Reject Disposable Cleaning Products and Save

As I walk down the cleaning isle of my supermarket, I'm overwhelmed by the domination of single-use, disposable products that have been created, presumably, to make our lives more convenient and sanitary. Disposable dusting, mopping and disinfecting sheets get premium placement on the cleanng isle shelves, while bulk products are relegated to the lower shelves. Manufacturers are hoping you'll take the disposable bate, since you'll have to replenish them far more often than bulk products. I find it a bit ironic that manufacturers like Clorox, Pledge and Swiffer are trying to make cleaning our homes an exercise in polluting the planet. Products designed for just minutes--or seconds--of use not only create more garbage, but they also needlessly consume resources and create pollution because single-use items must be produced in huge volume to keep up with the demand for perpetual replenishment. I can understand the temptation to use these products, but with the need to reduce our ecological footprint increasingly apparent, this is an easy area in which to curb waste. Rejecting disposable products can also leave money in the bank for other things--even when "splurging" on seemingly more expensive eco-friendly cleaning products. Consider the typical savings over one year, depicted below: As the Table shows, you'll spend almost one third as much on natural, non-toxic products from a bottle as you would on single-use products. As that celebrity homemaker would say, "That's a good thing."