Dear Heloise: Another idea for when you don’t have the original booklet that came with your appliance is to just Google it. The same goes for whenever you have something that needs fixing — just Google it.

Our furnace wouldn’t come on during the dead of winter, but I Googled the brand model and problem. I found instructions on YouTube on how to wipe off the temperature sensor, and voila! It came on. It was cheap, and I didn’t have to wait around for a repairman. — Judy Shofner, via email