How to pack a kitchen for moving

Fragile first, while you are unhurried and have paper to spare. Then pots, pans and small appliances. Then the pantry. Then a single open box of everyday items that stays out until the last morning and travels with you. Working in passes across the whole room rather than emptying one cupboard at a time is what groups like with like, and like with like is what survives.

Nested, largest first, with a sheet of paper or a cloth between each one so the base of one does not scour the inside of the next. Lids travel separately on edge, wrapped, because a lid nested inside its pan cracks its own knob under load. Cast iron goes at the bottom of its own box and never on top of anything, since it will find whatever is beneath it.

Every blade gets a sheath before it goes anywhere: a folded strip of card taped over the edge, or the original block if you are moving that too. Wrap the sheathed knife, then mark the outer wrap so whoever opens the box knows what is inside. A loose blade in a kitchen box is the commonest injury in a self-packed move, and it happens at the unpacking end.

Empty the water, drain the reservoir, and dry it properly before it is sealed, because any appliance that holds water will grow something in a closed box. Tape down loose lids and moving arms, and pack the blades and attachments in a bag taped to the body. Glass jugs and carafes come out and are packed as glassware, not left sitting on their bases.

Sealed dry goods travel in a small box, upright, with anything in glass wrapped. Opened packets, anything oily and anything that has already attracted an insect stay behind, since a pantry moth travels with the flour and establishes itself in the new kitchen. Nothing frozen or refrigerated goes in a truck, and no interstate carrier will accept perishables in a shipment.

Boxes packed by cupboard rather than by material, so a wine glass ends up under a casserole dish. And unlabelled boxes: a kitchen produces more boxes than any other room, and the ones you need on the first evening are indistinguishable from the ones that can wait a month. Write the contents on the side rather than the top, since boxes get stacked and the top is the face you cannot read.