How to Pack Dishes for a Move

The professional movers at All My Sons Moving & Storage offer packing services to get your entire kitchen inventory, including your dishes, packed for your move. 

From mugs to chinaware, your dishes make up an important and highly breakable part of your kitchen inventory. To avoid chips or cracks on your favorite plates and bowls, follow these crucial guidelines for getting your dishes packed for your move.

Kitchen cabinets crammed to the brim and your next home has even less space? Your move is a great time to think about what you need to get rid of, so declutter your kitchen cabinets first. Go through your plates and bowls and determine whether or not you really want to take each piece with you. Sell or donate items in good condition that can be used by someone else, and discard any items that are too damaged to serve their function. 

If you would like some kitchen dishes available to you up until the moment of your move and then again immediately upon arrival in your new home, pack those dishes with your kitchen essentials. This will be a box that you load close to last and unload first at your new home. You can differentiate your essentials boxes from other boxes  with special colored tape if you have the budget for extra moving supplies.

Wrap your plates, bowls, and mugs in packing paper or bubble wrap individually. You can tape bundles shut for extra security while moving. 

Identify your heaviest dishes and prepare to put these dishes in your boxes first.

Line the bottom of your box with packing material like bubble wrap or packing peanuts. You should use small boxes to pack heavy dishes, as dishes can add up in weight very quickly. Some retailers who provide packing supplies carry specialty dish boxes that will contain cells for individual dishes.

Your plates and bowls should be packed into your box vertically. This decreases the likelihood that your plates and bowls will break in the event your box gets jostled.

Once the box is full of all the kitchen dishes that will comfortably fit, fill any empty box space with packing material like packing paper, packing peanuts, or bubble wrap. You can also use your soft kitchen items like kitchen towels and hot pads to fill empty space in your boxes.

Filling the empty space in your boxes ensures that your dishes do not shift around too much while in transit.

Before you seal the box, check the box’s weight and make sure that you can lift it. Overloaded boxes are a recipe for broken dishes and injuries to your movers, so if a box is too heavy then take out some dishes and put some lighter kitchen items inside instead.

Once the box is ready to seal, tape the box shut and label your box with permanent black marker. Write that the box contains kitchen items or use special colored tape to differentiate your boxes by room. You should mark the box as fragile if your dishes are glass, porcelain, or chinaware or any other highly breakable material. This will help you and your movers remember to be careful with the box during the move.

Once the dishes are packed, don’t forget to book with your professional movers. All My Sons Moving & Storage has been in the business of helping families make a seamless relocation for over 30 years, and we’d be delighted to bring our customer-focused care to your move. We can even pack the dishes for you with our professional packing services.

Give us a call at 1-866-726-1579 to reach one of our 90+ locations across the United States or use the online quote form below to get started on your move.