Don’t Go Broke When You’re in a Fix: Home Repair for the College Student
December 22, 2009 | Alicia Ostarello
When your bulb breaks, make scalloped potatoes!
While studying for finals, my roommate and I were sharing space at the dining room table, a small green lamp nestled quietly between us. Suddenly, with a mighty flick of a set of earbuds, my roommate managed to display superhuman strength and break the light-bulb that was brightly lighting my Sociology notes. A light-bulb change would be a quick fix for even the most un-savvy of repair-people, but what was I to do about a bulb that was half stuck in my lamp?
Questions like this aren’t uncommon in dorm rooms and rentals. As college students, we’re often left to our own devices when it comes to home repair. Mom and Dad may have been chirpy cheerleaders for helping with homework assignments and mastering SAT vocabulary, but they often omitted lessons in how to unclog a toilet or checking the circuit breaker in case of shorted fuse.
Fortunately for you and me, home repairs are not actually the monumentally challenging tasks that they may appear to be at first glance, and there are a lot of resources to help students like us navigate through the woes and giggles of fixing what is broken.
First, there is literature on the expansive subject of home repair. Yes, books are written on topics other than vampires and Geology; a few of my favorites include the Dare to Repair series and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Home Repair. They provide instructions that are easier to follow than Ikea directions, and a clear, amusing prose to boot!
Second, there is the internet. Try scoping out eHow and WikiAnswers for a plethora of options to understand and solve your home repair issues. There are also videos on YouTube that give live demonstrations on repairing appliances and fixtures around the house.
Third, there are friends! If you are embarrassed to admit to your parents that you broke a light-bulb with earbuds, give your older, wiser, and more worldly friends a call. You’ll get interesting advice that doesn’t always work, and you will have the added bonus of getting in a nice chat, as well. Heck, call the cute girl who seems street-savvy and ask her – it’s a conversation starter!
As for my issue with the light-bulb, the very wrong thing to do is to reach into the lamp while it it still plugged in and try to unscrew the remaining piece of bulb; apparently, this causes blown fuses and burnt fingers, and a story you hope your roommates never mention to your mom and dad. If you have a partial light-bulb stuck in a lamp, you need a potato.
Seriously. If you must know, I opted for plan number three in order to get my lamp ready to be all aglow again. According to him, here’s what you do (and it works, promise):
1. Unplug or deactivate power
2. Cut one potato in half
3. Stick sharp edges of bulb into potato’s cut side
4. Unscrew bulb from socket
Now, I have to ask, can one make scalloped potatoes with these devices? Or does anyone have a more embarrassing repair story?
Nice post Alicia, and way to go with being resourceful! I always found repair projects to be a great way to bond with cute and helpful neighbors. But, if I’m on my own, I google the problem and can usually find several solutions (some even work). Nice use of a potato – MacGyver would approve.