SUMMER SALES AT SNIDER PLAZA!

Okay, folks, they’re making it easy on you. Four great home and gift stores on the 6700 block of Snider Plaza are taking it off. Percents off the pricetags, that is–I know it’s hot, but please. Everything in Suzanne Roberts, except MacKenzie-Childs products, is 20 percent off through the end of the month. Everything at Peek in the Attic is 25 percent off, except some of the Texas Santa’s and new Vera Bradley products. At Home with Lisa Luby Ryan is marking 20 percent off all of furniture, mirrors, lamps, bedding, and linens. For the real deals, go to the large island cabinet in the middle of the store for 50 percent off fancy fireplace matches, journals, pillows, and sheets and duvets. At Vintage Living, select items, including books, upholstered sofas, and bedding, are 20 percent off. A table in the back of the store and other items, such as leather chairs, are 50 percent off. Get out there; you have to spend to save.

NO MORE WIRE HANGERS

No doubt about it, wire hangers tangle and make our closets look disheveled. But what to do about those pesky wire coat hangers that come back with the dry-cleaning? Painstakingly remove them one by one and replace them with your own wooden or fabric ones? Then what do you do with the gnarled pile that ensues?

We have a solution. More and more drycleaners will put your clothes on your own hangers for you, believe it or not. Bibbentuckers at Lemmon and McKinney Avenues (214.219.5400), provides this service for free, they told us. Avon cleaners on Lovers Lane (214.521.4803) provides the service for .25-.50 cents per hanger. Call your favorite drycleaner and ask.

Joan Crawford would have approved.

IT’S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL

I used to bemoan the size of my 1,600-square-foot Oak Cliff cottage. “The rooms are too small, the closets minute, and where the @#!#is my grand hall?” I’d grouse. But in this age of “more is more” (think super size meals and McMansions), I’ve learned to enjoy the manageable charm of my very humble abode. And I think author Cristina Del Valle’s Compact Houses proves quite well that small is not only smart but beautiful. It’s a lovely book full of thoughtful architecture and environmentally responsible design. Pick up a copy here and rethink that mansion on the hilltop.