We often have strong emotions or memories attached to certain things in our houses. You may want to take these things to your new place for the sentimental value attached to them. A lamp can be one of the many things very dear to you. Be it a companion for those night time studying sessions, working late at nights or reading your favorite book peacefully, lamps have been a part of many-a-memories.
Naturally, you would want to be very careful with your delicate lamps during the relocation process so that it doesn’t succumb to any damage. Sure, tasks like these require a great deal of planning, organization and attention to detail. Don’t worry though, we’re here to help. So follow our step by step guide to learn how to pack lamps and lampshades for moving.
How To Plan Your Packing?
Planning involves deciding what all things you will be taking along with you. Trust us, this will really help you purge the unnecessary stuff that’s lying around in your house. The thing about planning is that you can’t start things just a day or two before the D-day, especially if you want to avoid drowning in a pit of stress and anxiety. Working frantically with too much stress can also lead to your belongings getting damaged. So that’s exactly why you have to plan your moving well in advance and it has to be organized. Planning the entire process at least three to four months in advance will help you be at ease.
The key to staying organized is not just planning well in advance, it is creating a proper checklist and sticking to it. A lot of things go into making sure there’s no room for carelessness leading to any kind of cracks or breaks in them. Quite frankly, packing lamps and lampshades does require a fair bit of finesse, it’s not the easiest task. But taking it one step at a time can make your life easier.
So here is a step by step guide for planning to pack lamps and lampshades for moving:
1. Make a checklist
The entire process of packing and moving can be very tedious and confusing if you are not sure about what all needs to be moved. You may end up wasting a lot of time just deciding on things that are supposed to be moved. In order to prevent any sort of confusion, it’s best to have a planned and organized checklist. Your checklist should be made a month before you actually move out. Your checklist should contain the number of lamps in your house, their usage, size, fragility and importance.
Also Read: Checklist for Moving
2. Start segregating lamps from one place at a time
You will create a mess if you randomly start listing all the lamps in your checklist. There are chances of you repeating the same lampshades again. To avoid this confusion, it’s best to take things one room at a time. You can start with your living room, followed by your bedroom, kitchen, study room and storage room. You need to list out all the lamps in your house in an orderly manner. When you start with your bedroom, make sure you have listed all the lamps and lampshades in the room and only then will you move to the next place. This is to ensure that you are covering all the lamps in each place without repeating any.
3. Categorize your lamps according to their usage and importance
Once you have listed all the lamps and lampshades in your house, you need to start categorizing them again based on their size, purpose, place and fragility. When you categorize, it makes it easier to assess what all is important and what all can be discarded.
4. Decide on what can and cannot be moved
To get things started, you will have to do a proper assessment of all your lamps and lampshades. What you’re basically doing is gauging the condition, the size, fragility and durability of all your lamps and lampshades. Then all the same, you would also be figuring out the frequency in which you’ve used them all. At the end of the day, this assessment will help you decide which lamps are in a good condition, which need to be repaired and others that need to be discarded.
See Also: Best Junk Removal Companies
5. Together more gun!
Once you have figured out the exact number of lamps in your house and their importance, it becomes easier to choose how many lampshades can be moved. Here’s when your checklist and pre-planning process comes handy. You can glance at your checklist and see the number of lamps you want to move. You will be able to visualize how many people you will require to help you pack your lamps. This is one of the most important tasks as you will need to get help from people whom you can trust with your precious lamps. You can start with involving your family members in the packing process. Apart from family members, your close friends and relatives can help you with packing. We want you to acknowledge the importance of pre-planning. There are chances of your friends being busy if you seek their help on the day of packing. Which is why we advise you to keep your friends well informed so that they can make themselves available for you without causing any delay.
Be Prepared For Unforeseen Circumstances
In spite of you pre-planning your entire packing and moving process, there might be some sudden interruption that might come in your way. We want you to be prepared for any unforeseen circumstances.
1. Take care of your little ones
If you have any little toddlers or children in your house, you can involve them in packing small things. Although, lamps are delicate items, so it’s good to make sure they are with any family member or a nanny when you are packing your lamps. You can keep them engrossed with toys in the bedroom if you are packing things in the living room. Make sure they don’t run around while you are packing your lamps.
Related: Moving with Kids – A Detailed Step-by-Step Guide | How To Pack Toys For Moving
2. Don’t forget your lovely pets
Amidst all the planning, don’t forget about your furry and feathered family members. Whether it is a dog, cat or even a bird, you don’t want them sneaking around when you are packing your lamps and chandeliers. With birds, there’s always the risk of dust, dirt and the chaos of packing stressing them out. You can ask your neighbors or relatives to watch them for a few hours while you pack your delicate lamps.
See Also: Tips for Moving with Pets
3. Unexpected surprises at your door
You might also bump into a friend or a relative who comes to visit on the very day you decide to pack all your lamps. This can get in your way and you may end up chatting with your friend while your packing is left unfinished. In order to avoid such situations, you can inform your friends and relatives about your busy schedule through a common text message or an email. If you do this well in advance, you can finish your packing without any interruptions. One of the perks of doing this in advance is that your friends or relatives may volunteer to help you pack your lamps. Who doesn’t want an extra helping hand? It will help you save time and you can finish packing without the fear of delaying it.
4. Duty calls
There are chances of your boss suddenly asking you to report to work to meet an immediate deadline. You may also get an urgent call from your office to give an important presentation or send an important email. You obviously don’t want any work stress while you’re already stressed about packing your precious lamps and lampshades. You need to be realistic and know that your duty may call you anytime while you’re carrying out the whole packing process. So it’s best to inform your office at least a week prior to your packing and take at least two days off to carry out the process. If you don’t want to compromise on your work, you can keep your weekends free to do all of the packing easily.
Essential Supplies For Packing Lamps
Before you start dismantling your lamps, you need to make sure that you have all the necessary supplies to safely pack all your lamps. If you are worried about your old, delicate or big lamps, then you should probably contact a professional packing company. These companies have special packing materials in order to ensure a safe and quality packing. If you are taking the job of packing your lamps in your own hands, you can either get the materials online from Amazon or visit a local store near you where you can get a discount for your essentials.
Here are the essential materials you’ll need for packing:
1. Moving Boxes
You need to buy boxes which are strong enough to hold your delicate lamps. The boxes should be of different sizes depending on the size of your lamps. Don’t just get large boxes, you need to refer to your checklist and get boxes looking at the size of your lamps. Your lamps can vary in terms of their sizes, shapes and weight. And that’s why you need to ensure you have the right kind of boxes for every kind of lamp in your house.
2. Sponges or Styrofoam Sheets
There is a possibility of the lamps breaking while moving. You can either opt for Styrofoam sheets or sponges to add an extra layer in your boxes. You can use these sheets for the base and also to place them on every side for extra safety of your lamps.
3. Foam Peanuts
Foam peanuts or packing peanuts come in very handy during the packing process. Because of their shape, they can help in filling the gaps in your boxes like the edges or corners and reduce the risk of breaking. You can opt for biodegradable foam peanuts and choose to be environment friendly.
4. Bubble Wrap
No packing materials checklist is ever complete with these multifunctional stress busters. If you want to pack your lamps, you will need lots of bubble wrap to make sure that all the parts are appropriately padded and secured. We recommend you to get large and medium size bubble wraps as your lamps vary in shapes and sizes.
5. Plain Packing Paper
Just in case you weren’t aware, you cannot pack your lamps and lampshades as is. The first step is always to dismantle it and tackle each part individually. We recommend you first buy a plain packing paper to wrap all the delicate parts of your lamps. But just avoid going for newspapers as the print on them may spoil your precious lampshades.
6. Packing Tape
There are several kinds of tapes available in the market for various purposes. You can opt for packing tape, shipping tape or duct tape to carefully pack and seal your boxes. Make sure that you have a strong layer that seals all your boxes with your precious lamps. The packing tape will hold the box together and reduce the risk that comes during rough handling of boxes when you have to move long distances.
7. Plastic Bags
The different cables and wires of your lamps can be put separately in plastic bags. These small and big wires and cables need to be taken care of. You can pack them in plastic bags and seal them with a painter’s tape to ensure that they don’t fall off while moving.
8. Permanent Marker and Stickers
When you pack all your lamps in different boxes, it can get confusing when you want to relocate them. You will find yourself stressed and confused if you don’t know which box contains which lamp. Now that’s why you have to remember to label all your boxes with stickers and use a permanent marker for labeling.
Related: Packing Material required to Pack while Moving
How To Dismantle Your Lamp
The most tedious task while packing is when you have to dismantle the lamp. This is where many things can go wrong. You need to have a calm mind and dismantle one lamp at a time. Honestly, if you ask us, we would advise you to seek help from your family members or friends, especially for dismantling your lampshades.
Here’s a step by step guide to carefully dismantle a lamp:
- Always make sure that the lamp is unplugged before you take out any part.
- Start with the base of your lamp. Remove the cap or the base of the lamp that holds it together.
- After you have unscrewed the base cap or finial, remove the shade, followed by the bulb.
- You will see a wire like thing which is the harp that holds the shade. After you remove the bulb, you need to carefully take out the harp and its holder.
- Make sure that you have removed the socket shell cap and pulled all the wires carefully.
After you are done dismantling the lamp, you need to clean all the parts without mixing them as they may get damaged. Avoid using any water to clean any part of your lamp. You can use a clean cloth to clean your shade, base cap, harp, wires and socket shell. These are very delicate things, so we recommend you to use a dry microfiber for cleaning the parts of your lamp.
Packing And Relocating Lampshades
Once you have dismantled all the lamps entirely, you can get started with your packing process. We want to remind you that the packing process takes up a lot of time as well as space. Make sure that your packing area is spacious enough to keep all your boxes and other packing essentials. You can clear your living room and use the floor to arrange all your packing materials. This process will take a lot of time so you have to be patient and careful. That’s why we advise you to get some friends or relatives along to help you through the entire process.
Let’s get started on how to pack the lamps with our easy step by step guide:
Step 1: Prepare your moving box to place the lampshade
Always take one lamp at a time for packing. Examine its size and shape carefully and then select an appropriate box for the lampshade. The first thing that you need to do is tape the bottom of the box. You want the base to be strong enough in order to hold your lampshade. Check the corners of the box to see if there are any gaps. Grab a foam sheet and place it at the bottom and at the sides to ensure that your box is padded well. The bubble wrap can be used over the foam sheets to give a soft base for your lampshade. This will increase the safety for your shade to avoid any breaks.
Step 2: Wrap your Lampshade with Packing Paper
Before you place your lampshade in the box, cover it entirely with plain packing paper. This will add a protective layer against dust and smudges. We advise you to avoid using any colorful packing paper as it may leave marks on your lampshades and you definitely don’t want to ruin their beauty. The packing paper can also be crumpled and kept inside the box as an added layer of protection, before you put the lampshade in it to ensure it doesn’t break.
Step 3: Seal the box with the lampshade
Once you have wrapped the lampshade with packing paper, carefully place it inside the box. Make sure that the box has been padded well at the bottom with foam sheets and bubble wraps on the sides. Place your lampshade in the box and then check if there’s room for it to move around. Once that’s taken care of, you can use packing peanuts to cover the gaps if any. Then, just use packing tape to seal the box. Make sure that you tape it properly without leaving any gaps, if necessary tape it twice for better safety.
Step 4: Final check of the box
We recommend you to double check everything when it comes to packing. When you are done sealing the box, gently move the box around and slowly flip it upside down to check whether the lampshade is moving by any chance. If you feel that the shade is moving, your foam peanuts come to your rescue. You can keep some foam peanuts or crumpled papers where there are gaps inside the box. This will ensure that your lampshade doesn’t shift while moving.
Step 5: Label all individual boxes with lampshades
After you are done sealing the box, don’t hurry to finish packing all the shades. Grab a sticker and stick it on your box. Label it with the correct size, shape and kind of lampshade. Use a permanent marker for labeling.
Step 6: Wrap your harp
The metal band or the harp should be packed separately from the lamp shade. The harp is delicate and the both bubble wrap and packing paper can be used to cover it. There is no definite way or technique to wrap it. You can roll it inside a packing paper or bubble wrap. Finish the packing with a packing tape to seal it so that the paper doesn’t come out. Just be careful while wrapping the harp; don’t put a lot of pressure on it while packing.
Step 7: Wrapping the harp holder and the base cap/finial
The packing procedure for the harp holder and the base cap or finial is exactly like the harp. The only difference is that you will need a smaller box or bag to place them. If you are falling short of bubble wraps, you can double wrap the holder and finial in packing paper and then seal it in a plastic bag using a packing tape.
Step 8: Packing the base of your lamp
You will need a medium size box to pack the base of your lamp. Make sure you don’t place it with your lampshade as it may break the shade. You can wrap it in a packing paper and then cover it with bubble wrap. Before you place it in the box, check whether the base of the box is sealed and the sides have been padded with foam sheets and bubble wraps. Keep the base in the box and seal it with a packing tape.
Step 9: Taking care of bulbs while packing
The bulb is the most delicate and fragile item for packing. The slightest mistake or carelessness can cause it to break. It’s why you have to make sure the bulb is packed in bubble wrap. After you place the bulb in the box, make sure you fill in the gaps with crumpled paper for extra security. Bulbs have a high chance of breaking while moving. Hence, we advise you to discard them for moving.
Step 10: Packing wires
We recommend you to place your lamp wires or cords in the same box. However, if you feel there is no extra room to fit in the wires you need not worry. You only have to make sure you label every lamp box. The wires can be wrapped in a packing paper or bubble wrap. You don’t necessarily need a box for wires. You can seal them in a plastic bag using a packing tape. You can number your lamps and corresponding wires in order to avoid any confusion while relocating the lamp.
Do’s And Don’ts For Packing Lamps And Lampshades For A Move
- Make sure that you have all the essential packing materials with you before you start your packing process. If you want to save money, you can ask your friends or relatives for any packing items like tapes or boxes. Just make sure that the box is in good condition.
- You need to allocate a specific date and time to carry out the entire process. This may seem challenging as a lot of planning and organizing is required. If you ask us, it would be wise to plan at least two or three months in advance.
- Moving to a different place involves a lot of stress as you have to relocate everything. So you need to be in a proper frame of mind to plan and sort things. If you feel stressed or anxious, you can seek help from anyone who has had an experience in moving.
- If you are afraid of packing your precious lampshades by yourself, it’s good to seek professional help. There are several professional packing and moving companies that help you carry out this entire process with experts ensuring the safety of your valuable lampshades.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you wrap a lamp?
Place the lamp and its components in a moving box, using paper padding to fill it completely. Wrap all of the extra parts in packaging paper. Please fold the paper around the finial, harp, and any other lamp elements and tape them together to keep them from falling out. Place everything inside of a cargo container.
Will movers move lamps?
If you’re wondering whether or not the moving company is willing to pack and transport lamps, then it’s usually a no – because lampshades are easily broken through rough handling.
How do you pack multiple lamp shades for moving?
The best way to pack your lamp shade collection for moving is to take an extra sheet or two of bubble wrap for each shade. Create a sandwich out of the bubble wrap and the shades. Tape both openings shut, then stack them up in between boxes.
How do you pack bedside lamps?
There are two typical ways to pack lamps. One way is for the lampshade to lay flat on the bedside table with the light bulb pointing upwards if it has a typical dimmer switch. The other option is for you to use bubble wrap or styrofoam peanuts under your lamp base so that it looks like a tent, suspending your lamp about 1 inch above the table while cushioning its delicate parts in between soft padding. This prevents damage to any loose wires poking out of your lamp while keeping all cords tucked securely inside, so they don’t get tangled up.
How do you pack tall lamps?
The key is first to disassemble the lamp and detach both poles or sections of the pole from it. It should be relatively straightforward as each pole has a set screw at the top and bottom. The best way to secure light bulbs that may break during transport would be with bubble wrap. Wrap the lamp’s individual pieces tightly in layers of bubble wrap before placing them into a box for protection from getting shaken, bumped, or spilled during transport. A final step would be to wrap each piece’s end with additional packing tape to guarantee safe arrival after your long delivery journey.
How do I ship a lamp with shade?
There are many different considerations when shipping a lamp. If you are using the US Postal Service (USPS) to ship, there are 2 options that might work well – flat rate boxes or Priority Mail. These services offer quite different capabilities and pricing structures. Choosing which one might be best will depend on many factors, including where the item is being shipped to, whether the thing is fragile or heavy, what its dimensions are, and if it can be dismantled into smaller pieces while still meeting all safety requirements. Different services may also provide better protection against damages in transit, so worth considering them all before deciding on which one to use!
How much does it cost to ship a floor lamp?
It depends on what kind and where it’s being shipped from. You can enter your zip code into any shipping website to see the rates range for different carriers. In general, the size and weight of a package heavily influence how much it costs to ship. In some cases, if a package is too big or heavy for ground transportation either because of its volumetric dimensions or weight, an additional service might have to be obtained – such as expedited air freight – in order for the goods to arrive at their destination on time.
Final Thoughts
If you’ve read all the steps above, we assure you that you are ready to take this job in your own hands! Just follow our step by step guide to safely pack your precious lamps and lampshades in an organized way with the help of our directions. There’s no need to take any unnecessary stress for packing your lampshades, just take a deep breath, have a calm mind and you’re ready to move!
