Daniel O'Connor
Plan the Kitchen Before You Pack a Single Plate
The kitchen is the hardest room in the house to pack and the one that matters most on moving day. Get it wrong and you'll be hunting for a teaspoon at nine in the evening with a cold cup of tea going nowhere. Get it right, though, and unpacking becomes a calm, orderly business rather than a desperate rummage through anonymous cardboard.
Start roughly three weeks before you move, and work through one cupboard at a time. Kitchens hide an astonishing amount of clutter: out-of-date spices, duplicate utensils, chipped mugs you never use, three different bottle openers. Be honest with yourself. Anything you haven't used in a year probably doesn't need to travel with you.
Unopened, in-date tins and packets can go to a local food bank or community fridge, which saves you packing them and does someone else some good. Set aside everything you'll still need right up to the last night, and pack around it. You'll be cooking proper meals until the day itself, so keep one pan, one knife and a few plates back.
Buy proper materials rather than raiding the supermarket carrier bags. Double-walled boxes for anything heavy, a decent roll of bubble wrap, a big stack of packing paper and plenty of strong tape. Cheap boxes collapse at the worst possible moment.
Wrap Plates Upright, Not Flat
This is the single most useful kitchen-packing rule, and most people get it wrong. Plates stacked flat in a box will flex and crack, especially on a bumpy drive down a motorway. Packed on edge, like records in a crate, a plate is remarkably strong.
- Line the base of the box with crumpled packing paper to build a cushion.
- Wrap each plate individually. Then stand them on edge in neat rows, all facing the same way.
- Never lay a glass tumbler on its side. Wrap it, stand it upright, and stuff a little paper inside to stop it shifting.
- Nest mugs together with paper between them and wrap the handles, which snap easily.
- Fill every gap with crumpled paper so nothing rattles when you give the box a gentle shake.
Heavy items go at the bottom, lighter ones on top, and never fill a box so high that the lid won't sit flat. If you can't close it properly, you've overpacked it — split the contents across two boxes and save your back.
Label Every Box by Room and Contents
A box marked "kitchen" tells you almost nothing when you're standing in a hallway surrounded by thirty of them. Write on the top and on one side, so the label is readable however the box ends up stacked.
- Room, then contents: Kitchen — saucepans and lids.
- Fragile and this way up on anything breakable.
- Number each box and keep a running list on your phone or in a notebook. If something goes missing in transit, you'll know exactly what you're looking for.
- Split kitchen boxes into everyday and occasional. Baking tins, good china and the fondue set can wait a fortnight; you'll want the potato peeler tomorrow.
- Mark two or three boxes open first and keep them together.
Pack an Essentials Box You'll Open First
This is the box that saves your sanity. It shouldn't go on the van with the rest of the kitchen — keep it with you, or make sure it's the very last thing loaded and the first thing unloaded.
- The kettle, a couple of mugs, teabags, coffee, sugar and a spoon.
- Washing-up liquid, a cloth, tea towels, kitchen roll and bin bags.
- One knife, a chopping board, a tin opener, a pan and enough plates and cutlery for the first day.
- Scissors, a pen, some tape and a phone charger.
- Water bottles and something easy to eat that doesn't need cooking.
Food, Fridges and the Fiddly Bits
Eat down the freezer over the fortnight before you move, so there's less to transport and less to waste. Defrost the fridge-freezer at least twenty-four hours before the van arrives, with old towels on the floor to catch the drips. Anything that's defrosted and won't be eaten should be binned, and chilled food travels best in a cool bag with a freezer block, going in the car rather than the van.
Spices, flour and rice escape from opened packets with alarming speed. Seal them in bags or clip-top containers and tape the lids shut. Wrap knife blades in cardboard and tape them in place, then keep the whole box separate — ideally travel with it yourself rather than putting it in the removals van.
Cleaning products deserve their own box, with lids taped and kept away from food. Check what your removal firm won't carry; aerosols and other flammables are often refused. If you're keeping the manuals for the microwave or the coffee machine, put them in a labelled bag and tape it to the appliance itself.
Make Arrival Day Easier
Load the essentials box last so it comes off the van first. Unpack the kitchen in a sensible order: kettle and mugs, then everyday crockery and cutlery, then pans, then cupboard items. Leave the occasional boxes for the following weekend, when you've got the energy.
And if the first night ends with a takeaway and mugs of tea on the floor, that's not failure. That's a move well done.
