Alicia gives her Rian bedside table a happy new look. She says, "It's not really a difficult hack, but I covered my Rian table with fabric. All I did was to detach the tabletop with a screwdriver. Lay the top side down on fabric and attach with a staple gun, pulling the fabric tightly. Screw the top back on, and voila." See more of Alicia's Rian bedside table.

I’m a huge advocate of calling your utilities to ask for rate reductions. But some people are uncomfortable making these sorts of calls. It would be helpful if these folks had a way of using the internet to find better deals. WhiteFence is a web-based service that allows users to do just that. From the about page:

Lifehacker’s Adam Pash tipped us off to an invaluable resource to use when cleaning out your refrigerator and kitchen pantry: StillTasty.

A friend — we’ll call her “Casey” — came to me for advice recently. Casey’s a writer too, with a nice deal writing a nightlife column for a local alternative weekly, in addition to her other work writing celebrity news for local and national magazines.

Many articles have been written about getting better sleep. This time, we’ll take a different approach.

We've all been seeing what Obama believes is necessary for the economic bailout, but what is needed for the climate bailout?Here are the five policies that, according to New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, the new CEO of ClimateWorks, Hal Harvey, says we need:

I recently finished a terrific novel, Sarah Dunn’s Secrets to Happiness. (How could I resist that title?) One scene caught my happiness-project attention. Betsy is on a blind date with Alan, and they’re both in the mode of sizing up marriagability on the first date.

Last Monday I teamed up with Jim from Bargaineering to bring you the first episode of The Personal Finance Hour, our weekly BlogTalkRadio program all about money management. We had fun with this live podcast, and it was great to interact with listeners via chat and on the phone.

This is a guest post from Chris Hunter. Mr. Hunter is the Editor of www.bikeexif.com: A daily dose of the coolest motorcycles: new and classic cafe racers, customs, production motorbikes, racing motorbikes, and design icons. Subscribe to his site to get your daily dose of two-wheeled manliness.

Article by Zen Habits contributor Jonathan Mead; follow him on twitter. The future of the workplace is definitely shifting. There are a lot of new rules of work that are changing the game.

“Finally I am coming to the conclusion that my highest ambition is to be what I already am. That I will never fulfill my obligation to surpass myself unless I first accept myself, and if I accept myself fully in the right way, I will already have surpassed myself.” -- Thomas Merton, Journal, October 2, 1958 *

Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal productivity, personal development, or entrepreneurship book. My desk is a mess.

We are giving away an iPod Shuffle (last generation) to one follower on our Facebook Fan page. Simply visit the page, click the “Become a Fan” button and watch for an announcement with the lucky winners name.  Anyone can enter, but we will only ship within the US.

2008 Unitasker Wednesday: Pickle picker and unitaskers explainedThe Pickle Picker is just what any pickle lover would want. The Real Cost of Financial Clutter on the Road to a Remarkable LifeTrent Hamm, author of the blog The Simple Dollar, presents an inspiring column on financial uncluttering as part of our month of sharing.

Some of us want to get out of debt. Some of us want a better career. Some of us are shooting for financial independence. Some of us would be content to get all the bills paid at the end of the month. Most of us want something. Most of us want change from where we are right now.