our friend, vinegar

I've come to appreciate all the great uses around my home for vinegar!  I know it sounds silly, but it's true.  It's cheap, a gallon is about $2, and it's has many uses.  Here are some of the ones I've found recently.

• Fill your hot pot or coffee pot with 1 part vinegar 2 parts water and boil or run a cycle, this gets rid of all the mineral build up in the pots.  Make sure you boil or run a full pot of water through after you do this so you don't have any vinegar taste the next time you use your hot pot or coffee pot.
• Run a quick dish load in your dishwasher with only a bowl of vinegar, right side up, on the bottom rack.  Again, this cleans your dishwasher from mineral build up.
• Use vinegar as a rinsing agent in your dish washer instead of something like Jet Dry.
• Make your own dishwashing detergent!
• Put about a cup of vinegar in the bleach dispenser the washing machine if your towels or clothes smell musty (after 5+ years of marriage our towels are old and we almost bought new ones cause I thought they were getting old and stinky - this did the trick and helped save us some money!).  Make sure you do an extra rinse cycle here too!
• Pour vinegar in your toilet to help eat up the water line, let it sit while you sleep or are at work for the day

This is about all I've tried so far but there are apparently 1001 uses!  I found this fun website with many more ideas about whitening your teeth, getting your pet to have shiny hair and many more.  Check it out!

One more fun fact, in Germany they make vinegar from beer!  That's hilarious since it seems like the Germans LOVE their beer.  At least they've found other uses for it, besides just drinking!