The Kitchen Is the Hardest Room. Here Is How to Do It.

A kitchen takes roughly twice as long to pack as a bedroom of the same size. It has more individual items than any other room, most of them are fragile, several of them leak, and a good number of them cannot travel at all. Start here, not last.

Three days before: empty, don't pack

Work through the fridge and the pantry rather than shopping. Anything opened — atta, rice, pulses, oil, masalas in paper packets — should be used, given away or discarded. Opened food in a carton is the single most reliable way to introduce pests to your new kitchen, and on a long move it is guaranteed.

Sealed, unopened packets are a judgement call. On a same-day local move they are fine. On a five-day run to Bengaluru in June, they are not worth the risk.

The order that works

1. Rarely used — the good crockery, the extra serving dishes, appliances you use monthly
2. Occasional — extra utensils, spare containers, the mixer attachments
3. Daily — packed last, on the morning of the move

Keep out a survival set and pack it separately: a kettle or small pan, two plates, two glasses, two sets of cutlery, tea, sugar, a knife and a cutting board. Label it OPEN FIRST. You will want tea long before you find the kitchen boxes.

Item by item

Plates

On their edge, standing vertically like records in a rack — never stacked flat. A stack puts the whole column's weight on the bottom plate. Wrap each in clean packing paper (not newsprint; the ink transfers), band them in groups of three or four, then stand them upright with paper filling the gaps.

Glasses and stemware

Crumple paper inside the bowl of each glass first — that is what stops the rim collapsing — then wrap individually and stand upright. Never on their side.

Bowls, katoris and steel

Steel is the easy part of an Indian kitchen. Nest them with paper between and they travel well. Use the nesting space: a stack of katoris inside a large patila wastes nothing.

The pressure cooker

Gasket removed and packed in a labelled bag — a compressed gasket left in place for a week deforms and stops sealing. The cooker body then becomes useful packing space for lighter items.

Masalas and liquids

Every bottle and jar: tape the lid shut, then bag it individually, then pack upright in a box marked THIS WAY UP. Oil, vinegar, pickle and honey are the four that most often leak, and pickle oil through a carton of clothes is not recoverable.

Knives

Blade wrapped in thick card, taped, and marked. This is a safety issue for whoever unpacks — often you, tired, at ten at night.

Non-stick pans

Paper or cloth between every pan. Stacked bare non-stick scratches itself in transit, reliably.

Appliances

The fridge

Defrost and drain 24 hours before, not the night before — a fridge that has only had a few hours produces water in the truck. Tape the door shut for transit, and on arrival let it stand upright for a few hours before switching it on so the compressor oil settles. Switching on immediately is how compressors die.

The mixer and small appliances

Blades and jars separated and wrapped individually. Cords wound and tied to the body, not left loose.

The chimney and hob

These usually need uninstalling, which is a job for someone who does it — the gas connection to the hob in particular. Tell us in advance if the kitchen is modular, because dismantling a modular kitchen is a separate scope and a separate day.

The gas connection

The cylinder does not travel. Surrender it and the regulator at your distributor, get the termination voucher and the deposit back, and use the voucher for a connection near your new address. Allow about a week either side, and start it before the packing does.

Boxes: small, and marked

Kitchen boxes should be the smallest ones you have. A large carton of crockery fails at the base — it is the commonest breakage there is. Mark every one KITCHEN, plus the contents, plus FRAGILE on two sides and the top.