Debt consolidation can be a lot less scary if your home has equity. You can leverage your homes equity to get a loan, to pay off higher interest loans (ex. if you have several credit cards charging you 29% interest, you can wrap all of that into one monthly payment and cut your interest rates in half), or for any other purpose that you require.
This is referred to in several different ways: home equity loan, home equity line of credit, refinancing your mortgage and a second mortgage. All of these terms mean about the same thing; use your home equity to get the financing you need.