Grandma was right: standard household kitchen white vinegar deserves a special spot in your pantry as a staple for cooking, and can also be used for cleaning around the house, sprucing up your landscaping, and fixing ruined clothes. Vinegar’s acidity is what gives it it’s superpowers. Below 6 uses for white vinegar that may make you decide you should add it to your shopping list this week.

The instruction manual for your Keurig coffee machine, electric tea kettle or standard coffee maker will instruct you to use a 50/50 mix of vinegar and water to descale your appliance. Here’s a tip: when you go to dump the vinegar/water mix down the drain, instead pour it into your stained coffee cups and let it sit, then wipe clean and rinse, eliminating the stains in your cups, too.

Are your kitchen shears or scissor blades getting gummy or slimy? Do not be tempted to rinse them with water. Water can cause the blades or the fastener that holds the blades together to rust. Instead, dip a cloth into full strength vinegar and wipe clean with a clean kitchen cloth or towel.

Do you do windows? Tired of running out of window cleaner? You can make your own. Add 1/2 cup clear ammonia, 1/2 cup white vinegar and 2 tablespoons of corn starch into one gallon of warm water, and mix well.

Water soluble stains (juice, coffee, tea) from your cotton-blend clothing can be removed by patting them with a cloth soaked with undiluted vinegar right before washing. For large stains, you may need to soak the garment in 3 parts cold water to 1 part vinegar overnight.

If you have weeds growing up between your patio stones or along cracks in the driveway, use vinegar to make them disappear for good. Fill a spray bottle with full strength vinegar and before the plant goes to seed spray the midsection, or the mid flower of the plant. Spray another shot at ground so that the vinegar will make it to the root. Keep in mind that if there’s rain in the forecast you may want to hold off, or give another spray the next day.

Keep your freshly cut flower arrangement fresh longer by adding two tablespoons of white vinegar and two tablespoons of sugar straight into the vase with water before adding the flowers. Give the flowers fresh water every couple of days, adding more vinegar and sugar, and trimming the stems about an inch each time the water is changed.