How to Pack an Urban Homestead for a Chicago Apartment Move

Photo by Magnific

Most homesteading advice assumes a barn, a pickup and a long gravel driveway. Plenty of people do it from a back porch instead. Shelves of home-canned tomatoes, a fermenting crock in the pantry, herbs in window boxes, saved seeds in shoeboxes under the bed.

So when a Chicago apartment move comes up, the standard packing checklist misses about half of what's in the unit. It covers dishes and books. It says nothing about forty quart jars of salsa going down a narrow back stairwell.

This is the stuff that tends to get overlooked. Not all of it applies to every apartment, obviously.

Sort the Homestead Gear Before You Pack Anything

Walk the apartment with a notepad and split things into three piles: fragile and heavy (jars, crocks, cast iron), living (plants, starts, anything in soil), and awkward (planters, grow racks, a folding raised bed, the pressure canner).

Each pile moves differently. Jars need support and a steady hand. Plants need to ride with you. Awkward items mostly need a plan for the stairs.

And be honest about quantity. A move is a good excuse to eat down the pantry for a few weeks, and every jar you open is one less jar to carry up to a top-floor unit.

Packing Home-Canned Jars Without Breaking Seals

This is where most of the damage happens, and it's usually quiet damage. A jar doesn't have to shatter to be a problem. A broken seal can affect food quality and, depending on the circumstances, food safety.

The National Center for Home Food Preservation recommends keeping jars stored without ring bands so a broken vacuum seal is easier to spot. It also advises against stacking jars too high directly on top of each other and suggests firm support between layers, so the weight doesn't disturb the seals on the jars below. That guidance is written for pantry shelves, but the logic holds up pretty well inside a moving box.

A setup that tends to work:

• Use small, sturdy boxes (book-box size) so no single box gets too heavy
• Stand jars upright with cardboard dividers or wrapped paper between them
• Stick to one layer per box, two at most with a flat sheet of cardboard in between
• Label boxes on the sides and top, and mark which way is up
• As a precaution, check each seal when you unpack (the NCHFP page linked above explains how to test one and what signs of spoilage to look for)

Empty and clean crocks and glass fermenting jars before moving day. Nobody wants brine in the elevator.

Hiring Help in Chicago: What to Ask Before Moving Day

Carrying jars down three flights yourself sounds cheaper until you're on trip twelve. A lot of people pack the fragile stuff themselves and hire a crew for the heavy lifting: furniture, shelving units, the boxes nobody wants to carry twice.

Illinois has its own rules here. The state's consumer tips for hiring a household goods mover note that movers working within Illinois must be licensed with the Illinois Commerce Commission, and that you can look up a company's license and complaint history before booking.

The same tips suggest:

• Having the mover visit in person and see every room, closet and storage area you want moved
• Getting a written estimate, which isn't binding but gives you a reasonable idea of the final bill
• Being ready to pay 110 percent of that written estimate on moving day, since a mover can't hold your belongings once you've paid the estimate plus 10 percent
• Starting your search at least six weeks ahead

That in-person walkthrough counts for more in a homestead-heavy apartment than a typical one. Show the crew the pantry shelves, the porch planters and anything bolted to a wall. Wolley Movers, for instance, lists its Illinois license number on its page for apartment movers in Chicago.

Ask your building, too. Some Chicago apartment buildings require an elevator reservation or proof of insurance from the moving company. Much easier to sort out a week early than at 8 a.m. on the day.

Moving Plants, Starts and Planters

Plants are the other headache. Some movers won't carry live plants at all, so ask during the estimate instead of assuming.

If they're riding in your car, a little prep goes a long way:

• Water a day or two ahead, not the morning of, so pots aren't dripping or extra heavy
• Trim leggy growth and stake anything tall
• Set small pots in a milk crate or laundry basket, packed tight with crumpled paper
• Empty the big planters

That last one sounds wasteful. It isn't. Wet soil is seriously heavy.

Raised bed kits, grow racks and shelving come apart. Take a photo before you start, put the screws and brackets in a zip bag, and tape the bag to the frame it came from. You'll thank yourself later.

Canners, Seeds and the Odd Stuff

With a pressure canner, the lid, gauge and gasket need the most protection. Follow the manufacturer's instructions for storing them, wrap the lid on its own and keep the gasket with it, not loose in a kitchen box.

Saved seeds should ride with you. Same for starter cultures, your canning notebook, anything that took seasons to build up. A lost lamp is annoying. A lost seed collection is a real loss.

If you run a portable power station or small solar panel on the balcony, check the manufacturer's manual for transport guidance before packing it. Pad the panel face and keep it upright.

Setting Up the New Apartment

Before a single jar goes on a shelf, wipe the shelves down and check how much weight they can hold. Rental shelving isn't always built for a pantry full of quarts.

Then check the light. Spend a day noticing which windows get real sun before you commit the herbs to a spot. It's tempting to set everything up in one afternoon, but plants that end up in a dark corner tend to let you know within a week or two.

It won't all land perfectly. Something always ends up in the wrong room. But the jars made it, and that was the part you were worried about.