentrated work, and realistically spread over a few sessions. It is the slowest room in the house, which is why starting early matters more here than anywhere else.
It works but the ink transfers, so you will be washing everything at the other end. Plain packing paper costs little and saves that job.
The kitchen is the room where paying for packing makes the most difference, because it is slow, breakable and easy to get wrong. If you only have one room packed for you, this is the one.
No. Cabinets and units travel empty. Anything left inside shifts, breaks or forces the doors open in transit.
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