This works like a charm, no scrubbing required! Cut a lemon or lime into 4 pieces. Fill the kettle with water up to the maximum level, squeeze and put the lemon slices inside, and boil the water. Let the water cool down for 1 hour and boil the water again. The kettle will be as clean as new.

Tips contributed by Barbara Trumbull

• Hair spray (not pump) will remove ballpoint ink. Spray area with hair spray and toss in the wash.
• Hydrogen Peroxide (household strength) will remove blood from a garment. First test on inconspicuious place, if no color change, dab the stain with peroxide and toss in the washer.

Tips contributed by Barbara Trumbull

For sore throat, mix 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar in 6 oz water, gargle with the mixture every hour or when the pain returns.

Tips contributed by Nancy Wiedenbeck

For poison ivy, put clothing affected immediately in washer, then shower in water that is very warm with any dish detergent that is grease fighting. The heat from the water relieves itching and the dish detergent pulls the oil out of your rash that causes itching. May take several treatments, but know from experience that it works!

To clear blocked drain pipes, pour 1 cup of baking soda into the drain, followed by 1 cup of vinegar. Let them sit for 10 to 15 minutes or until they stop bubbling. Then flush the drain with a lot of hot or boiling water. You may need to repeat the process several times if your drain is severely blocked.

• Denture cleaning tablet and bowl of warm water
• Lemon juice and a bowl of water
• Equal part of water and hydrogen peroxide

As a prevention, always use base coat before applying dark nail polish.

• Prepare 2 spray bottles
• Fill 1 bottle with white vinegar. If no white vinegar is available, you can also use apple cider vinegar.
• Fill another bottle with 3% hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide of this strength can be found in your local pharmacy as wound disinfectant or mouth gargle.
• To use, spray the surface you want to clean with 1 solution, followed by the other. You can spray vinegar first then hydrogen peroxide or vice versa, it doesn’t matter. What kills the germs is the combination of both.
• Do not mix both solutions in one bottle as it will be less effective than spraying one after another.

This mixture can also be used to disinfect wooden cutting board.

Although cholesterol reducing medicine and supplements are widely available, we should first aim at reducing cholesterol level the natural way by controlling and choosing what we eat everyday. Here are few things you can do:

• Eat 1 - 2 cups of oatmeal everyday.
  Oatmeal contains soluble fiber which helps to reduce cholesterol level. If 1 cup is too much for you, even half-cup is helpful. My cholesterol level dropped 60 points after I eat half-cup of oatmeal every morning for a month. Other source of soluble fiber is barley, carrots, oranges, apples.
• Low cholesterol doesn’t mean low fat.
  Be careful when buying foods labelled as low or zero cholesterol. Only products derived from animals, such as meat and dairy, contain cholesterol. Vegetable and fruits has zero cholesterol so of course a bag of peanuts or potato chips can be labelled as no-cholesterol. However, they can have high saturated fat and sodium contents and eating foods high in fat makes our body produce more cholesterol, hence increasing cholesterol level in our body.
• There is a debate on whether egg yolk is bad for our cholesterol level.
  The common perception is to avoid egg yolk because on average each egg yolk contains 220mg of cholesterol while the recommended amount is 300mg per day. However, there are studies that prove eating 1 - 2 eggs daily does not change blood cholesterol level. Regarless of which one is true, I still say limit your consumption to 1 - 2 egg yolk per week to maintain a healthy diet.
• Reduce intake of high-cholesterol foods such as organ meats and seafood.
• Limit fat in your diet, especially saturated fat and trans fat.
  Pre-packaged and processed foods usually contain high saturated fats while deep-fried foods may contain trans fat. Margarine is low in cholesterol because it is made from vegetable oil but it contains trans fat which is very dangerous to our body. Sometimes trans fat is listed as hydrogenated oil in the ingredients list so read the labels carefully.
• Exercise regularly.
  This is an obvious choice but also the one we don’t do because of the extra effort required. But regular exercise increases HDL or good cholesterol which removes excess cholesterol in our body.

Sometimes the above is not enough to bring your cholesterol level to a healthy level, especially if the problem is genetic. In this case, your doctor can prescribe you with cholesterol reducing medicine such as statin but as much as possible, opt for the natural solutions before popping up pills.