Best Ways To Pack Up Your Kitchen For Moving

By Francine Fluetsch on September 5, 2016

You know what’s annoying? Packing up all your stuff before you have to move. But you know what’s even more annoying? Going through all the random boxes after you moved.

image via www.chelseaministoragenyc.com

In order to make the unpacking process a little less painful, take these tips into account when packing up your kitchen. It might take your “present” self a bit longer, but your “future” self will really thank you for the organization.

Get rid of things.

Packing is the best time to also do some spring cleaning. The less you have to lug with you, the better. Really look through your kitchen and see if you can spot anything that you never ended up using. I personally thought I was going to be making smoothies all the time so I bought a blender, but realized that in my two years of living in my apartment, I probably only used the thing twice and it was hogging up a lot of space, so I gave it to my mom.

This is a great way to make some extra cash as well since people are always looking for gently used kitchen stuff. Being able to sell it will make you feel less bad about having spent money on it, will give it a new home, and will give you more room in your kitchen for other things.

Don’t skip this step! You can eliminate things as you go of course, but I personally think it’s easier to look at everything still on the shelves and get rid of things before starting to pack.

Organize by box.

In order to help yourself later on, make sure to label your boxes and pack according to categories. I have a box for all my plates, one for all my cups, one for my coffeemaker and mugs, one for my baking stuff, one for bigger cooking things, and then one box of miscellaneous for those little random things you have that don’t really fit into a category.

Packing like this will give you some order to the chaos and will make it easier for you to find things and make sure that you didn’t miss any boxes while unpacking.

Plan ahead.

Where are you moving to next? You should take this into consideration when packing up your stuff. If, for example, you are moving into a smaller place like I did, you might want to pack according to how big your new kitchen is going to be. I went from having five cabinets of my own to having two, so I really had to condense what I was bringing.

To do this, you can make a box for storage with things that you could live without for your current situation but that you would want later on. This way you don’t have to go through the boxes in your new place and have all this extra stuff sitting there that you don’t have room for.

Protect breakable items.

During your move, even if you write “breakable” on your boxes, things are going to get thrown around in the truck and when you and whoever is helping you are moving the stuff, so make sure that you take precautions and wrap all of your stuff.

Home Depot sells specific wrapping for plates that doesn’t take up too much room, and the rest can be kept safe by wrapping it in bubble wrap. I also padded the boxes containing my favorite mugs with some of my kitchen dish towels so they were nice and snug in the box, cushioned, and even if they were tossed around a bit, it would be okay.

Nothing broke during my move, which made me really happy. Wrapping your stuff does mean that you will need an extra box or two to fit everything, but it will be worth not losing any of your stuff.

pixabay.com

Keep a running list.

As you pack, you might realize you are missing things that you will need in your new place, so keep a running list going so you won’t forget anything. Maybe your Brita filter is almost dead or you are out of dish soap, or maybe you need a new saucepan because your old one was super nasty.

Whatever the case, it’s always good to make notes to yourself. Speaking of notes, if you want to take the extra time, it might be a good idea to list what is in each box that you have packed so you know exactly what is in there without having to open in and search through it.

I didn’t do this when I packed my kitchen and I really regretted it because there were certain things that could have fit into multiple categories and I had a hard time locating them in the mess of boxes in my garage. The more things you can do to make it clear and organized for yourself, the better.

Making a list won’t take too long if you are doing it as you go, and it will save you a lot of time in the long run. There you have it, a few ways to make your packing and moving experience a little less painful. Good luck!

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