How to Pack a Kitchen When Moving Home: A Complete Guide

The kitchen is the single most time-consuming room in any home to pack, and the room where DIY packing goes wrong most often. Everything is either heavy, sharp, fragile, awkward, or wet. Pack a kitchen well and the rest of the house feels easy. Rush it and every second box that arrives at the new address has broken glass in it. Here's the professional method our own crews follow.

Materials list — what you actually need

• 15–20 small double-walled boxes (for crockery, glassware, small appliances)
• 8–12 medium double-walled boxes (for pans, food cupboards, small utensils)
• 4–6 large boxes (for lightweight bulky items only — never fill with plates)
• 3 dish barrels or crockery cartons with internal dividers
• 1 large roll of bubble wrap (small bubble, not large — small bubble is for fragile items)
• 1 pack of white acid-free tissue paper
• 1 large roll of packing tape and a proper tape gun
• Permanent marker in a strong colour — not black

Apex delivers all of this to your address as a free packing kit ahead of every home move.

The order of attack

1. Non-perishable food cupboard — 3 weeks before

Pack tinned goods, spices, dried pasta, and unopened condiments into medium boxes. Don't buy more food until move day. Donate open packets you won't finish in three weeks to a food bank.

2. Rarely-used equipment — 2 weeks before

Slow cooker, ice cream maker, cake tins, roasting trays used at Christmas, spare glassware. All of this goes early into labelled boxes.

3. Crockery and glassware — 1 week before

This is where breakages happen. Method:

1. Line the base of a dish barrel with 3cm of crushed packing paper.
2. Wrap each plate individually in tissue then bubble wrap. Stack vertically, on edge, like records — never flat. Vertical stacks distribute road impact.
3. Wrap glasses one at a time, tuck tissue inside the bowl, and stand upright in the box. Use dividers if you have them.
4. Fill every gap with paper. If anything moves when you gently shake the closed box, add more paper.
5. Write "FRAGILE — THIS WAY UP — KITCHEN" on the top and both long sides in bold marker.

4. Knives — 3 days before

Wrap each blade in cardboard, tape the cardboard closed, and pack all knives together in a clearly-marked small box. Nobody unloading should reach into a box and find a naked chef's knife.

5. Everyday-use items — day before

Kettle, one mug per family member, teabags, coffee, milk in a cool bag, one sharp knife, one chopping board, one pan, kitchen roll, hand soap. This entire kit goes in your "day one" box that travels in the car, not the lorry.

Moving major appliances

Fridge and freezer

Empty and defrost 24–48 hours before moving day. Leave doors ajar. Wipe dry inside. Never lay flat on the journey — 2 hours minimum upright at the new home before switching back on so the compressor oil resettles.

Washing machine and dishwasher

Turn off water at least 2 hours before disconnection. Drain fully. Refit shipping bolts (kept in a bag taped to the machine). Never move without shipping bolts — the drum will destroy the bearings.

Oven and hob

Free-standing ovens simply unplug or unhook from the gas supply (gas must be capped off by a Gas Safe engineer — Apex will book one for you as part of a move). Fitted ovens usually stay with the property unless specifically listed on the fixtures and fittings.

What the professionals do differently

Our Apex packing team clears a full three-bed kitchen in 3–4 hours. Two things make the difference. First, wrapping every item — no exceptions, not even tupperware. Second, filling every box completely so nothing can shift on the journey. If you follow only those two rules from this guide, kitchen breakage rates fall to essentially zero.