How To Carefully Prepare And Pack Your Lamps For Moving Day
When moving day comes around, it's important to properly pack your lamps so they make it to the new house in one piece. Lamps can be quite an expensive purchase (especially if you're keen on shopping at high-end furniture stores), so the last thing you want is to open up a box and find shards where your perfect floor lamp used to be. If you're moving glass and porcelain lamps, specifically, chances are high that they'll get chipped or worse. The only way to prevent this mishap is by properly preparing and packing them for the big move.
Smart Move agrees that lamps need extra care as you transport them from your old place to the new one. The moving experience is already stressful, and you might be wondering why you should bother packing them when you can just carry them, but doing so will ultimately change the state in which they arrive. To ensure your lamps make it to the new home safely, here's how to prepare and pack your lamps for moving day.
Disassemble the lamp
While it might seem easier to just chuck the entire lamp into a box, you'd actually be doing yourself and your lamps a great disservice. Winter Moving & Storage highly recommends taking apart the lamp before you pack it up. Start by taking the lampshade off of the base, then remove the lightbulb. Now, you can wrap up each piece individually, instead of having to figure out a way to do the entire lamp as a whole. Keep the lampshade cap (what holds the shade in place) and shade riser in a bag together so they don't get lost.
Additionally, you'll want to tie up the lamp chord. A hanging chord is a recipe for disaster during a move. Someone could trip on it, it could catch on something and cause you to drop the lamp, or it could get damaged by being crushed under a heavy object. Always secure every electrical cord you have with a twist tie.
Pick the right boxes
Zumper says one of the most crucial mistakes people make when moving is choosing the wrong boxes. Furthermore, lots of folks guess too low regarding how many boxes they actually need, and then tend to overpack the ones they have. As you can imagine, this rarely goes well. People also typically choose large boxes for heavier items and small boxes for lighter ones, when it should be the opposite. When you pack big boxes with heavy items, you're adding more weight that can eventually cause the contents to fall through, explains Moving Tips. Using small boxes to carry hefty items will add extra security (and your back will thank you too).
Remember, moving is a marathon, not a sprint, so don't feel the urge to stuff as much as you can into one box — it's the quickest way to crush or ruin your belongings. Take your time when deciding which boxes you need to ensure your lamps will make it from one house to the next. Once you've got them, it's time to start packing.
Pack the base in one box
The first thing you should do when packing your lamps is take care of the base. After you've secured the chord, keep the base, chord, and prongs safe by carefully wrapping them in foam for cushioning, then add a few layers of packaging paper, advises Winter Moving and Storage. Next, carefully place the base into its appropriately sized box, and fill the rest of the space with packing peanuts or crumbled wrapping paper. If there's room, you can put the lampshade cap and riser in there as well. Close up the box and use packing tape to secure it.
When wrapping the lamp in packaging paper, you want to make sure it's nice and tight. The whole purpose of the paper is to keep the base secure while it's in the box as it moves from house to house. Simply tossing in the lamp without any sort of protection lowers the chances of it arriving at your new home unscathed.
Pack the lampshades in a different box
The lampshade for your lamp should go in a separate box from the base. Because they're much more delicate, the shades could get crushed if both parts were packed together, according to Winter Moving and Storage. Packing is a dirty business, so before you touch anything, make sure your hands are clean to avoid covering the lampshades with dirt and stains. Once your hands have been washed, place the lampshades into the box upside down so there's room for small, lightweight items around them, and again, be sure not to overpack the box.
To save yourself a few boxes, you can stack smaller lampshades inside of bigger ones if you're moving several lamps — just make sure they can fit together without damaging one another. Remember, the goal is to make sure the lamps survive moving day, so if you can't fit all the lampshades in one box, split them up. Finally, fill the rest of each box with packing peanuts for protection, and you're all set.
Mark your boxes
The last step in packing up your lamps for moving day is to label your boxes. This is a simple task that too many people overlook, but it's extremely helpful during moving day. Not only will this make it easier to keep track of which box holds which contents, but it can also prevent your lamps from getting damaged during transport. By labeling your boxes "fragile" or "this side up" you'll be alerting movers (or yourself) that they need to take extra caution with them. This way, you won't end up with a shattered lamp or ripped lampshade.
Rabbit Movers suggests labeling your boxes by content, color, or room. Should you use the label-by-color method, make sure you have some sort of color code so you know which color means what. It's pointless to label your boxes with different colored markers or stickers if you can't remember what each one means. To be safe, you might want to stick to the basics and label each box by its contents.