Moving Strategies: How to Pack a Kitchen
The kitchen is one of the most complex areas in your home when it comes to moving. We look at how to pack a kitchen and reduce your stress.
how to pack a kitchen
Did you know that every year about 40 million Americans move to new locations? Moving can be an exciting endeavor. You will have the opportunity to meet new people and live in a great new house.
However, the process of moving can be pretty stressful, especially if you’ve never made a big move before. Fortunately, how to pack a kitchen isn’t all that difficult as long as you have the right tricks up your sleeve.
Keep reading and learn more about how to pack away your kitchen like a pro with these packing tips.
Get Rid of Items You Don’t Need Anymore
A big mistake that many people make when packing a kitchen is that they end up packing a lot of things that they don’t even need. People might not realize that they are taking boxes of junk with them and wasting a lot of time and money. They might be on automatic packing mode and be too focused on packing away every object in sight.
Don’t let this be you. There are certainly plenty of things in your kitchen that you don’t really need. Getting rid of items before your move can save you plenty of headaches.
The fewer items you have to move, the less time you’ll spend moving and packing. You also won’t have to deal with opening up a bunch of boxes after your move and thinking, “Why in the world did I bring this?” Consider all of your kitchen appliances.
Do you need all of them? How old are they and do they still work well enough to be worth taking them along with you? You should especially think about heavy kitchen items since they can be a pain to drag around.
If that old blender creaks and stutters every time you use it, it might be time to throw it away. The same goes for any scratched pots, pans, and bowls. All of these objects can be heavy and can be tricky to pack due to their abnormal shapes.
By throwing away old items that you could do without for a short time, you will feel much lighter, figuratively and literally. You will also have the opportunity to buy new appliances once you arrive in your new home, so don’t be too upset if you have to part with some old appliances. But what should you do once you’ve thrown away stuff and have to pack?
How to Pack Your Items Like a Pro
The problem that many people have when packing a kitchen is that, after the move is all done and they open up their boxes again, they will find that some of their belongings have gotten broken during the move. This can be a drag, especially if your favorite kitchen appliance or dinner set is completely smashed and no longer usable.
Items tend to get broken while in transit. Moving trucks tend to bounce up and down and if your items aren’t packed in a secure way, all this rummaging around might end up damaging some of your belongings. Fortunately, there is a way around this and that way is to pack your belongings with a lot of insulation.
For example, you don’t want to pack all of your fine china in a box by stacking all the dishes on top of each other. As they clatter around in transit, they will undoubtedly chip and even shatter. But if you wrap each item in paper or, better yet, bubble wrap, there is no way that your dishes will break.
A good way to secure an entire box is to first line the box with newspaper or bubble wrap. This way, if anything does end up breaking in the box, the tiny pieces will stay inside the box and won’t get lost anywhere else. You should also consider what to pack at the bottom of a box versus the top of the box.
For example, you should never put delicate items such as glass at the bottom of any box. Even if you have the sturdiest piece of glass in the world, it will probably shatter if you put anything on top of it and pack it away.
Always put items that won’t shatter at the bottom of your boxes.
Don’t Forget to Label Your Boxes
Labeling your boxes is one of the best things you can do when you’re packing away your kitchen. There’s nothing more frustrating than forgetting what you packed into which boxes. If you end up needing some forks and knives, you’re going to have to open all of your boxes again to find where you put them.
But you won’t have this problem as long as you label your boxes. All you need is a sharpie or, better yet, some labels that you can slap onto the top and sides of your boxes. It is a good idea to label multiple sides of your boxes and not only the top or one side.
This will allow you to see what is in the box no matter what orientation the box might end up in. Your labels shouldn’t be too long, only a word or two. Putting “silverware” or “plates” on the side of your boxes should be enough to remind you what’s inside.
Labeling is also a fast process and it won’t take up much of your time.
Now You Know How to Pack a Kitchen
How to pack a kitchen doesn’t have to be as difficult as it sounds. All you need to do is make sure you have everything in order before you start packing. Throw away anything you don’t need, secure your boxes, and you should be good to go.
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