apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

You could do like i did and put them in an apothecary jar and display them. Its a little quirky but it definetly gets peoples attention.

I say DON'T THROW THEM OUT. Like old refrigerators etc, its more landfill waste than is necessary if it still works well. And the difference in a few bulbs in your home isn't going to change the world -- the fact they you'll replace them with cfl's when they DO burn out is the key.

What i've done in my house is that i've replaced all the regular bulbs with incandescents and am holding on to the incandescents for where they're needed: we have clear pendant lamps in the kichen that look weird with cfls, so we're continuing to use incandescents here.

oddly enough i had a couple of lamps that wouldnt work with cfls....i have no idea why. so unfortunately, those have to have the incandescents. you may end up with the same problem.

i would say, either keep using them until they run out and just replace with cfls, or alternately if you have friends that wont make the change to cfls, give them the bulbs. less waste, and then at least one person is running a cfl instead.

i would wait until they run out.

i decided not to wait till my bulbs ran out and recently replaced many of them with CFLs. seeing as i'm a work-from-home-mommy, i was using my home lights a lot more than i used to and i'm hoping to save money on the electric bill this way. i put all my incandescents in a bag and stored them away in case i ever need them again. there are a few places in the house that still use them and i can re-use them there. that's as close to recycling them as i can get.

@beesknees CFLs do not work on dimmers. I also found that one of my fixtures makes a weird crackling noise when a CFL is in it. So right now, I'm using incandescents in two fixtures.

You can buy dimmable CFLs. Home Depot et al have them. They're more expensive ($5 or so) but I think they're worth it. One of the gadget stores has three-way ones for $20 or something too (don't remember which one).

I was in Anthropologie the other day and saw that they had an installation made of hundreds of incandescents wired together. So you could do something like this that would at least keep them out of the landfill, even if they're not being actually used.

Maybe some modern art? A big dinosaur made of incandescents? It'd be symbolic...

someone had suggested on another page to possibly make christmas ornaments out of them... could make for an interesting conversation.

I donated my old CFL's to a charity organization which supplies non-profits and art organizations with supplies. I don't know what happened after that. They may be lighting up a classroom, saving someone the cost of buying light bulbs, or they may be hanging up at PS1, part of a new installation.

* I meant to say my old standard bulbs.

I'm still using mine up. It's amazing how long it's taking for them all to burn out. Alternatively, I'd give them to neighbors or somewhere like a not-for-profit agency that might be able to save some money by using up your old bulbs instead f buying new ones. Definitely don't throw them out.

I couldn't handle the thought of taking out incandescents that were still working so I swapped my cfls and incandescents to get the most use from them. I have moved the cfls into lamps that I frequently use and stuck the incandescents in closets or other places where I rarely need them. I hope this is a way to get the most use out of each.

The pollution from the extra energy an incandescent uses over its life MORE than cancels out it being replaced while still working - it's much better from an environmental point of view (and the point of view of your pocket as long as you can afford the up-front cost) to replace incandescents NOW and not when they burn out.

In Australia Ikea recycles your old globes, although I don't know if they do in the US.

I was so frustrated about four years ago, replacing the incandescent lightbulbs - it felt like there was at least one bulb that needed replacing every month. I started the switch to CFL's and (I am a tightwad so this is high praise for something with a higher up-front cost) I have had to replace only one CFL in three years!!!! They really are worth it and you get used to the slight delay when turning them on pretty quickly. I have not had a single problem in any of my light fixtures with them.