Vinegar is a pungent, potent and acidic liquid that’s as good in your home cleaning cupboard as it is in your kitchen cupboard.

However, because it is a strong acid, you should not use it to clean certain things around your house, as the acid will attack the thing you’re trying to clean and ruin it.

It would be nice to come up with a general rule of thumb to tell exactly what substances are and aren’t vinegar friendly. There is one, but it really isn’t practical. As vinegar is an acid, it will react with anything alkaline. However, most things around your home are rather hard to give the litmus test to before cleaning.

You should never use vinegar to clean the following:

* Pearls. Legend has it that Cleopatra won a “most lavish and expensive meal” competition by dissolving one of her priceless pearl earrings in a cup of vinegar and drinking it. If this legend is true, she must have been a woman of infinite patience – it would have taken quite a bit of stirring and waiting to dissolve a whole pearl (Presumably she was a woman of great patience, as another story records how she had herself rolled up in a carpet which was delivered to Julius Caesar as a gift. When he unrolled it, there she was…) Sultry Egyptian queens aside, vinegar does indeed react with the calcium deposit that makes up the pearl, so keep the vinegar well away from these jewels. The same applies to shell and coral based jewellery.

* Marble. Marble is another calcium-based mineral that reacts with vinegar, so while you can clean most kitchen surfaces very well with vinegar (and it kills mould while you’re about it), don’t clean marble chopping boards or the like. Just use plain water on these. The same goes for sculptures made from limestone. Another story (from Egypt again) tells how the original Arab scientist who first explored the passages within the Great Pyramid of Giza got in through the limestone blocks: he and his team heated the limestone by lighting a fire, and then made them crack and react by pouring cold vinegar over the stones.

* Anything containing lead. This is particularly true if you’re using a cloth. The vinegar will react with the metal and get into the cloth. And then you’ll spread the lead everywhere. However, a blend of vinegar and salt makes a great metal polish, especially for brass and copper.

* Anything white, if you’re using malt vinegar, as the dark colour can stain whatever it is you’re trying to clean. To be on the safe side, use white vinegar.

* Silk. While vinegar can be added to your washing machine as a rinse aid, you should not add it if you’re washing silk. Not that you should be washing silk in the machine, anyway. Wash it by hand in the sink instead. You CAN use vinegar as a final rinse for woollies – it acts as a first-class fabric softener and gets blankets, etc. all nice and fluffy.

* As an eye rinse. However, dilute vinegar has a number of other cosmetic uses. Just keep it out of your eyes!