As soon as you think of cleaning your kitchen, you may sit down holding your head, leave alone packing and moving it. It is the hardest of all the rooms to organize and pack while you are thinking of relocating. It has small items, some are sharp whereas others are very tiny. The same thing can be said about drawers and cupboards including all the food items. Thinking that packing the kitchen is a messy job.
With items of irregular sizes and shapes, it gets very hard to pack them up. It is very tricky as you may find it difficult to give away some of the kitchen items to lessen your load down. If a step-by-step systematic approach is followed things can get easier while you prepare it for the move.
1. Discard all the unnecessary items
What should be your first step while packing your kitchen items? Most people simply pack the kitchen portion-wise. In that, they may pack items that are not required and those can get shifted to your new address. This can be very troublesome. You’ll have to unnecessarily pay for the extra load and those items will get accumulated in your new residence.
Run your eyes around and grab those items that are broken, non-useful, and past their expiry dates. Don’t worry, you’ll have many of them. Grab a garbage bag and dump all these things down. Once this is done, put all your containers down for washing or cleaning. When they are dried you can wrap them aside, getting them ready for packing.
2. Getting enough packing supplies
If you are hiring packers and movers for household shifting, good. Having a trustworthy moving company looking after the whole procedure is a relief. You may want to get some of the items packed before your packers arrive, that will be an intelligent move.
For packing your kitchen, you will need boxes of different varieties, shapes, and sizes. You can get those from the stationary store near your house, or any junkyard (they have many and will give you one for free). The number of boxes depends on the size of your kitchen.
Large boxes for hard-to-pack items, lightweight plastic dish racks, kitchen wares, baking tins, etc. Heavy-duty boxes can be used for packing fragile items. It is double-walled thick packing material that will ensure the safety of your stemware, wine bottles, canisters, and glasses. For packing contents of your drawers, small appliances, pantry items you can opt for medium boxes.
Use unprinted news-papers to pack the fragile items and food material. Cell kits are also useful when it comes to packing glasses. Liquor and wine bottles can be packed using cell kits. Purchase a good sealing or packing tape to secure the boxes. A low-quality tape can make packing a taxing job for you.
3. Sort, select, and segregate
If you can’t do the packing on your own, you can at least select the things that are important to you. Removing all the items that are of no use to use will simplify the process for the packers as well as you. Many things may feel like extras to you. Make sure you find them a place.
Some of the old, unused equipment can be sold to the junk seller. If you have things in good condition they can be given to your other family or friends. Purge through the drawers and mercilessly get rid of things that are not required anymore. Donate things that can be donated and rest; the junkyard awaits.
4. Essential box
As soon as you move you won’t have the heart to get into unpacking the items. So, for all the immediate items that will be required to survive for two-three days, you need to set them aside. This box will have all the important kitchens that you will need for a day or two.
This box should have food items, a few dishes, and cutlery, coffee maker, dishcloth, dish towel, dish detergent, etc. Don’t forget to add a pack of tissue wipes into the box. They come in very handy in getting the whole area cleaned in a jiffy.
5. Pack fragile unopened bottles
Most of us like to decorate our kitchen with those small spice bottles. They are one of those dangerous things that are hard to move. It is not because these bottles are hard to pack but it has our sentiments attached to them. We are overprotective of them.
If you have unopened oil or wine bottles at home, it will be best if you could pack them as early as possible. Set aside one or two that can be used, rest everything you can pack. Fine vinegar, special oil bottles, balsamic vinegar bottles are very expensive. While moving you may find it very hard to part with them. Wrap them up carefully and use specific boxes to pack them up.
If you can, then postpone buying these items till you completely shifting into your new house. This will save you a lot of heartaches. Just use up all the incomplete bottles and get rid of them before D-day.
6. Packing of shelves and drawers
Remember, it just looks messy, but it is not. If you remove one or two items from it the drawer will be a fine looking box for use. Yes! Once you have cleaned your drawer, if it can be removed, just use a shrink wrap to pack the contents tightly with the drawer. After doing this you can put it in a box and pack it up again. Make sure you don’t keep any fragile items inside or sharp instruments.
If you want wrap knives and other sharp instruments with foam, plastic, and a rubber band before you pack them with the drawer. This will help you avoid any accidents.
Cookbooks can be packed in advance as you may use them occasionally. Lay them straight in the bottom of the box to avoid bending the spine of the books.