Dear Heloise >> I used a small, new zippered laundry bag to make soup. For chicken soup, I put the bones, skin and fat in the bag, then put the whole thing in the soup pot. All the flavor is added to the soup without the mess. Just empty the bag and discard it. I also did this with ham bones and scraps for ham-and-bean-soup.

-- Cindy Fox

Dear Heloise >> Invariably, when you are moving, there’s always one box that gets lost. Maybe it was stolen or left behind, or something else happend to it. But if you mark each box No. 1, No. 2 and so on, then when you get your boxes out of the trunk, you can account for every one of them. If there’s a number missing, either someone took it, or you left it behind.

-- Sharon W., Cherry Valley, California

Dear Heloise >> If you have a hard time swallowing pills, try what my 99-year-old uncle taught me: Bend your chin forward, keep your head down, then swallow. (Don’t lift your chin up or tilt your head back.) This aligns your throat so that it’s easier to swallow. Thanks, Uncle Joe!

-- Barbara Oliver

Dear Heloise >> In my small apartment, I don’t have room for a lot of kitchen equipment, but I really enjoy cooking. This means that some things need to do double duty.

I have a cake pan for angel food cake and a bunt pan. Both have a stem that comes up in the middle. When I want to roast a chicken, I place it upright on the stem so that the chicken sits upright. The pan catches all the juices from the chicken, and I can baste the chicken with the juices while it cooks.

Both cake pans are easy to clean, and I don’t need to clear up space for a roaster on my kitchen counter.

-- A.D., in Indiana

Dear Readers >> With the arrival of warmer weather comes the time to get your pets their shots. If your vet’s fees are out of your budget, call a local animal shelter and ask if they know where you can get your pets vaccinated for a lower fee. Always remember that a pet is a family member.

Dear Heloise >> Last month, the power was cut off in our neighborhood due to an emergency. My nextdoor neighbor and I went to check on an elderly neighbor to make sure that she was OK and to bring her a sandwich and flashlights. Then my neighbor had a great idea.

She pulled two of the solar-powered garden lights (the inexpensive kind that are on a single stake) out of her garden and put one in our elderly neighbor’s kitchen sink and another in the bathtub. This gave our neighbor some additional ambient light until the power came back on.

-- H.W.

Dear Heloise >> When buying a kitchen stove, I suggest getting one that has the burner knobs on the front. If you have a pot or pan that ends up boiling over or something flashes up on the stove, you don’t need to reach over the stove to turn the burners off.

-- D.H., in Houston

Heloise@Heloise.com