I use white vinegar straight, but I'm sure cutting it would still work...and might dim the smell.

I love that I can get a huge bottle at Costco for $2.50. Cheaper and far less icky than a lot of commercial cleaners.

Liese, I can recommend Slug Bread & Beheaded Thistles: Amusing and useful techniques for nontoxic housekeeping and gardening by Ellen Sandbeck. Lots of good tips.

Personally, I let everything grow a crust of fibrous tendrils. Bacteria lives. It has aspirations, and goals. Who appointed me adjudicator of all things living?

All this talk about "green" cleaning products reminds me of last night's Iron Chef America ("Battle Salmon!"), when Alton Brown asked the challenger chef about the squeeze bottle of something bright green. He was guessing it was some kind of sauce, but the chef corrected him with "That's soap, Alton."

You are right Gus. I claim godrights wrongly. But claim them, I do!

I like Simple Green, it seems fairly effective and smells nice.

I want to like Simple Green, but it seems that being in a room with a closed bottle gives me a migraine. Open ones....ack!

Who appointed me adjudicator of all things living?

Yeah, this is the reason I haven't cleaned in mumble, mumble, mumble. It was a thought out, rational decision, not laziness. Yep.

Do any Chicagoistas know where you could buy a geode around here?

I'd say a few words over the mold in my bathroom when I attack it with bleach, but it appears so far to be winning our eternal battle. I destroy a few spores, it destroys a few cells; our ideologies are so opposed there's no chance of truce. We both insist on occupying the tub. It could have any tub in the world, but it's gotta have mine. Play it, Sam.

aaand the rum is gone.

Ok, joking time aside ... I nuke the kitchen surfaces with Clorox on a regular basis. It loses its base-power in about four feet of sewer pipe, and does the job really well before that.

Also, it is a not a product that is preying on my environmental concerns via buzzwords

BBCA is rolling "Life On Mars"

Stop and watch.

Man, I am having a clutzy couple of days. Yesterday, I scrape/banged the side of my shin hard against the metal bed frame - big bump, bruise, and scraped skin. This morning? I did the same. damn. thing. about a quarter of an inch below last night's scrape. Um... OW. Drew even more blood on the second hit.

I've put a big, fluffy sock on the corner of the frame. I need baby bumpers or something. Or, perhaps, to be more careful, but that doesn't seem to be my way.

In conclusion: OW