Compact Packing Series: Part 1- Kitchen

Probably one of my favorite rooms in any home, the kitchen is one room that can accumulate unnecessary items very quickly. From specialty appliances to excessive amounts of tupperware and coffee cups, things can add up quickly and that means a lot of wasted space. This is especially true if you are trying to move your entire kitchen every few months.
Currently I pack all my kitchen gear in about 4 boxes:
One for pots, pans, and baking ware
One for silverware, tupperware, dishes, and utensils
One for all electric appliances, and kitchen linens
One for any nonperishable food items I have
After unpacking everything, this is what my cupboards and drawers look like:

Top shelf: plastic bags, shaker cups
Middle shelf: tupperware and water bottle
Bottom shelf: cups, bowls, plates, collapsible storage and lunch containers

As you can see, I try to keep things minimal. I've got enough dishes that I don't have to do dishes every night after supper. The greater portion of this is tupperware and storage containers. I always bring my lunch to work (its healthier and much cheaper). The idea here, is to have enough that you don't have to do dishes every day but not so much that you are weighed down. Another thing is that everything here is plastic. No breakables! It makes packing boxes and loading my car that much easier and less stressful. Also, breakable things are usually heavier so I'm saving weight as well when I have to carry everything in/out during moving. Finally, the bottom shelf is half full of collapsible items, which are wonderful for saving space in boxes and cupboards! If I could get all collapsible...everything, I would! Best part, is after I retire from traveling, the collapsible items are great for camping!

Top shelf: hand mixer, hand blender, chopper

Middle shelf: large blender, food scale

Bottom shelf: smoothie mixer and bottles

This is probably a shelf that people would say I am being redundant and wasting space. And looking at it now, I would probably have to agree. I have a specific purpose for all of these items and, for the most part, there is no cross over possible among their uses. For instance, I use the large blender to make my own oat flour with when I bake and I use the smoothie maker for smoothies (obviously). Now I could use the large blender for both but if I want to make a smoothie for breakfast on the road, it requires much more time (and is usually a large mess) if I try to pour into a bottle with my large blender. So, I keep the smoothie maker around. The hand mixer could probably be left out but again, some of these things are to my preference and this happens to be one of them.

Left: soup bowl, coffee/tea mug, to go mug

Right: mixing bowls and strainer

Now, I know I said earlier that I didn't carry breakables, which is mostly true...outside of the soup bowl and coffee mug. Again, these are two things that I do not feel at home without. Especially my tea mug. I will usually have a cup of tea every night when the weather starts getting cold. The colander is probably a little large since, at most I'm cooking for two (me and my husband), but I didn't think it was really worth it to buy a whole new colander when mine worked perfectly fine.

Top: mini muffin tins, baking pan, regular muffin tin

Bottom: large frying pan, sauce pan, 3 different pots, 

small frying pan, dutch oven, and 4 lids

Here we have all my bake ware. Its not the fanciest stuff or the newest (bought it in college), but it is functional and I'm not worried about scratching it. I don't have a cookie sheet for two reasons: one, my old ones rusted and I had to throw them away; and two, I couldn't get one to fit in the box properly. So for any baking, I just use the baking pan. It works fine and it saves me some space. 

Silverware, kitchen linens, and clips and twistie-ties

So, this looks like an empty drawer. The kitchen linens are very scant because I only keep two wash clothes and two drying cloths. At no given time are both in the wash when I need/want to do dishes, so we have some space saved here as well. It is also helpful to have these, as I use them to wrap my soup bowl and tea mug during packing so they don't break. Use what you will bring with you to pack what you will bring with you!

Utensil drawer...you get the idea

Well this is a bit of a mess but utensil drawers usually are. Now, I do have a redundancy here that I will be fixing this weekend. I have two sets of measuring cups. (Its the end of the world as we know it!!!)  One is the set that I used in college (and I am fond of). The other set is a collapsible set that I bought specifically for traveling. Although this seems like a small detail, it is helpful to identify things like this so you can eliminate excess clutter.

Toaster, salt and pepper, oil decanter, spoon holder, and drying mat

These are all things that I like to have around. The oil decanter, however not necessary, makes me feel at home and enjoy cooking that much more. One of the best space saving items is the drying mat, instead of using a drying rack. The mat folds up very small (that is only about 1/3 of its full size) and can be used as padding in boxes to keep things from banging around.

So there you have it! My kitchen. There may be things there that I have that you would have no need for or I may have left some things out that you can't live without. Just keep in mind that you will have to be moving everything every 3-4 months, so whatever it is you can't live without, better be worth it.