HELPFUL HINTS

DEAR HELOISE: If your high-school- or college-aged child will be going abroad this year, make sure you have a passport, too! If you already have one, make sure it won’t expire anytime soon.

Imagine yourself getting a call from the trip leader in another country, saying your child is in the hospital, or has another emergency, and you cannot get there because you do not have a passport. It’s better to have it and not need it, rather than needing one and waiting five weeks to get one.

— Mary Anna Anderson, Omaha, Neb.

DEAR HELOISE: In the summer months, we have a lovely little garden, but it requires a lot of water. To save money and water, I keep a bucket near our shower. When we turn on the shower to let it heat up, we leave the bucket in there to collect water until we get in.

This saves us gallons each week, which is enough to water some of our plants — tomatoes, blueberries, cucumbers and huckleberries.

— Emily, via email

DEAR HELOISE: The hint with five points about caring for laminate floors are good ones, but I would add just one more. When damp-mopping the floor, my wife always adds a little vinegar or ammonia to the water. This gives the floor a clean, shiny new look. In fact, many floor manufacturers recommend this.

— Herb S., Kingston, N.Y.

DEAR HELOISE: I never fail to read your column, and have learned a lot from them. You’ve also printed a few of my suggestions.

Here is one of my favorite tricks for berry-picking: Cut the top off a plastic half-gallon milk jug, leaving the handle intact. Then, use a carabiner clasp to hook it onto your belt loop. This leaves two hands free to pick berries.

— Jean Farnam, Three

Forks, Mont. DEAR HELOISE: I am giving apple cider vinegar to my dog in her water and spraying her paws with it, and it has solved an allergy problem that she has had for years! I wish the veterinarian had told me about this years ago. It would have saved us a lot of hassle with trying to soak her paws and applying salves.

— Frank Antonowitz, via email