The Tennis Ball Hack That'll Help If You Ever Have A Broken Light Bulb

If you have plenty of used tennis balls lying around your home — at least ones your dogs haven't lost — you probably know you can use tennis balls for cleaning your floors and dozens of other hacks. You even can use them to keep yourself safe when you are removing a broken light bulb. If your dog has partially destroyed one of the tennis balls, it's especially good for this hack, as you will be completely destroying it by cutting it in half. Then, squeeze the cut half around the broken piece of the light bulb and twist it out of the socket.

Because the broken chunk of glass or plastic protruding from the busted light is almost certainly extremely sharp, the thickness of the rubber core on the interior of the tennis ball should protect your fingers from a puncture wound. With the outer shell consisting of a grippy wool or nylon material, your fingers won't slip as you are trying to unscrew the remaining piece that's still inside the light socket.

Start by cutting the tennis ball in half. If the material already has a hole or slit in it for whatever reason — such as from an overzealous dog — this simplifies the process. If not, use a carpet knife or utility knife to puncture the core. Place the blade against the tennis ball's outer surface and push hard until it goes through the nap and rubber. Do this step carefully so the blade doesn't slip and cut the hand holding the tennis ball.

Once you have a slit in the material, you can either continue using the utility knife to go around the ball's circumference or use a serrated knife or fabric scissors to cut it in half. Although you don't need it to be perfectly halved to do the broken light bulb hack, if you would like to use the half underneath a table leg (where having exactly half a tennis ball is important), you can draw a line around the circumference to give you a sight line for cutting it.

Place the rubbery interior of the tennis ball over the broken light bulb. Then, grip the fuzzy exterior and unscrew what's remaining of the bulb out of the light socket. As a safety precaution, you should go to your breaker box and cut off power to the socket with the broken piece to avoid a shock.

If you don't have a tennis ball handy, there are a few other hacks you can try to remove the base of the broken light bulb safely from the socket. As we mentioned earlier, turn off the breaker for the light socket to eliminate the risk of electric shock before trying any of these methods.

Pliers usually work well to remove the remaining base safely. Grip the metal edge of the light bulb's base with the pliers and start spinning it counterclockwise to unscrew this piece. If you can't reach any metal part of the base, insert the pliers' tips into the base and extend them until they're firm against the interior of the metal. This pressure and friction should be enough to let you carefully unscrew the light bulb's base by spinning the pliers counterclockwise.

If the broken light bulb is tightly stuck because of corrosion, use a wooden dowel with a similar diameter to the broken light bulb's base. Place some glue on the end of the wood and stick it into the remaining base piece. Let the glue set for several minutes before unscrewing the entire chunk. If you don't have a wooden dowel, you may be able to glue several popsicle sticks together or a few clothespins to stick into the area of the base to fill it.