Below are some timeless cleaning tips, courtesy of Annie B. Bond, author of the green cleaning classic "Better Basics for the Home."

Tubs, toilets and sinks
Cleaning tubs, toilets and sinks requires two simple actions: cleaning and disinfecting.

To remove water stains and other residue, Bond recommends cleaning with a mildly abrasive paste made from baking soda and detergent. Mix 1/2 cup baking soda with enough liquid detergent to create a frostinglike consistency.

Follow this abrasive cleaning by spraying the surfaces with straight white vinegar, which has been shown to dramatically reduce mold, mildew, bacteria and viruses. If you like to scent the air as you clean, add a couple drops of essential oil (like orange or vanilla) to the spray bottle of vinegar.

To make removing stubborn stains from toilets even easier, try borax, a nontoxic, naturally occurring mineral salt. Just add a cup of borax to the toilet bowl's water and let it sit overnight. Since borax is also a disinfectant, there's no need for further cleaning after you flush.

Windows
Vinegar makes a great streak-free window cleaner -- just be sure to prime your windows properly first. Bond explains that most commercial window cleaners leave behind a waxy residue that will streak when cleaned with plain vinegar and water. Instead, she recommends mixing 1 1/2 cups water, 1/2 cup white vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon dish detergent in a spray bottle for your first green window cleaning.

The detergent will help remove the streak-causing residue. For future cleanings, just eliminate the detergent from the recipe above.

Wooden surfaces
To clean wood, Bond recommends combining white vinegar (to remove dirt) with a few drops of unrefined vegetable oil (to keep the wood from drying out). If it feels strange to dust without the house smelling like lemons, add a few drops of lemon essential oil to the mix.

To polish wood, there's no need to rely on the petroleum distillates found in most commercial polishes. Instead, try all-natural beeswax polishes, which can be found at most natural-food stores.

The oven
The easiest way to clean your oven is by using that nifty feature our grandmothers would've loved: the self-cleaning cycle. This chemical-free cleaning process uses super-high temperatures for several hours to turn all that baked-on grime into a powdery ash that can be easily wiped up with some wet rags.

Setting your oven on the self-cleaning cycle will make your kitchen feel like a sauna, so it's a task that's best done in cool weather.

If your oven doesn't self-clean, or if its self-cleaning process doesn't remove all the grime, Bond offers up two all-natural tricks for making your oven sparkle.

First, cover the oven surfaces liberally with baking soda, then spray with water until the powder becomes pastelike. Wait 12 to 24 hours for the minerals to dislodge the gunk, then wipe clean. If the oven is still dirty, repeat the process with washing soda, which is stronger than baking soda. It's generally sold with other laundry products in grocery and hardware stores.