By SUSAN FORNOFF, San Francisco Chronicle

Ah, just what dog owners have been waiting for: electronic openers for their pets.

Well, really, this will make sense to anyone who has had an unexpected visit from a neighborhood pooch -- or maybe an unwelcome visit from some other creature.

"Clean gutters." If that's been on your to-do list for a few weeks now, well, you might want to get out the phone book.

Or you can follow the instructions from Robert Lenney and John Lewis, inventors of Gutterglove Gutterguard in Fremont, Calif. They would really like you to be careful, especially with that ladder.

Beyond that ...

We all know how to keep our clothes and bedding and towels looking unfrayed and unfaded: Don't wash them and, especially, don't dry them.

Of course, then they end up looking soiled and smelling worse, and even a bad economy doesn't seem like excuse enough for that.

At about the time the nation met Joe the Plumber, Moen released results of its in-the-aisle survey concluding that most of us buying faucets plan to either install them ourselves or enlist a family member's help, and not hire a plumber of any name.

Halloween is coming; do you know what that means? You could be haunted by a variety of mishaps. Here's what to do -- now and later -- to make the holiday safe and clean, with stain-removal advice from Whirlpool's Institute of Fabric Science.

When House Beautiful magazine brought its Color Institute to San Francisco recently, it might well have subtitled the program "Fear of Color."

If you hopped aboard the outdoor-room train this year and furnished your patio with cushy chairs, tropical plants and outdoor lamps, it's time to start thinking about what you're going to do with it all this winter.

Here, with input from Moldex Brands, are five steps to take sooner (while it's still dry out there) or later (when you might need a few towels):

Ignore the fact that this page is black and white -- consider the power of color. The folks from the Rohm and Haas Paint Quality Institute would like that. They've got some unusual ideas -- perhaps inspired by the bright, patterned linings showing up inside highly coveted designer purses -- for using paint.

Here are five inside tips: