Super Items for Prepping

I always like to get double duty out of a product or item that I store but there are some Super Items.   These are inexpensive to acquire mega-multi-purpose items.  These are items that by themselves have many purposes, but when combined with other items of equally inexpensive or simple nature make even greater contributions to the prepper's home.

Here are my top three for the home:

www.walmart.com

Vinegar  Vinegar has many uses when used straight and even when diluted.  It is a household cleaner; a disinfectant for wooden cutting boards, a tile floor cleaner, polish for chrome, deodorize drains, and clean glass.  For medicinal purposes, it is used as a treatment for acne, warts, a sore throat gargle and upset stomach.  When combined with baking soda it becomes a foaming drain cleaner, a carpet stain remover and the lava for your science project as well as the propellant for a submarine my brother sent away for with cereal box tops.  In cooking, vinegar sours milk to start the curdling process, it combines with baking soda to raise the cake, and tenderize meats.  You need vinegar for pickling and preserving.

www.care2.com 

http://www.pumpkinseedbulkfood.com

Baking Soda  Baking soda on its own is a cleaning product.  Its slight abrasive nature will clean a sink or as a face and body scrub.  On it's own it is a toothpaste or a gargle, with peroxide, it is a whitening tooth paste.  It is good for rashes and poison ivy.  Baking soda is a pest treatment, sprinkled in dark cracks to kill roaches.  As a deodorizer it works in shoes, boots, refrigerators, carpets, and on pet fur before you brush them.  Baking soda in a glass of water for heart burn, a hair rinse, a pre soak for stinky socks.  Added to the bath for skin irritations.  Thousands of uses on its own and used in cooking as a leavening agent.  

www.allbulkfoods.com 

http://www.pumpkinseedbulkfood.com

Salt  salt licks for animals, salt for seasoning, salt for brining, salt for de-icing cars and roads. You need salt to cure and preserve foods. Salt lowers the boiling point of water and speeds up the process.  Salted water keeps potatoes from browning before cooking.  Salt will starve a fire of oxygen.  Salt is a gentle abrasive for cleaning pots and pans.  Make a salt water soak for blood stains and sweat stains.  Salt sets dye in fabrics so they don't run.  Salt across the doorway will deter ants.  Salt is a  weed killer.  Careful not to spread it where you want things to grow.  It is a teeth cleaner, and a good gargle for sore throat.  

These are my top three super items.  I use them for cleaning, healing, and cooking as well as in the yard and garage.  I don't think I ever have enough because I use these items daily.  You could reduce the cost of cleaning by switching to vinegar, baking soda paste and the vinegar and baking soda mixes.  The money you save will buy more vinegar, baking soda and salt.