How to Pack Your Kitchen

Your kitchen is the most time-consuming, tedious room to pack. But it is so important to get it right. You don’t want to open boxes and find them full of chipped or broken dishes. Follow our tips below if you are packing your own dishes. But first, call us for a quote to discover how cost-effective we are. 

Packing Dishes

Gather several small and medium boxes, lots of padding, and tape. Clean foam wrap or blank newsprint are two of the best choices for packing dishes. If you use newspapers, you may need to wash black streaks off when you get to your new home. You can also buy a package of disposable Styrofoam plates to use between plates.  

First, place a layer of padding on the bottom of your boxes – a couple of sheets of crumpled paper, or a layer of foam or bubble wrap. Then start with the largest dishes – serving plates and dinner plates. Wrap completely with two to three sheets of paper, foam, or bubble wrap, and tape closed. If you place a Styrofoam plate between your dinner plates, you still need to wrap them to prevent chipping. Stack the plates, being sure to tuck extra padding into the corners. Once your large plates are finished, move on to the next size, continuing to stack. 

Once all the plates are wrapped and stacked, move on to items like cups, mugs, and saucers. As you wrap your cups and mugs, be sure to fill the insides with padding. Smaller items like cups and mugs can be fit into the empty space above large plates and around the smaller plates. 

Bowls should be completely wrapped and taped, then stacked. Start wrapping with large serving bowls, again padding your boxes and tucking around the bowls. Then wrap smaller soup, cereal, and ice cream bowls and stack them inside the large serving bowls, again filling empty nooks and crannies with padding materials. 

Fill your dish boxes to about a quarter of an inch from the top, then fill the remaining space with paper, bubble wrap, foam, or dish towels. You don’t want them so full that the box top isn’t flat, but you don’t want any empty space that can collapse when other boxes get set on top. Give the box a couple of gentle shakes, and if you feel the contents shift, take the time to add more padding around the sides of the box. Seal and label boxes, including detailed information like “dinner plates, box one of three” in the labeling.  

Unpacking Your Dishes at Your New Home

When it comes time to unpack, decide what goes where before you start unpacking. Take the time to think about how you’ll use the kitchen so that mugs are near the coffee maker, glasses are near the water, and the items you use every day are easiest to reach. Unpack as close to where items will live as possible. Try to keep the counters clear so you have space to work.  It’s best to get all the items unwrapped before putting them in cabinets because then it’s easier to see how much space all items take up. 

Keep a large box to throw packing materials into as you unwrap items, so it’s all easily contained, and flatten boxes as you unpack them. Here’s where using clean packing materials, instead of newspaper or recycled material pays off: Your dishes shouldn’t need to be washed, although you may want to wipe dust or paper lint off with a towel as you put them away. 

With a lot of padding, enough boxes, and some advanced planning, packing and unpacking the dishes can go smoothly.