I have talked before about the benefits of vinegar.  Along with baking soda, it is all I use to clean our entire house.  One area where vinegar is really superior to other cleaning agents is on windows.  You can get a streak-free shine with vinegar and not have to spend a lot of time scrubbing or buffing out water spots.

Combining vinegar with newspaper is the ultimate green cleaning method.  Take a sheet of newspaper, crumple it up and dip it in your diluted vinegar solution.  For whatever reason, this works phenomenally at getting windows clean.  If you take a dry rag or towel and wipe the water off, your windows will absolutely gleam.

The best part about using this method is that you spend no money, waste no materials, and get the type of clean you might expect from a professional window washer.

If you are not into using newspaper to clean, try using rags.  It has been several years since we purchased paper towels, choosing instead to use old rags for all of our cleaning.  Rags are ideal for windows and mirrors because they will not scratch or otherwise mar fragile glass.

I take one bucket of diluted vinegar, dust my living room with it, and then clean the bathrooms.  It takes two rags – one to clean and one dry one to wipe down the glass surfaces, and my house sparkles.  There is no chemical smell, no wasted paper towels, and no fuss.  Vinegar really is one of the greatest cleaning agents there is.