apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Hey, maybe those weird razor blade slots in the old medicine cabinets could be repurposed to collect coins too. By the time you opened the wall to collect your stash, you'd have big bucks.

The cord holder would seem to suggest plugging in the cord and wrapping the excess around the holder. Extension cord labels warn against using them while they are partially rolled up (heat build-up?).

I saw a Nextel phone charger that had a slit around the outside of the transformer (big box attached to the plug), allowing you to wrap the excess wire around it. I guess not enough amps to heat up, unlike extension cords?

You probably don't want to install the piggy bank one in a house with kids. They'll be shoving coins into all of the outlets.

Yes, Archie, I agree; that one goes along with the rocking bookcase for the Nicolai Machiavelli (the trouble-making prince of yesteryear whose name gave birth to the word Machiavellian, which has come to mean something along the lines of insidiously deviously dangerous) Home Collection.

The cord-winder thing comes from an old DIY design from Popular Mechanics in the late 70's-early 80's. They propose that you can do it yourself by cutting a couple of holes in a thin piece of metal (aluminum) and bending the large tabs, exactly as the photo above. You could even paint the metal to whatever colour you wanted. It's a good idea but these designers are obviously ripping off a design that's been around for literally decades. Yawn.