It’s very clear that vinegar can make glassware like new

Dear Heloise: I just wanted to let you know that I used your hint for vinegar on my glassware. We have really hard water here in California. I thought I was going to have to throw away all of my drinking glasses and buy new ones. I boiled the vinegar, poured it over my glasses and scrubbed them with a nonscratching pad, and voil ° — brand-new-looking glasses!

My husband could not believe it. I started pulling out all my glassware, butter dish, sugar bowl and measuring cups. I washed and scrubbed — everything looks new! I cannot believe it.

I just want to thank you and pass along the message. Heather Wray, Camarillo, Calif.

Heather, isn’t it amazing how heating vinegar just bubbles away the mineral deposits? Vinegar can be used everywhere and is much cheaper than commercial cleaning products! For a pamphlet packed with hints using vinegar that will save you money, please send $5 and a long, self-addressed, stamped (59 cents) envelope to: Heloise/Vinegar, P.O. Box 795001, San Antonio, TX 78279-5001. To easily clean sliding-glass-door tracks, pour a little vinegar in, let sit, then scrub and rinse. Sparkling clean! Heloise

Dear Heloise: Here are a couple of my favorite uses for coffee filters:

• Place filters in baskets before placing fruit inside.

• Use as a snack holder — handy for kids.

• Use to hold a taco to keep the mess contained. Katie in New Jersey

Dear Heloise: Here is a fantastic time-saver that I developed in my teens. When shopping with friends and you go back to their house to stay a while, but you have food that needs to be refrigerated, place the items in their refrigerator and your car keys with them. Now you cannot go home without your groceries! Maria, via e-mail

Dear Heloise: I send a lot of greeting cards, and here is my hint: Many oversized or heavy cards usually require extra postage. The new musical or sound cards are so fun but need more postage. I just had to pay $1.34 to send one. The postal worker told me that since it has a “chip” in it, the card cannot go through the sorter, so it has to be handled specially. So, I now figure in the price of postage, which can make one of these cards cost more than $5.50. I still send them but figure in my head the total cost to keep within my “card budget.” T.B. in Montana

Dear Heloise: After many years of use, the spiral bindings on several cookbooks broke. I mended them by enlarging the slits with a hole punch in two places and inserting notebook rings. Hope they last as long as I do! Sharon Fleischer, Kingsport, Tenn.

Sound Off

Dear Heloise: My Sound Off is automatically flushing toilets that flush before I am ready! Phyllis in Canandaigua, N.Y.

SBlt Send a money-saving or timesaving hint to Heloise, P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, TX 78279-5000, or you can fax it to (210) HELOISE or e-mail it to Heloise@Heloise.com.

King Features Syndicate