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.

Brian Jewett came up with a really clever ‘Use What You Have’ idea. He created coat hooks made from wall-mounted paint cans! He calls them, “High-Functioning Coat Hooks.”

Hang what you have

The benefits of his design:
1. They provide storage and can be grouped together to create a wall “rack” effect.
(Several small cans can be used to hold gloves and knit hats inside and to hang scarves and coats on top.)
2. They’re eco-conscious – they keep paint cans out of the landfill.
3. They’re inexpensive.
4. They’re cool looking!

Check out the details and, while you’re at it, the instructables website.

In case you haven’t heard about it yet, there’s a brand new, simple-to-use digital thermostat called the Nest Learning Thermostat that allows you to access it remotely from your iPhone or iPad using an app, online, or manually, the conventional way. (Disclaimer: I have not personally tested Nest.)

A good thing in a small package

Not only can this hockey puck shaped thermostat sense when you are near it – which will wake the unit up – it also has sensors for humidity, temperature and ambient light. The Nest was primarily developed to help save energy but there is one thing this little beauty will not save: money. It has a $249 price tag. Price aside, there are lots of very worthwhile features that can make it easy to justify the expense.

If you would like to learn more and pre-order it, visit Nest.com or BestBuy.com. Nest will become available in mid-November. Or read the review by Ed Baig in USA Today. This cool cutie is going to be hot.