How to Pack Knives for Moving: Don’t Cut Yourself!

Sometimes it can be really difficult to decide whether you should pack your things by yourself or whether you should hire professional packers to do it for you.

To make things even more complicated, you have to make that decision very early in the house-moving process so that you can start packing up your stuff right away if you do pick the self-packing option.

Self-Packing vs. Professional Packing

One of the greatest challenges of packing by yourself is to know where to start packing because throwing random items into random boxes just won’t work. It’s imperative that you follow a good Packing Timeline that will guide you throughout the packing process – from the day you begin the packing task until the move-out day itself.

Your packing checklist should make it quite clear that you should start packing from the rooms that are the hardest ones to sort and pack, and end with the premises that are usually no-brainers when it comes to packing for a move.

Whether you realize it or not, the kitchen will be one of the toughest rooms to sort and pack. The real challenge of packing a kitchen for moving is that not only are there too many items inside that room, but the sheer variety of those kitchen items can be mind-boggling too.

In a typical kitchen, you are likely to find silverware, utensils, pans, pots, bowls, cups, dishes, glasses, jars, spices, small kitchen appliances, large kitchen appliances, and so on.

And knives too.

For obvious reasons, knives can be really tricky to pack safely for moving. This guide will show you the best way to pack kitchen knives for moving with a special emphasis on safety. Also, you will learn what it takes to pack a knife block in the safest way possible.

So, what’s the best way to pack knives for moving?

Read on to find out.

Why are knives so tricky to pack?

Kitchen knives can be rather difficult to pack safely for a number of reasons. Of course, the major risk comes from their long and sharp open blades but the great variety of their sizes and lengths also contribute to the overall challenge of packing knives for a move.

Open sharp blades

The sharp blades of kitchen knives can cause various problems during a house move.

When packing knives for moving, it should be your number one priority to make sure their open blades are made safe and cannot possibly hurt anyone in the process.

Here are the two greatest dangers when transporting kitchen knives from one home to another:

• Injuries (cuts). It’s fairly easy to cut yourself while handling kitchen knives, either while you’re packing them up into moving boxes or while you’re unpacking those KITCHEN-labeled containers upon arriving in the new place. Your hands, especially your fingers, will be most susceptible to an accidental injury during the knife packing process.
• Property damage. If packed incorrectly, kitchen knives may cut through cardboard boxes and thus cause property damage while on the road, either to adjacent boxes or to other household items inside the moving truck such as furniture.

Various sizes and lengths

Another challenge of packing kitchen knives when moving is the different lengths and sizes of those knives, which makes them much harder to bundle safely.

Depending on how serious you are about cooking your own food, you’re likely to have some or maybe all of these types of kitchen knives divided into 3 categories:

• Chef knives – a chef knife, a utility knife, a paring knife, and a bread knife (with its typical “teeth” along the straight blade);
• Meat knives – a carving knife, a cleaver, and a boning knife. Also, there are three extra fish knives – a filleting knife, a salmon knife, and a Santoku knife;
• Vegetable knives – a peeling knife, a tomato knife, and a Nakiri knife.

Related: A Guide to Kitchen Knives and Their Uses

What to do before packing kitchen knives for moving: 5 steps

There are several things you must do before you start packing up your kitchen knives. These preparation steps will ensure that the knife packing task goes as smoothly and trouble-free as possible.

Step 1. Prepare the packing supplies

Make sure you’ve got the right packing materials so that you can pack the knives in your kitchen quickly and safely. Don’t lose any precious time in pausing the packing process altogether in order to search for extra packing supplies.

When packing knives for a move, you’re going to need

• wrapping paper – PLENTY of white ink-free and acid-free packing paper;
• bubble wrap – several sheets of bubble wrap should be enough for the job;
• packing tape – use the packing tape you’re using to seal your boxes;
• painter’s tape – you’re going to use to secure the knives into the knife block, if applicable, and
• a marker – a permanent black marker should do fine.

Step 2. Prepare the box or boxes

It’s best to dedicate one or two small or medium boxes exclusively for your kitchen knives as extra insurance that no other kitchen items will get damaged if a sharp blade does manage to poke through the paper bundle – very unlikely to happen when you follow the packing steps below.

Place crumpled packing paper on the bottom of the cardboard box to create a soft insulation layer.

Then, line the inside of the box with one large sheet of bubble wrap as extra padding and assurance that no knife blade could ever cut through the cardboard material of the container.

Step 3. Inspect all your kitchen knives prior to packing

Before you rush to pack up all the knives found in the kitchen, take a moment to inspect each knife carefully in order to determine whether it’ll make sense to take it with you to the new home’s kitchen.

Of course, finding some of your knives to be too blunt is not a reason to leave them behind – you’ll only need to sharpen them after the move to make them usable again.

However, if some of the knives happen to have partially broken handles or chipped blades, or have other types of damage that make them pretty much unusable, then it’s time to throw away those damaged knives and purchase new ones after the move.

Don’t bother packing and moving any cheap knives that you never really liked or ones that you have to keep sharpening constantly due to the low-quality steel used for the blade.

Step 4. Sort out your knives according to their size

To speed up the whole process of packing knives for moving, you should arrange all those sharp kitchen items according to their size. In other words, sort your knives into groups of identical or similar sizes to make it easier to wrap those kitchen knives in paper bundles.

If you have more than one knife of the same type (for example, two or more bread knives, or two or more chef knives), then place those in one group.

Also, knives of similar sizes should be bundled together – for instance, a utility knife and a paring knife are quite similar in size, so group them together. The same is true for a boning knife and a filleting knife.

Step 5. Ensure your SAFETY when packing knives

You can easily cut yourself when packing knives for a move, so you should be very careful during the entire packing process. Remember to always touch and hold kitchen knives by their handles and never hold them by their open blades or cutting edges.

Be extra cautious if you choose to check whether a kitchen knife is sharp enough by touching the blade with your fingertips. It’s always better to cut a piece of meat, a vegetable, or fruit in order to check whether the blade is sharp enough for your needs. 

How to pack knives for moving: 15 Steps

Now it’s time to learn how to pack kitchen knives individually.

If you do have a knife block and all your knives are safely positioned in it, then further below you will find how to pack the entire knife block for moving together with the knives held in it.

• Step 1. PLACE the stack of white packing paper in the middle of the kitchen table or kitchen counter. If the kitchen table is unavailable at that moment, you can use the kitchen floor as a packing station.
• Step 2. TAKE one bunch of kitchen knives that you have grouped beforehand according to their size.
• Step 3. POSITION one of the knives at an angle near the edge of the paper stack.
• Step 4. TAKE 3 (three) sheets of paper from the edge and roll those sheets over the knife a few times until the sharp kitchen item gets wrapped up completely in paper.
• Step 5. PLACE another knife next to the already covered knife in such a way that the blade of the second cutlery piece points in the opposite direction of the first one.
• Step 6. KEEP rolling the paper until the second knife is fully covered as well.
• Step 7. ADD a third knife with its blade pointing in the opposite direction of the blade of the second knife.
• Step 8. ROLL the paper stack until the third cutlery item gets wrapped in paper too.
• Step 9. ADD a fourth knife to the paper roll, if possible.
• Step 10. FINISH the paper bundle by tucking in the ends of the stack. When packed correctly, you should have a tight paper bundle with 3, 4, or even 5 knives with their blades packed in alternate directions.
• Step 11. SECURE the paper roll using pieces of packing tape. Make sure the two ends of the bundle are secured well so that no knife can slide out during transport.
• Step 12. TRANSFER the paper bundle into the pre-designated box. In most cases, you’ll get 3 or 4 paper rolls with kitchen knives in total.
• Step 13. CREATE another bundle by rolling the next few knives in wrapping paper. When ready, place the newly formed roll into the box as well.
• Step 14. FILL any gaps inside the box with crumpled paper or sheets of bubble wrap so that the paper bundles inside cannot move during transport.
• Step 15. CLOSE the box, seal it using packing tape, and write KNIVES, KITCHEN, and HANDLE WITH CARE on two sides of the cardboard container.

Why is this knife-packing method safe?

Using three sheets of paper to wrap each knife multiple times will result in more than 20 sheets altogether protecting all the kitchen knives inside the paper roll. In practice, all this means that the chance of a knife cutting through so many paper sheets during a move is extremely low.

How to Pack a Kitchen for Moving

How to pack a knife block for moving: 5 Steps

If your set of kitchen knives is already conveniently placed inside its own knife block, then you should pack the knife block together with the knives. What this means is that you’ll be able to complete the packing task much faster and easier than having to pack each knife individually inside a paper roll as described above.

Here’s the best way to pack a knife block for a move:

• Step 1. USE pieces of painter’s tape to secure the knives inside the knife block so that they cannot slip out during the move. Use masking tape from various angles to make sure the kitchen knives remain firmly in their slots no matter how you turn the knife block.
• Step 2. REMEMBER to use painter’s tape to secure the kitchen knives onto the knife block and not regular packing tape. The reason for this is that packing tape is likely to leave nasty residue marks on the handles and blades of the knives. Masking tape, on the other hand, will not leave any marks at all.
• Step 3. POSITION the secured knife block onto the stack of wrapping paper, then wrap it completely from all four edges. Use as many sheets as necessary to cover it completely and use tape to secure the bundle.
• Step 4. WRAP the whole knife block in a couple of sheets of bubble wrap, the use packing tape to keep the plastic from unwrapping.
• Step 5. PLACE the protected knife block onto the bottom of a pre-padded box. You can pack other kitchen items into the same container as well. Label the box appropriately to make unpacking easier and faster.

 Packing kitchen knives for moving is not overly complicated but it’s the overwhelming number of kitchen items to sort and pack that may really slow down your packing process.

In case of difficulties, don’t hesitate to hire professional packers who will help you get back on the right track.

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