Recently, I bought my husband an espresso/ cappuccino machine and the purchase made the two of us reevaluate what we have on our kitchen counter tops. Were we using the small appliances that were taking up space?

Are you using all of the small appliances on your counters, daily?

Our toaster, coffee maker and blender certainly have been earning their keep. But our food processor, juicer and waffle maker, which are used infrequently, were not worthy of our precious counter top real estate and had already been stored away. Since the new machine would not be used daily, we decided it, too, would grace a shelf on our kitchen island where it would be accessible yet out of the way – I get urges for frothy soy hot chocolates with cinnamon sticks!

Frothy hot chocolate - yum!

Do you feel you could use more counter space?

An appliance garage

Unless you have an appliance garage or a very big kitchen, why not take a minute to reevaluate which machines you use a lot and which might be put away? If you do, you may be surprised to find you can create more workroom and, at the same time, make your kitchen look a lot more spacious, too.

How do you feel about your home? Do you love it, like it or dislike it? People seem to be divided into two groups: those who are thrilled with their places and those who are not. No middle of the road here.

Is it love?

Since I’m in the business of helping people transform their houses and apartments, my goal is to find out what folks want and need and solve their issues as quickly as possible. Sort of instant gratification, within limits. Here’s what I can and can’t do:

What I can’t do: I can’t add that one extra room they wish they had.

What I can do: I can make their rooms look and feel bigger, more open, airy and more elegant by rearranging their furnishings. Pushing furniture around is not over-rated: Everyone is surprised by how much better his or her home looks.

What I can’t do: I can’t give them a sunny Southern exposure when their homes face north.

What I can do: I can show them how to illuminate their rooms using eco-conscious lighting choices so that their places feel brighter and more cheerful, without boosting their electric bills.

What I can’t do: I can’t get back the money they’ve wasted on the wrong pieces, on purchases that were made before we met.

What I can do: I can help them utilize whatever they have – the good stuff and the not so great stuff – so they feel better and also avoid future mistakes.

Fortunately, most of my clients move from the not-so-happy group to the really surprised they’re-feeling-good-about-their-home group, in hours.

Which group are you in? Do you love your home or not so much? Are you the type of person who will always want more than you’ve got, or are you content with what you have?

My dear pal, David Staskowski, shared this smart ‘use what you have’ pot rack idea. You remember David, don’t you? He was the clever ‘Ask David’ columnist from the late, great magazine, Metropolitan Home.

Plus, here’s a suggestion for storing your pot lids from my book, Downsizing Your Home With Style:

Hang your lids over the pot handles to keep them together and save space.

When it comes to appliances, simply saving money may be a good enough reason for you to repair rather than replace, especially if the units are not very old.

Is it time to repair or replace?

There are also several other benefits of using the appliances you already have:

1. It keeps things out of the landfill
2. It reduces environmental pollution
3. It creates more value
4. It saves time needed for shopping to replace items
5. It makes you feel confident about the quality of the things you own

A new dishwasher, oven or fridge, can cost a bundle. So, how can you tell if it’s more cost-effective to repair a broken machine or better to replace it? Easy.

Partselect.com came up with a very cool diagnostic infographic for some of the most common problems that affect appliances. (Disclaimer: I have no connection to partselect.com.)

Just go to the site and click on the appliance in question and the graphic will display the cost of replacing the appliance as well as what the cost of parts are to fix the problem. You’ll even find a scale of difficulty to give you more insight into each repair. A pretty darn clever “use-what-you-have” tool that is fun to use and pretty darn good for the planet. I like that a lot.

If you like it, too, you may want to bookmark the site for future reference. After you finish playing with it.