Packing Guide: Kitchen/Laundry Room
Start packing your kitchen with rarely used serving dishes, seasonal items and appliances. Continue with large serving bowls, tablecloths and specialty pots and pans. Leave tour everyday dishes for the last week before the move. Buy some disposable plates, cups and utensils for the last days when everything is already packed and ready to go.
Food
Use or dispose all food before moving. Get rid of all cleaning products and other kitchen chemicals. Take a look at the list of items that can not be shipped. Pack boxed or canned goods in small boxes. Wrap glass jars to prevent breakage. Dispose any open jars, cans or packages.
Pay attention to the dining room packing tips. Generally, this room include a lot of fragile items, china and crystal. Each item should be wrapped and placed in special dishpack cartons. Use cellular dividers for stemware.
China and Glassware
Each piece of glassware and china should be wrapped individually. Use several sheets of clean paper, start from the corner wrap diagonally and tuck in overlapping edges.
Prepare a generous amount of paper for packing and cushioning china and glassware. Use double layer of newsprint for outer layer. Label cartons with “FRAGILE” and “THIS WAY UP”
Flat China and Flat Glassware
Use crushed paper as a cushioning material in the bottom of a carton. Each piece should be wrapped individually with clean paper. Wrap several in a bundle with a double layer of newsprint. Place these bundled items in the carton.
- Use larger plates, platters as the lowest layer in a dish pack.
- Each bundle should be surrounded with crushed paper. Do not leave voids or unfilled spaces.
- Add few inches of wadded paper on top of the bundle to make a level base for the next.
- You can also use horizontal cardboard dividers for keeping layers level.
- A second layer may include smaller plates, saucers and shallow bowls. Wrap and pack in the same way as larger items.
Cups
Wrap cups individually in case you do not use cellular dividers. Use double layer of paper and place them upside down with all handles facing the same direction. Top off the layer with wadded newsprint.
Silver and Flatware
Silver pieces should be completely enclosed in newsprint or plastic wrap.
Wrap hollow ware carefully like fragile items and pack it like china. Wrap pieces individually even if the silverware is in a chest. Fill the voids with newsprint to prevent shifting. You can wrap the chest in a large towel.
Other Delicate Items
Use plenty of paper for cushioning. Wrap items in tissue paper or paper towels. Small mirrors plaques or pictures have to be packed individually in tissue paper. Use newsprint for outer layer.
Bowls and Odd-shaped Items
Place bowls on edge in the carton and put smaller items wrapped in paper inside it, upside down. Sugar bowl lids, cream pitchers, sauce containers, gravy boats should be wrapped in newsprint and placed upside down on top of bowls. Group several together and wrap them in double layer of newsprint. Top off the the carton with wadded newsprint.
Pots & Pans
Wrap pots and pans and pack them in medium size cartons. Use them for bottom or middle layers depending on their weight.
Small Appliances
Wrap items like clocks, small radios, egg timers and other small appliances individually and pack them in carton that is cushioned with crushed paper. If available, disconnect the cords, wrap them in plastic to prevent the appliances from scratching and secure them to the appliance they belong to.
Empty all water from steam irons, wrap and place them in the cushioned bottom of a box.
Cookbooks
Sort cookbooks by size and pack similar books together in small cartons.
Pack them flat or with the spine touching the bottom.
If you have expensively bound volumes or really old books, wrap them individually before packing.
