How to pack light bulbs for moving

Did you know that the average U.S. household has 45 light bulbs?

And do you know the exact number of bulbs in your own home?

When the time has come to move house, you may be wondering what you should do with all the electric bulbs in your home. Should you bother to pack them at all and move those extra-fragile items? Or should you just leave them behind?

Light bulbs cost money, so the logical choice is to take them with you. When moving your lamps, you’re also taking their light-emitting elements, of course.

Packing light bulbs for moving may seem like the easiest packing task of them all but their extraordinary fragility can make your job harder than you anticipated.

Here’s how to pack light bulbs for moving:

Decide what to do with the light bulbs in your home

Lamps and lampshades are fragile items and you should take extra care when packing them for moving so that they don’t get damaged during transport. Still, light bulbs happen to be the lamp elements that are especially prone to breakage due to their delicate nature as most of them are still made of glass – the more expensive models come in plastic tubes for better protection.

When packing up your lamps for a move, you can always decide to leave behind the fragile light bulbs to the new owners or renters. That way, you won’t have to worry about how to best protect those bulbs for the road. And you’ll save time too – precious packing time that you can use to pack other more “urgent” household items.

However, there are three distinct issues with a possible decision not to take any light bulbs with you:

• light bulbs cost money, so you’ll have to shell out extra cash to purchase brand-new bulbs after the move despite that fact that you already have fully-functioning ones;
• the destination place may not have enough light bulbs or it may have none at all when you arrive, so unpacking your Open-First boxes in complete darkness won’t be much fun;
• you’ll be forced to lose valuable post-move time to run to a home improvement store to purchase the number and type of light bulbs that you need for the new home.

Therefore, in most house-moving scenarios, it’s a very good idea to pack your light bulbs safely and move them to the new house or apartment.

Read also: Packing timeline for moving

Sort out your light bulbs before packing them

There may be different types of light bulbs in your home so it’s a good idea to sort them out before you pack them up for moving.

• Incandescent light bulbs. It’s unlikely that you’ll still have incandescent light bulbs in your home as they are being phased out since 2007 due to their significantly higher energy consumption than alternatives such as CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps) and LED lamps. However, if you still have any incandescent light globes in your home, then it’s really not worth taking them with you to the new home. Seriously, why would you want to continue to pay higher energy bills by using obsolete light bulbs?
• CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps). Fluorescent lamps are designed to replace incandescent light bulbs thanks to the fact that they use 3-5 times less electric power and last 8-15 times longer. So if you do have CFLs in your home, make sure you take them with you as they are energy efficient and were not cheap to purchase in the first place.
• LED light bulbs. You’re strongly advised to pack and move all LED light bulbs in your home because they have a lifespan that’s much longer than incandescent light bulbs and are significantly more energy-efficient than the majority of compact fluorescent tubes.

A word of warning: CFLs contain a small amount of mercury – about 3mg for a typical modern fluorescent bulb. That amount is very small to be harmful for your health. However, if you do happen to break a CFL bulb during the packing process, some of the mercury inside the bulb can escape into the room.

Don’t panic! All you have to do is open a window to ventilate the room, carefully clean up the pieces using protective gloves and place them into a Ziploc bag for proper disposal. Keep small children and pets away from the breakage.

How to pack light bulbs for moving: with and without their original packages

When packing lamps for moving, it’s best to first pack up the light bulbs so that you don’t leave those extra fragile items rolling around with zero protection whatsoever. Once you secure the light-emitting elements of the light fixtures in your home, then you can proceed to actually pack up the lamps you’re moving to the new home.

When purchased, each light bulb comes in a cardboard package that provides an excellent level of protection for the breakable item. So, if you still keep the original packages of most of your light bulbs, then you should have little to worry about their safety. But if you don’t, that’s still fine.

Here’s how to pack light bulbs for a move:

• TURN OFF the light fixture (lamp) and wait a few minutes so that the bulb can cool off enough and not burn your fingers when you touch it.
• UNSCREW the light bulb from the lamp. Do this carefully and slowly, making sure you have a good grip without applying too much pressure.
• INSPECT the light bulb closely to make sure it’s structurally sound. Discard any bulb that looks suspicious to you in some way, even if it’s been working OK until that moment.  
• USE a soft dry cloth or a feather duster (made from ostrich feathers, of course) to remove the dust settled onto each bulb.
• WRAP each electric bulb into a single sheet of soft packing paper.

If you KEEP the original packages, then

• INSERT carefully each light bulb into its corresponding factory box. If you happen to have empty packages of bulbs that have burned out or been damaged with time, it’s perfectly fine to use those specialized boxes to pack your current light bulbs as long as they fit.
• CLOSE the package and use a small piece of tape to secure the lid.
• USE a marker to write on the box the lamp or light fixture that the bulb belongs to facilitate the re-assembly process in the new home.
• TRANSFER the bulb packages into a double-walled pre-padded cardboard box intended to hold extra-fragile items.
• WRITE on the box FRAGILE and THIS WAY UP once it’s packed up and sealed.

If you DON’T KEEP the original packages, then

• WRAP each light bulb in a sheet of bubble wrap, then use some tape to secure the bundle.
• WRITE on a small piece of paper the lamp or light fixture that the bulb belongs to, the tape that paper onto the protected bulb using some packing tape.
• TRANSFER the light bulb bundle into a medium cardboard box intended to extra-breakable items. Make sure the packing box is well padded with packing paper and that there’s enough padding between the separate fragile items for sufficient immobilization.
• WRITE on the box FRAGILE and THIS WAY UP once it’s packed up and sealed.

Don’t forget to also add to the fragile-items box all the extra light bulbs that you’ve never used, waiting patiently still in their original packages.

See also: How to pack lamps for moving