How to pack a kitchen

Every kitchen has a tier of things that come out twice a year: the roasting tin, the good glasses, the stand mixer, the platter. That is a box or two you can pack weeks early with no effect on daily life. Do it first, because it makes the room look like it is moving and that helps more than it should.

Cull while you pack rather than before. The spice jar from three houses ago, the lids with no containers, the second colander. A kitchen is the easiest room to lighten because most of what is surplus is obvious the moment you hold it.

Plates stacked flat break, because the whole weight of the pile lands on the bottom one every time the box is set down. Stood on their edges, like records in a crate, they support each other and the force goes through the rim, which is the strongest part.

Wrap each one in paper or a tea towel, stand them in a row, and pack them tightly enough that none can tip. Soft items go in the gaps. Linens and towels are packing material you already own and have to move anyway.

Upright, always. A wine glass on its side snaps at the stem under almost no load. Wrap each one, stand them in a single layer, and if you are stacking a second layer put a folded towel between the two.

Mugs can take more abuse but the handles cannot. Wrap them individually and do not let two handles knock together.

Pots nest, which makes them the one genuinely efficient thing in the kitchen. Put a sheet of paper between each so the coatings survive. Lids go on their edges down the side of the box.

Cast iron and small appliances are where people go wrong on weight. A box of cast iron is not a box anyone can lift. Split it across several, put the heavy items at the bottom, and fill the rest of the space with something light. The guide is about 50 pounds a box, which is well under what a tote will take but about what a person should carry down stairs.

Blade into a folded tea towel, rolled, taped, and labelled as knives on the outside. Not loose in a box of utensils, and not in a drawer organiser that will tip. Whoever unpacks it may not be you.

Eat the freezer down for the fortnight before rather than moving it. Open packets are not worth the move. Sealed dry goods pack fine but they are heavy, so treat a box of tins like a box of books and only half fill it.

Oils, vinegars, and anything that can leak: bag them separately, upright, in a box that is going in the car rather than the truck.

Kettle, mugs, tea, coffee, a pan, one plate and one set of cutlery per person, a knife, a tea towel, washing-up liquid. It goes on the truck last and comes off first. The alternative is opening nine boxes at eleven at night looking for a mug.

If you are working to a schedule, the eight week checklist shows where the kitchen fits against everything else.

Our bias is obvious, but the reason is real: kitchen boxes are the heaviest in the house, and a cardboard bottom under 40 pounds of crockery is the classic moving failure. Totes have a rigid base and a lid that latches, so a stack of them holds together and nothing shifts on a corner.

They also stack 5 high, which matters in a kitchen because floor space runs out before you have finished the cupboards. See what a package costs.