Lamps are awkward. They are inconvenient. They don't look easy. Don't worry. They can be easy if you know how to tackle them.
First, remove the lampshade. Most of the time this involves a screw at the top of the lamp. Don't lose the screw! After you take off the lampshade, screw it back into place. (the headaches this will save you are enormous.) Wrap the body of the lamp in bath towels, sheets, packing paper, or bubble wrap and place it into the smallest box it will fit into and still close.
Fill in the rest of the box with either other soft objects (your kids' stuffed animals are great for this unless they can't sleep without them) or packing materials until the lamp WILL NOT MOVE. If the lamp wiggles more than half an inch when you shake the box, add more packing material.
Seal the box. If the lamp is poking up even a little out of the box, either readjust the packing materials or get yourself a bigger box. Next, LABEL THE BOX. I cannot impress this on you enough. If you don't label the box you have a 1 in 20 shot of remembering what is actually in the box. (Okay I made that number up but you get the point.)
If you have more than one matching lamp you might be able to fit two of the bodies in one box, but don't force it. If you have more than one lamp you should be able to stack the lampshades though. (Again, it depends on the lamp.)
Place a bath towel, bubble wrap, or packing paper (still flat) in between them. Then place them in the smallest box that will hold them and still close. Again, fill up the box. This time you want to ball up packing paper or bubble wrap. Balling it up fills up more space, meaning you will use fewer materials and potentially save some money. If you are using newspaper instead of packing paper (they are the same thing essentially just that one has ink on it.) this is NOT the time to use anything with ink or else your off-white lampshade is going to end up with a (probably) permanent tattoo of more depressing Covid-19 news or Garfield's lamentations about Mondays and lasagna.
