A splash of vinegar in warm water, spritzed on, for floors, counters and cabinets. Takes the grease off. Don't think you can use vinegar on stainless steel and definitely not on marble, however. Don't know about other stone.

We use BarKeeper's Friend (oxalic acid) on fireclay sink and enameled stove finish.

OP, you may want to cross post your question on the forum Cleaning Tips. I used to use natural products by "Marta", but I haven't been able to find them lately so I've use Seventh Generation.

I'm with Circus: white vinegar is one of the best cleaners out there. I use it in the DW in place of the rinse agents that they sell and it works great for that, too. Also, I use a concentrated soap (as opposed to detergents) called Miracle Soap. I buy it online. Awesome, awesome stuff. The only place I don't use it is in the DW as it would foam too much. Wash dishes/clothes/dog/surfaces/glass...my hair in a pinch. Highly recommend and I'm not selling it, either. Baking soda has lots of uses, too. You don't need much more than that to have a clean kitchen and house really, although I'm sure monsanto and dow would disagree. The giant industry of chemicals wants us all freaked out about 'disinfecting'. Eh. :>P I'm a little more freaked out about the giant chemical industry and what they're products are doing to us all and this planet. (After you're done figuring out the cleaning stuff, start reading labels of what you put on your skin and hair. Scary, nasty stuff, that.)
*Soapbox off*

The January issue of Cooks Illustrated magazine just tested all purpose cleaners for both toxicity/environmental friendliness as well as cleaning and grease cutting effectiveness. Their top choice was Method All Purpose Natural Surface Cleaner, which is widely available. Among other comments:

"The three so-called natural cleaners in our lineup use surfactants known as alkyl polyglucosides. Though processed from plant sources including coconut and corn, these agents are arguably no more natural than compounds derived from petroleum--also a natural source. However, they come from renewable sources and can claim to be more benign: None of the cleaners containing them cited warnings or required rinsing. "[Alkyl polyglucosides] have low toxicity and excellent biodegradability," Hammer said. "On top of that, they just work very well. [These] products have really come a long way, just in the past few years.""

and...

"This spray embodies the winning combination of being pleasant to use and cleaning thoroughly and effectively with a minimum number of squirts. It cut grease, lifted stuck-on messes, and left surfaces shining"

We've been happy with it since switching.

You can clean just about anything with vinegar and baking soda. Just be careful about using vinegar on certain surfaces (it's not recommended for granite) because it's an acid. I keep a spray bottle of undiluted white vinegar in the kitchen and that's all I use daily. For cleaning my stainless sink, I sprinkle baking soda which I keep in a cute little jar, then spray with vinegar, it starts to bubble and I start to scrub. I'm not worried about scratching it. Same method works great for dog's food and water bowls.

Also check out Seventh Generation products. Great company. I use their cleaners for heavy duty cleaning and the bathroom.

Circus --> Sorry if this is a silly question.. Do you mean white vinegar? Can you keep it pre-mixed with water in a convenient spray bottle? Can you uuse it on glass (our cooktop is induction)

Clinresga - I have used method products in a friend's house and really liked it. It was a kitchen hand soap that was really good and get rid of cooking smells (finely mincing a cupful of garlic for bruschetta).

I have a 50% mixture of white vinegar/water in a spray bottle and use that to wipe down the counter and cutting board. You can get a gallon of white vinegar for less than $1.50.

I like the 7th Generation dishwasher detergent - it works well and doesn't leave a strong scent on the dishes like Cascade does. I'm going to have to try Deedles idea of using vinegar as a rinse agent. I've been going without because I find that to be overly scented too.

For hand-washing dishes I use Method dish soap.

I also use the Method all-purpose cleaning spray when I've had a spillover on the stove (and the tub/tile products in the bathroom) but I've been disappointed with the glass cleaner. So far, nothing gets my glass table top as clean as Windex.

And for hand soap, I love the Mrs. Meyers Lemon Verbena and Parsley scents.

ZoeCat: for your glass, get a clean dishrag wet with hot water, wring it out good and put a drop or two (not more) of your Method dish soap on it and wash your table top. Then, use any lint-free towel and dry/buff it. I'll bet you won't need windex anymore. I haven't bought commercial glass cleaner for 6-7 years. Somewhere I once read that a black board eraser will really make glass shine after it's been cleaned. I actually bought an eraser once but that's as far as it went, lol.

And what do you all use to clean your stainless refrigerators?

geez, I'm afraid I'm causing the hole in the ozone right above my house....

I won't reveal any of my cleaning "secrets" here.

Due to hubby allergies, I have to be super careful about cleaners. I've found that the Method brand cleaners of all sorts are effective and are pretty gentle. Some of the products do contain Sodium Laurel Sulfate, but use natural oils for fragrance and keep the harsh chemicals to a minimum.

There is even a Method stainless steel cleaner that I use. It works pretty good and it smells a lot better than vinegar. I use vinegar as fabric softener and for other things, but the smell is just too much for me to clean with in the kitchen...

If you check out Method's website, they have all the ingredients listed. I've been able to find a great selection of their stuff at Target.

HTH!

BTW - totally on deedles soapbox too. All the stuff I've learned about our soaps and cleaners...scary. I make our own laundry soap now too. Easy, cheap and works great. I can't even stand to walk down the laundry soap aisle now - all those strong smells make me nauseous!

We won't even go into all the chemicals in our food. I don't want to get depressed!

Another great soap to use is Dr. Bronners. LOVE IT! :)

Alcohol and water (with a little lavender essential oil) is my fave for granite and for SS. If you do a search at the bottom of the forum page, you will find a bunch of recent threads here in Kitchens as well as Appliances, Home Dec re: alc-water spray.

In Canada, Marilyn Denis hosts a show and a regular guest is Charles the Butler. Here is a link to the show...I hope it works
http://www.marilyn.ca/Butler/segments.aspx/Daily/December2011/12_27_2011/TheButler
Good luck

I think I sent the wrong link sorry :(
Try this one:
http://www.marilyn.ca/Butler/segments.aspx/Daily/September2011/09_12_2011/CleaningSolutions
and here is another useful one - cleaning bathrooms
http://www.marilyn.ca/Butler/segments.aspx/Daily/August2011/08_01_2011/BathroomCleaning

Hope that helps

Ayerg73: I cannot stand that aisle anymore, either. If I have to go down there to grab a scrubby or something I have to hold my breath. And yeah! Essential oils are great, too. I forgot to mention Thieves oil... anyone heard of it? Phenomenal stuff to really kill mold. Serious death to mold, that stuff. I have an essential oil diffuser that I use for whole room 'cleaning' and freshening. When we bought our current remodel house last year, the basement and garage were unbelieveably moldy smelling. Serious hazard, you could just feel it and smell it. We set that diffuser in there full of Thieves oil and in about 3 days the mold smell was gone. It's amazing stuff. You can clean with it, too. I haven't tried that yet.

deedles -
Ah yes, the breath holding trick. If I forget to do it, I end up with a major headache before I leave the store. I wonder how I ever used to love the smell of that stuff.

Funny that you mention Thieves. I have a friend in Switzerland and swears by it - but to stop a cold or the flu. I started to get sick when I was visiting her the last time and she made me gargle it. OH MY - that is some NASTY stuff. I can imagine it is serious death to mold!

I bought a house where the sun streams in all day long and then wisely put in forced hot dust heating and topped it off by selecting roomfuls of glass-topped tables. So even if I dusted yesterday, my tables always look like I hired Miss Havisham as my housekeeper.

With the sun streaming full on, Windex totally does not cut it. There are always swoops and streaks and blobs that take five attempts to remove. White vinegar and water do the trick. Yes, my house does smell like we have some kind of kidney problem, but it goes away quick.

We like Method products, except the Method Smarty tablets for the dishwasher are not, in my opinion, as good as half a tablet of Miele brand DW soap. To me, Mrs. Meyer products are too powerfully scented.
Lynn

RE: soap aisles, I can relate. Add to the list people's homes that are burning candles and/or people who wear strong perfume.

RE: Method & allergies ----- I cannot use Method because of my allergies (both a floor cleaner and a granite cleaner.. I'm assuming their other cleaners would also bother me.)

I found Martha Stewart's all-purpose cleaner to be completely allergy-friendly for me, and it cleans well. It had similar ingredients to Method's cleaner, but it has no scent.

Thanks for the suggestions on using vinegar for glass!

NORWEX!!! I use the cloths and water for my whole house. I have the NOrwex mop too, just water to mop the floors. Cloths and water on windows. I buy the pack of 4 cloths, have a couple sets of them. The yellow cloths are always used on the outside of the toilets, and only on the toilets ;-). I have no store bought cleaners in my home...except laundry soap and hand soap and a toilet wand. Definitely recommend Norwex! The cloths are not cheap, but you save so much not buying cleaning products (409, bleach, bathroom cleaners, etc).

watching this thread with lots of interest... in the past year or so, the cleaning aisle has really wrecked havoc with my allergies. instant headache.

doesn't help that I'm also allergic to dust... cleaning sure is "fun" now...

I'm curious to know what you all use on your wood floors. We are going to be installing wood with the reno and everyone keeps telling me to use Bona, but the DH is highly allergic.

wood floors = water :)

wood floors = splash of vinegar in hot water :)

(fyi Ayerg: I tried Bona cleaner and hated it on my water-based poly; left it very dull and smudgy. Plus it doesn't smell nearly as clean as the vinegar. You may not be missing much.)

Lynn, good to know about the Miele tabs. So far the best we've found for our Bosch DW are the Method tabs; I'll hunt around for the Miele version.

Baking soda for tub, sink, toilet and bath tile. I take nightly baths and there is no way we'd use anything scarier in there. Baking soda rocks.

Agree heartily with the conclusion that daily soaking oneself in pesticide (tricolosan e.g. 'antibacterial') is actually far worse than having a few stray bugs hanging out.

This thread making me think much deeper about our everyday exposure to chemicals. Over the past decade I have developed pretty bad allergies and infact did a year worth of allergy shots last year. Some of the decisions we are making in the remodel are driven by that - no carpet for dust mites to hide, central vac with HEPA, no VOC paint, non- toxic finishes etc. I thought about cleaning supplies but did not consider the actual shampoos, body wash etc.. Definitely something I should explore.

Thank you all for the information.. I am going buy small sizes of some of the products mentioned this weekend and give it a try.

I have a child that has issues with cleaning products and along with that artifical colors/fragances, perservatives etc. So we try our best to use all natural, free & clear products and have found some great ones.
I just wanted to add that if you are concerned about indoor air quality and are looking at making changes you should also look at your use of candles, air fresheners, etc. - keep in mind that clean doesn't have a fragrance.

Very true, kfhl - many air fresheners work by using nasal anesthetics to keep you from smelling whatever you're trying to cover up. Now that I have very few things that are chemically scented in the house, walking past the aisle of air fresheners actually burns my nose.

We use natural beeswax candles if we want to use one - but that's usually saved for power outages.

As far as the free and clear products are concerned...you can't be certain that it is safe for allergy sufferers. My husband is actually allergic to many components of commercially produced free/clear products - including a chemical that is frequently added to such products to 'remove' the other strong smells in the product to create a 'fragrance free' item - in lieu of adding a 'fragrance'.

It was interesting that the Cook's subjects wanted a smell to prove that they had cleaned.

I'd prefer no smell at all to vinegar, or ammonia. I think there was a reason they used ammonia as "smelling salts." It makes the person gag and choke and wake up!

Must try Method.

I've resorted to just a touch of Dawn (based on so many people's recommendation in the Cleaning forum...) in water to wash down, followed by a plain wet towel as I don't want soap build up, and then lint cloths to buff and dry. Same advice given by the Silestone quartz installers. I don't want anything to strip shine. Same with appliances and wood floors - nothing acidic, same system I'm using on my counters now.

Those who use watered down alcohol solution (cat_mom?), is alcohol known for diminishing shine on quartz and granite over time?

Currently feeling very stuck on what else to do, but my SS appliances, counters, and floors are looking good...for now! Cheap too, and good arm workouts. :-)