by Sharon Gately

Created on: May 09, 2008   Last Updated: July 18, 2008

To begin cleaning with green products is not only better for the environment but better for your overall health. Many of the household cleaning products on the market today contain toxic ingredients that can be hazardous. Green house cleaning doesn't take a lot of extra energy and with some very simple multi use product you can actually save money and the environment at the same time.

The first ingredient that every green cleaning household needs is vinegar. The amount of surfaces this one product can clean is endless windows, floors, walls, tubs and tiles, shower curtains vinegar can clean just about anything. Mix with water and it is a floor and window cleaner; mix with baking soda and it can remove stains, apply with an equal amount of water and it removes yellow sweat stains from white clothing. How can we not love a product that is so inexpensive that can do all that? For just a few dollars you can purchase a jug of vinegar and clean your whole house for months! For additional uses Heinzevinegar.com offers a great number of useful tips for their product along with the correct ratio for cleaning.

A very easy way to start the green cleaning process is to stop using paper towels. Once paper towels are soaked with any type of cleaning agent they are useless to recycle. There are microfiber cleaning cloths out on the market that work amazingly well either wet or dry. The cloths are made of a polyester/nylon blend that are combined through a heat process that produces fibers that are then split that causes millions of edges that allows you to clean closer to surfaces and trap all the dust and dirt particles. By using cloths instead of paper towels you decrease your amount of waste that ends up in the landfills. Bluewonder.com offers a number of cleaning cloths that can be used for dusting, cleaning glass and mirrors, furniture polishing and kitchen and bath clean up. If microfiber isn't for you switch to recycled paper towels just think if every household were to switch from ordinary rolls of paper towels to a 100% recycled ones 1,000,000 trees would be saved.

For everyday cleaning like clothes and dishes where some sort of product is needed opt for an environmentally friendly product from manufacturers like Seventh Generation or Sun and Earth. These products are non-toxic, biodegradable, hypo-allergenic and non-petroleum based. And after doing the laundry line dry when ever possible it will save you money on your electricity bill.

Simple Green is another product that cannot go unmentioned in the green cleaning category. For over 30 years way before green was in they have provided consumers with non-toxic, biodegradable products. This multi-use product really works and if you really don't like the scent of vinegar in your house then this is a product for you. They have over 20 different cleaning products but the tried and true that will work for you is the concentrate all purpose general cleaner. Just mix with the appropriate amount of water, which is conveniently labeled on the back of the container, and clean away.

We all have trash that can't be composted or recycled so there is always the need for trash bags, but instead purchasing the "Hefty Cinch Bag" go for the bio-degradable trash bags. This is one of the easiest ways to lessen you addition to the landfill. Bags are easily found in your local Whole Foods market or any other organic retailer.

It doesn't take a lot of extra work to clean green and the cost of a bottle of vinegar is far less than the cost of three different, potentially toxic, products to do the same thing.

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