* January Sales Items: Get great deals on leftover holiday decorations and cards, appliances and furniture, as well as linens, towels and other “white sale” items.

* Keep a few fabric-softener sheets in the linen closet. It will keep the towels smelling fresh. If you have lots of extra bedsheets, it keeps them fresh-smelling, too.

* “Whenever I have a casserole pan that has baked-on, hard-to-remove bits left behind, I fill it with water, add a little dish soap and stick it back in the warm oven. I let it sit for several hours -- even overnight -- and the gunk just slides off the next day. Elbow grease is getting harder and harder to come by these days, so I try not to waste it.” -- I.S. in Pennsylvania