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A friend of mine was unscrewing a chandelier bulb from an old fixture and the bulb shattered. She told me that she read about using an uncooked potato to remove a broken bulb that was still in the socket. I looked around and saw the trick on some other sites but since this is a “How To” site, I want to have it here. So…

First of all – How NOT to get electrocuted. Before you do anything TURN OFF THE ELECTRIC POWER!!!!! If you can’t figure out which circuit the fixture is on, turn off ALL the circuits. I know it is a big pain to reset all the clocks, but better to be spending time resetting clocks than be out of time altogether because you are dead. See my point?

There may still be some loose fragments from the bulb, so put something (an old sheet) underneath to catch anything that might fall to the floor. A lot of articles recommend a tarp but then you would have to go into your garage and look for one and honestly not all of us have tarps just laying around in our garage. As a matter of fact a lot of us don’t even want to go into our garages becasue frankly we don’t know what’s in there and we don’t want to find out. So get a sheet or an old table cloth or your kid’s Twister mat.

You should also wear gloves and a hat. If I was doing it I would wear my dishwashing gloves and the first hat I could find in my closet. Well, okay maybe not the really cute khaki greenish one that goes with all my outfits. Okay, just find a hat so stuff doesn’t fall on your head or get in your eyes.

Cut a potato in half. I’m thinking a cross-wise cut would give the best shape for this job. Press it down over the socket. A little bit of pressure is needed to get the potato to push its way into the inside of the socket and the bulb base. While applying downward pressure on the the potato, turn it counterclockwise (okay look at your clock and go the opposite way the hands turn around the clock) to unscrew the bulb base. You can also use an apple or green pear (unripe).

If you are real crafty, you can even use the other half of the potato to make those cool stamps.

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