I gave up paper towels and most other store-bought household cleaning products years ago, well before the whole green movement began. 

Once, when I was finishing up my degree back in Chicago in the 90s, I remember visiting friends in the suburbs and, while cleaning up after dinner, they handed me a paper towel to dry the dishes. We used no less than ten paper towels and threw them all in the garbage, even though there wasn't a spot of dirt or grime to be seen on one of them. It seemed ridiculous at the time and  I haven't bought a roll of paper towels since. Instead, I use old dish towels and rags for quick clean-ups and toss them in with the laundry. 

The worst for me is seeing commercials for paper towels. They make my skin crawl, especially knowing that they most likely wasted so many on fake messes while shooting the commercial. 

The same goes for sponges, too. Ten years ago, shortly after I got married and moved to San Anselmo, I kept noticing that our sponges would  smell after less than a week. (You know that awful smell; we all do!) I would toss it in the garbage, where I knew it would remain a sponge for hundreds of years in some landfill. 

Finally, I couldn't stand it anymore, so, I cut up some of those rags into sponge-size pieces and now use those to wash dishes. When those start to smell into the laundry they go, too. They are easy to make, easy to clean and I always have a stack available under the sink. 

Yes, eventually I have to throw these away, too, as they do degrade over time, but it is after many, many months. And when I do throw them away, I hope that they will decompose and go back to the earth from where the cotton came.

Allow me to remain on my green soap box and now write about household cleaners. Why, oh, why do we need blue liquid to clean windows?  

I have a spray bottle -- an old Windex bottles I'll admit -- but now it is 10 years old and  filled with water and some vinegar (1/2-3/4 cup). All I need is this bottle and a rag (black and white newsprint works great, too) to get streak-free windows. It's great on counter tops, walls, and really almost every surface.

Are you worried about the vinegar smell? Don't, it doesn't linger at all. And, after the first whiff, I don't notice it a bit when I'm cleaning. If it bothers you, add a drop or three of rosemary oil. (I have other great hints for essential oils, but will leave that for another time.)  The vinegar eliminates mold, doesn't streak, is completely safe for the environment and, best of all, costs pennies in comparison to anything on any shelf.

Now, don't think I am against all commercial household products -- that simply isn't realistic (at least to me). But I do know it is  good for the environment to avoid them and is incredible for the pocketbook. And I love the thrill of passing by the cleaning aisles every time I go shopping.

I'm not perfect; I'll admit I actually love the smell of a lot of household products.  Call me crazy, but I loved the smell of bleach so much when I was younger I nearly disintegrated a pair of sheets  by using too much in the laundry load. (I am better about it now, thankfully). 

No, I don't take a whiff directly out of the bottle, but I do love the smell of our freshly laundered whites and an indoor pool is my favorite place to be (and smell). I honestly wish I could say that I never use bleach, as it's really not great for our environment, but I have tried everything else and nothing keeps whites white like bleach does. Thankfully we don't wear a lot of white in our family, so we don't use more than a bottle a year.

Oh, and then there's Pledge! I love that smell, too. And the shine it brings to our wood furniture (and my husband's bicycles) is wonderful. Of course, so is a little oil -- I don't recommend vegetable-based oil -- and lemon juice on a clean rag. It gathers the dust, it brings out the shine, and is great for the environment and my hands. Heck, even just a damp rag is great for gathering dust and a squeeze of lemon will make it smell great. 

Don't even get me started on the wastefulness and toxicity of those wipes available these days, with every cleaning material in existence already soaked in.

But, it is time to step down from my green soap box, and I end with one last thought for the day. There are lots of ways to be green and I am delighted it has become a national and international trend. It is about time, really. My ways are just one way. They started for me from some common sense and a little frugality. Fortunately, it just happened that it was good for the environment too.