How to Pack Dishes for Moving
Properly packing dishes helps reduce the risk of chips, cracks and breaks during a move. From selecting the right packing materials to organizing plates, bowls and glassware inside sturdy moving boxes, a few simple steps can help keep your kitchen items protected from start to finish.
Step 1: Gather Your Supplies
Before you can begin packing your dishes, you'll need to gather the necessary supplies. These include cardboard boxes to pack dishes in, packing foam, packing paper or bubble wrap, a packing tape dispenser and permanent markers.
Step 2: Organize the Dishes by Type and Size
Organize your dishes by type and size before packing them in boxes. This step will help you keep similarly sized dishes together so you can pack them into boxes of the appropriate size. It will also make unpacking easier when you arrive at your new home.
Step 3: Wrap Each Dish Individually
When handling fragile dishes such as porcelain plates or glassware, wrap each item individually with packing paper or foam before packing them into boxes. The extra layer of protection will help keep your dishes from getting chipped, cracked or broken during transit.
To wrap each dish, lay the packing paper or foam on a flat surface such as a table or countertop. Then place the dish in the center of the paper or foam and gently fold the edges around it. Secure the paper in place with a piece of tape. If the paper or foam is large enough, you may be able to use one piece to protect two or more dishes.
Step 4: Prepare the Boxes
Once your dishes are wrapped, you can prepare your packing boxes. Unfold them and tape the bottom flaps together with packing tape. For boxes that will carry heavy loads, secure the bottom flaps with three or more strips of packing tape. This will help keep the flaps from opening and spilling the fragile contents while you're carrying them to or from the moving vehicle.
Make the task of moving delicate dishes easier with a dish packing kit. You can find a variety of moving box kits at Lowes.com that are designed to help you quickly and safely pack up different rooms in your house, from your kitchen to your bedroom closet. Each kit comes with the main supplies you need to efficiently pack your belongings room by room.
Step 5: Select the Right Box Size for Your Dishes
To select the appropriate box size for your dishes, place a dish inside an empty cardboard box and make sure it doesn't fit too tightly or too loosely. You should have just enough room around the edges of the dish for an inch or two of padding such as crumpled packing paper, bubble wrap or foam. If you're placing multiple stacks of dishes in the same box, the same rules apply. Make sure there’s about an inch around each dish's edge for protective padding.
Step 6: Fill the Boxes
Now that you have determined the most appropriate box size for your dishes, it's time to fill the bottom of each box with a layer of crumpled packing paper, bubble wrap or packing foam. This layer should be several inches thick to provide adequate protection for your dishes. Place the individually wrapped dishes inside the box and fill any empty spaces around the dishes with crumpled packing paper, bubble wrap or packing peanuts. The protective layer should be sufficient to hold the dishes in place so they don't bump against each other during transport.
Step 7: Secure and Mark the Boxes
The final steps in the process of packing dishes for moving are to secure the boxes with tape and use a permanent marker to indicate what's inside. Set the boxes aside after you've marked them, and put them in your moving truck after larger, less-fragile items have been loaded.
How to Pack Glasses Without Breaking Them
Glasses are particularly fragile items and must be packed with great care to avoid breaking them. In addition to following most of the general steps above — including wrapping each glass individually and making sure they are placed into heavily padded boxes — there are a couple of additional precautions you should take with glasses.
Never lay glasses down flat inside the moving box. Instead, stand them upright. You can stack glasses if you're careful to place foam or bubble wrap between the layers and carefully fill in all empty spaces with packing paper. Even the spaces inside the glasses should be filled with paper to help prevent them from shifting or breaking. Consider double-boxing if you're moving especially fragile stemware, and label the boxes as “FRAGILE.”
How to Pack Kitchen Knives
Kitchen knives can also be tricky to pack because they can cut through cardboard fairly easily. When packaging knives, it's best to wrap them in a tight layer of packing paper, bubble wrap or even old kitchen towels. That way they can't cut through your cardboard box and potentially injure someone. Be sure to label your box clearly so you know where your knives are when you unpack.
More Tips on Packing for a Move
Now that you know how to pack dishes for moving, it's time to consider how you'll pack up the rest of the items in your house. Check out our article — Moving Tips: Checklists for Packing and Moving Out — for more moving day tips that will make it easier to carefully pack up the items in your home and transport them to your destination.