How to Pack a Kitchen in Moving Totes (Without Breaking Anything)

Ask anyone who has moved what room took the longest and they'll say the kitchen. It has more stuff per square foot than any other room in the house, half of it breaks, and the other half is oddly shaped. It's also the room you need working again the fastest.

Plastic totes take a lot of the risk out of it. The walls don't crush, the lids snap shut, and a stack doesn't lean. But how you pack still decides whether you open a tote to whole plates or a puzzle. Here's the way we'd do it.

Cut it down before you pack anything

Every item you don't move is one less thing to wrap. The kitchen is the easiest room to thin out because so much of it is duplicates and food.

• Eat down the pantry and freezer for the two weeks before the move. Plan meals around what you already have.
• Toss anything expired and donate sealed, unexpired cans and boxes to a local food pantry.
• Cull the duplicates. The fourth spatula, the 30 mugs, the plastic containers with no matching lids.
• Be honest about appliances. If you haven't used the bread maker or the fondue set in a year, it doesn't need a tote.

Pack in this order

1. As soon as the totes arrive: anything you won't touch before move day. Holiday dishes, serving platters, vases, cookbooks, the good china, bar glasses, specialty appliances.
2. A few days out: most of the dishes, glasses and pots, plus the pantry except the basics. Keep one plate, bowl, cup and set of utensils per person out.
3. The last night: everything that's left, and the first night tote (more on that below).

How to pack each thing

Plates and bowls

Put a folded towel in the bottom of the tote first. Wrap each plate in packing paper or a dish towel and stand it on its edge, like records in a crate. Plates are much stronger on edge than stacked flat, where the weight presses down on the bottom one. Fill the gaps with more towels so nothing can slide. Bowls can nest in pairs with paper between them.

Glasses and mugs

Stuff each glass with a sock or a ball of paper, then wrap the outside. Stand them up and keep them in their own tote, with nothing heavy on top. Stemware gets the most padding and goes in the top layer. Wrap mugs and line them up with the handles all pointing the same way so they don't knock into each other.

Knives

Wrap a few knives together in a dish towel, hold the bundle closed with rubber bands, and write KNIVES on a piece of tape on the outside. Nobody should ever reach blind into a tote and find a loose blade. If you have a knife block, leave them in it and wrap the whole block in a towel.

Pots, pans and bakeware

Nest pots inside each other with a sheet of paper or a paper towel between nonstick surfaces. Wrap the lids separately and stand them on edge along the side of the tote. Cast iron goes on the very bottom. Pots make a good base layer, with lighter things like dish towels and plastic containers on top.

Small appliances

Empty everything first: water out of the coffee maker, crumbs out of the toaster, the blade out of the blender. Wrap the cord and tape it to the body. Put loose parts in a zip top bag and tape that to the appliance so the blender doesn't show up without its lid. Pad around each one with towels.

The pantry

• Tape the caps on bottles, then put oil, vinegar and sauces in zip top bags and stand them upright together in one tote.
• Move open bags of flour, sugar and rice into zip top bags or containers with lids. Torn flour bags are the number one kitchen mess.
• Corral spices in a small box or bag inside the tote so they're not rolling around loose.
• Cans are heavy. Fill a tote about halfway with cans and top it off with something light, like boxes of pasta or cereal.

The fridge and freezer

Perishables don't go in totes. Put them in a cooler with ice packs and take them in your car. If the fridge is coming with you, empty it, unplug it the night before so the freezer can defrost, and wipe it dry. Leave the doors propped open a crack until it's plugged back in so it doesn't start to smell.

Keep every tote liftable

A 27 gallon tote holds a lot, which means you can easily fill one with more weight than anyone wants to carry. Heavy things go on the bottom and light things on top, and dense stuff like cans, cast iron and cookbooks only fills a tote partway. A simple test: if you can't lift it to your waist comfortably, take something out.

This is where the dolly earns its $10. Stack a few kitchen totes and roll them across the kitchen to the truck instead of carrying them one at a time.

Label so the kitchen gets unpacked first

• Put a strip of painter's tape on the lid and on one side, since the lid is hidden once totes are stacked. Write the room and the main contents: Kitchen, plates.
• Number them, like Kitchen 4 of 11, and keep a quick list on your phone of what's in each one.
• Mark glassware totes FRAGILE and keep them on top of the stack.
• On move day, have every kitchen tote go straight into the kitchen at the new place, not the garage.

The first night tote

Pack this one last and put it in your car, not the truck. It's the difference between a frustrating first night and a pretty decent one.

• A plate, bowl, cup and set of utensils for each person
• One pot, one pan, a spatula, a sharp knife and a cutting board
• A can opener, scissors and a roll of paper towels
• Dish soap, a sponge and a couple of dish towels
• Trash bags
• The coffee setup: maker, coffee, filters and mugs
• Snacks, bottled water and something easy for dinner

How many totes does a kitchen take?

For the rest of the house, the room by room guide adds it all up and matches it to a package. If you're planning the whole move, the Ocean County checklist and the Monmouth County checklist lay out the weeks before moving day.

Common questions