I always like to share simple, inexpensive, natural things you can do to cook and clean at home. Today, I want to share some household hints for vinegar—apple cider or white vinegar. Most of these are old-fashioned household tips but they may be new to many of my readers!

1. When you boil eggs, add a shot of vinegar to the water. It prevents them from cracking.
2. To attack hard water stains, soak a rag in vinegar and then apply it to the stained area and let it sit overnight.
3. About once a month, run vinegar through your automatic coffee maker to help keep mineral deposits in check. (After the vinegar mixture, you are going to have to run at least one and maybe two cycles of plain water to get rid of the vinegar aroma.)
4. Salt (1 teaspoon) in vinegar (1 cup) can shine brass.
5. For a clogged drain, pour a handful of baking soda into he drain and then add about a half-cup of vinegar slowly. It will foam up. Rinse with a little hot water and then let it sit for a couple of hours. (Note that this may not work on stubborn clogs.)
6. To get that onion or garlic smell off your fingers after chopping in the kitchen, rinse your hands with some vinegar.
7. Corrosion on showerheads or faucets can be removed by soaking these parts in diluted distilled vinegar overnight. In some cases, remove the item and soak it in vinegar. If you cannot remove the item, saturate a towel in vinegar and wrap it around the faucet overnight.
8. Put some vinegar in a spray bottle and spray it generously around ant trails or in areas prone to insect invasion.
9. Get the smoke odor out of clothes by filling a bathtub with hot water, adding a cup or more of vinegar to the bathwater, and let clothes hang above the steam.