In a time before individual household cleaners for every purpose and prepackaged foods filled with preservatives, vinegar was the go-to for almost all purposes around the household. It has uses in medicine, cleaning, food prep and maintaining your property. To see just how you can use this amazing product, review the list below:

Vinegar Use # 1: Helps around the kitchen.

Vinegar is a safe bleach alternative for kitchen cleaning and has the benefit of being
biodegradable. It works wonderfully to clean cutting boards and food preparation surfaces.

Unclogs the kitchen sink. In combination with baking soda, vinegar will create
an effervescent scrubbing action that simultaneously deodorizes your kitchen
sink and help it unclog.

Washes fruits and veggies.As a vegetable wash, vinegar will make your produce safe for consumption. It gives a lift to wilted vegetables, as well, when you soak in cold water and a spoonful of vinegar.

Catches fruit flies. Pour a cup or more of apple cider
vinegar into a small bowl and cover the solution with plastic wrap. Next,
poke holes in the plastic wrap with just enough holes so fruit flies can
fly in, but can't fly out.

Helps scale fish! Just rub your fish with apple cider vinegar a few minutes
before scaling and you'll make the process a whole lot easier.

Acts as a meat tenderizer (and marinade). In addition to helping you with
fish, vinegar marinates beef, venison, ham or poultry as a meat tenderizer.

Makes your “too salty” ham taste better. Just a couple of drops of white
vinegar or cider vinegar will reduce the salty taste if you boil a ham.

Vinegar Use #2: Preserves and pickles food.
The reason you use vinegar in pickling is because the pH is highly alkaline. It's so
high, in fact, that bacteria just can't grow. Vinegar will keep your produce from
turning brown, too. As a natural food preservative, vinegar:

Keeps produce from browning. You can prevent cut apples, pears or even potatoes from
darkening by placing your produce in a bowl of water with just two
tablespoons of white vinegar until ready to use.

Pickles vegetables.
Pickling is preserving foods in vinegar (or other acid) and it's relatively easy to
do.

Vinegar Use #3: Aids in Medical Conditions.

Lowers cholesterol and supports the liver. Vinegar with a natural sediment
of pectin, helps reduce cholesterol levels to lower the risk of cardiovascular
disease! The reason being that apple cider vinegar when consumed
supports bile production to break down cholesterol.

Helps diabetics maintain sugar levels. Take two teaspoons of apple cider
vinegar in a glass of water daily for diabetic health. Vinegar has acetic acid
which slows the digestion of starch and lowers the rise of glucose.

Supports weight loss, makes you feel more full. Apple cider vinegar has an
alkaline effect on your body. Acedic acid in apple cider vinegar increases metabolism to support weight loss, but the real benefit to preppers is that apple cider vinegar makes you feel more full.

Improves heart health. Apple cider vinegar has been medically shown to
lower your blood pressure.

Reduces night sweats associated with menopause.

Vinegar can help prevent age-related diseases like cancer, heart disease, and bone loss, among many other things. Put dozens more home remedies to work, including healing your arthritis,
toothaches, treating allergies, and other pesky ailments.

Vinegar Use #4: Soothes Skin.
Apple cider vinegar is a natural antibacterial and helps a variety of skin conditions
from eczema to aging brown spots and even warts.

Acne remedy. Applied topically, apple cider vinegar has anti inflammatory
properties and kills the bacteria which acne would otherwise thrive.

Bites and stings. Vinegar helps sooth insect bites or jellyfish stings. Just pour
apple cider vinegar directly on the afflicted area. Pour vinegar on sunburn to
sooth skin as well.

Ringworm. Apple cider vinegar can combat ringworm.

Sunburn. Soak a washcloth in vinegar to immediately feel the soothing
benefits of vinegar. It does the trick to heal the pain.

Wart removal. The component of vinegar, salicylic acid, is what you use on
warts to remove them!

Wound healing. Vinegar has a smack of acetic acid, which is a powerful antiseptic.

Vinegar Use #5: Offers cosmetic value.

Facial toner. Apple cider vinegar is used as a facial toner and has a cosmetic
value to get rid of age spots. It acts like a natural chemical peel.

Hair care (dandruff). Women's Health Magazine suggests a regimen for a
dandruff treatment to combine vinegar with water before shampooing to
naturally slough off the dandruff.

Vinegar Use #6: Cleans, deodorizes and disinfects.

Need to clean water bottles? A mixture of baking soda and vinegar will keep
your re-usable water bottles fresh and clean, particularly with bottles which
have a narrow mouth. Clean in hot water with vinegar and baking soda.

Got grass stains in your laundry? Vinegar can help you get fresher laundry diluting one cup white vinegar with two cups water to get rid of grass stains. It can also help you get bolder whites or get the stink out if you've been skunked.

Want to get rid of a stain? You can make a paste to apply directly to the stain
mixing vinegar with Borax to oxidize the stains away.

Need to clean copper or brass? Dip a cloth in vinegar, then in salt and you
can remove the tarnish off old brass or copper.

Have a dirty window? Apple cider vinegar helps you clean the sludge from
windows. Mix with water and you'll make a window squeaky clean.

Have an icy windshield? If you dislike scraping off ice, you can ice-proof your
car windows with a solution of 2/3 vinegar and 1/3 water. Pour the mixture
into a spray bottle and spray on windows to melt-away the ice.

Vinegar Use #7: Helps around the homestead.

Vinegar removes rust! As a rust remover, vinegar is very effective with lemon
juice.

Stops lye from burning skin! If you make lye soap, be sure to have a little
spray bottle of vinegar handy to spray on your skin to soothe it should you
get lye on your body.

Kills weeds. As an herbicide, 20% vinegar is a staple in organic gardening!

Burnishes scissors. Vinegar can get rid of the gunk stuck to your scissors.

Polishes silver. To polish your silver with vinegar, soak your silver in a
mixture of 1/2 cup white vinegar and 2 tablespoons baking soda for a couple
of hours. Then you need only to wipe away the oxidation and your silver is
bright and shiny again.

While nearly any vinegar can be used for most of these purposes, apple cider vinegar is the one you want for a dietary supplement, medicine and cosmetic aid. It has more beneficial ingredients like pectin and nutrients that can help the skin and dietary tract. What makes it even better is that if you have a number of apple trees on your property, which can be very beneficial for a prepper, you can make your own apple cider vinegar for personal use or for use in a barter system. This is a great product, and if you're not already stocking up on it, you definitely should be.

If you want to see more advice like this, or would like to peruse the rest of this list, check out Happy Preppers.