Are you getting ready for a move? Are you worried about moving your heavy home and kitchen appliances to your new house? You must have thought of leaving these large appliances behind at your old house and buy new appliances for your new home. Also, you might have planned to move these appliances to your new home at any cost, even if it will cause you injuries or damage your appliances. In a nutshell, the thought of taking the right course of action will take away your stress and add more to your stress.
Prime appliances are frequently the most vital household possessions you would be relocating or storing for future use. Nevertheless, if you hire a moving company, they will provide you with only restricted services related to getting your appliances ready for the move, in exchange for a fee. However, if you have planned to pack your home and kitchen appliances by yourself, we have some great ideas for you.
Understand your appliances
It's extremely important to know your appliances well before you start preparing them for relocation. It would be wonderful if you still have the manual as you can access the moving instructions for all appliances you need to move. In case you don’t have a manual, there’s nothing to panic about as you can easily avail it online.
Let’s now explore a few common tips that will help you pack your prime appliances for moving:
Disconnecting and reconnecting the appliances
- Make sure to do any scheduled important maintenance of your appliances as you might want to move or store them in a proper condition.
- In case an appliance has a gas connection or high-voltage connection, you must call a technician to unplug it.
- You must not do this by yourself. If you hire professional movers, they might not do the servicing for you. However, if they do, they will charge you additionally for the same.
- Consider booking registered professionals in advance for disconnecting your appliances as well as reconnecting them at your new house.
Managing without appliances
Your house and kitchen appliances might be out of service from a few days before the moving day. You might need to get meals from outside and arrange for laundry at your friend’s house.
Prepare early
You must leave the appliances for some days before you pack and move them to your new house. Meanwhile, if you must store them, we suggest you keep them open for a longer time before you consider packing them.
Collect the right packing supplies
You need several packing supplies to pack the appliances and prepare them for the move. We suggest you collect all the packing materials before you sit for packing your appliances into the moving boxes. Otherwise, you may end up falling short of boxes at the end moment and lose focus from work.
Here are a few packing supplies that you might need to arrange for packing your appliances:
- Packing tape
- Packing paper
- Packing peanuts
- Moving boxes
- Bubble wraps
Now, we will explore some home and kitchen appliances and learn how to pack them efficiently for the moving day.
Refrigerator
Here are a few tricks to prepare your appliances for a move:
- You should arrange for a particular appliance moving tool like a fridge dolly in this case.
- Unfortunately, you aren’t packing the refrigerator in its original box, we recommend you disconnect it properly and safeguard it during the move along with other breakable items.
Dishwasher
- Make sure the dishwasher is clean, perhaps you can perform a wash cycle while the appliance is empty. You must do this sometime before the moving day.
- A dishwasher or any other appliances that use water should be left open for at least 48 hours before you pack them. This will allow the water accumulated at the bottom to evaporate completely.
- You must hire a plumber to disconnect the water supply for you and make sure the water doesn’t escape.
- Keep aside the hoses and cover them with packing paper as well as an old towel. Also, you need to pack the hoses separately, including other racks and stands.
- You must fix the electric plug on the back side of your dishwasher with packing tape.
- Another good idea would be to place a moving pad on the outer side of the dishwasher as this will help you safeguard its finishing.
Oven and stove
A stove can quickly get damaged during a move, mostly if it has a glass cooktop. This makes it important for you to read the manual well before you begin to move the appliance.
Here are a few basic tips that you must follow:
- Make sure you remove any pans or pots from the drawer below the oven and pack each of them separately.
- Perform a heavy-duty cleaning on the entire stove as well as the oven. You must read the manual carefully and ensure to take out the stove and consider cleaning anything that might have fallen on the sides. Moreover, if you don’t clean it, the accumulated grease can cause the stove to slip.
- Don’t forget to take out the racks along with the other detachable parts like a drip pan and avoid packing them all together.
- Make sure you have turned off the dials and secure them in place with packing tape. Besides, you can even tape crushed newspaper on the display and offer extra protection. Overall, adding extra padding will give you peace of mind, however, you need to treat it like any other fragile item. In the case of a glass cooktop, we suggest you wrap it with bubble wrap as well as crushed paper on the glass for additional cushioning.
- Unplug the electric plug and disconnect it from the gas line like you do for any other appliances.
- Use a bungee cord or a strap to keep the oven door shut. Packing tape may leave residue on the finishing of the appliances, we suggest you avoid applying it.
- Meanwhile, if your stove is made of stainless steel, it would be an outstanding idea to cover it with heavy-duty plastic or a moving blanket.
Washing Machine
- Repeat the steps you take for any appliance that requires running water.
- While moving a washing machine, you must protect its drum or else it will get displaced and the chances of it getting damaged will also be high. This is more crucial for a front-load washing machine. We advise you to go through the manual and check if you have already got the special parts recommended to move the appliance while you have purchased the machine. Otherwise, you need to buy them as suggested in the manual.
- Don’t forget to tighten the screws in the washing machine.
- Roll the electrical cord and fix it on the back side of the washing machine.
- Make sure you secure the lid with packing tape or a strap.
- Finally, wrap the appliance with an old blanket or moving blanket and prevent it from getting damaged.
Microwave oven
- Detach the glass tray and make sure it’s clean. Also, you need to wrap the tray with a stretch wrap even before you consider packing it.
- Pack the electrical cord as you do for any other appliances.
- Place the microwave oven in a well-cushioned moving box. However, you need to cover it with a moving pad if the microwave is very big.
- You can add packing peanuts to the moving box and ensure you don't put any other items into it.
- In case you don’t have the original box, make sure you pack it in a separate box and fill the empty spaces with crushed papers. Don’t forget to seal the box and label it as fragile.
Clothes dryer
In addition to unplugging the appliance properly as well as securing the electrical cord, here are a few things you need to do while you set a clothes dryer in your new home:
- Make sure you check the electrical supply of your new home, to see if it can cope with your requirements.
- You must check if the dryer vent of the appliance looks good and is clean. Moreover, if these vents are filled with dirt, the appliance won’t function properly. The risk of fire would also be there, in case of blocked vents.
- For complete protection, we suggest you enfold the appliance or hire a moving company to do the same for you. With this, you will feel assured that your appliance will reach safely its destination, even if you are moving multiple appliances.
Stand mixers
To pack small but heavy appliances for a move, you need to do careful and additional planning. Normally, you can use a box with some cushioning to pack a small kitchen appliance, but in the case of a stand mixer, the process can be provoking.
If the process seems cumbersome to you, we suggest you apply the tips below to make the process simpler:
- Make use of packing tape to secure the base of the moving boxes. It would be a great idea to make a big x with the packing tape from one edge to the other edge of the box and manage its weight.
- Avoid using large boxes and stuff crushed papers into them to fill the space. Instead, you can use two small boxes, managed in the same way.
- Insert a layer of packing paper on the base of a small box and accommodate the stand mixer into it. You must apply packing tape on the adaptable arm of the mixer and be rest assured that the appliance won’t slide.
- Next, you need to cover the mixer with a towel without detaching its bowls and use sufficient packing paper to fill the moving box. You must keep the mixer in an erect position and consider wrapping the appliance with a kitchen towel as this will help you save space as you keep it firm inside the box.
- Finally, you can insert packing paper inside the second box as well to keep the appliance firm in place. Crushed paper would be a suitable alternative to packing paper.
- Place both the boxes together with the empty box on top of the box containing the mixer. Don’t forget to secure it with packing tape.
Overall, we have discussed the packing process of most of the home and kitchen appliances. We suggest you go through it, read the manual of the appliances, and go ahead with your packing. However, if you aren’t sure if you handle the appliances while you move, make sure you hire professional movers. In any case, you need to contact the relevant technicians to disconnect or even reconnect the appliances.