My dog: He licks the floor clean whenever I drop anything.

Ew.

^LOL. So true! My cats are not nearly as useful in that way.

I'd have to say it's a toss up between baking soda and white vinegar, often used together.

I can't live without my Dawn dish brush. It's tough to find and the only one I've ever seen that holds soap that actually has a button attached to a lever to dispense a drop of soap from the bristles, not the little airbubble like most do that leaks and does squat.

I hoard replacement brushes in fear they stop making them.

Other than that, I love Caldrea kitchen spray. They smell so good that I don't mind cleaning up.

Vinegar.

Definitely white vinegar. I use it to clean countertops, wash the walls, get lime scale out of the coffee pot and tea kettles, wash the vinyl siding outside, and for homemade carwash. What else can you use to pickle vegetables AND wash your car? I always keep a couple gallons on hand.

I really love plastic scrubbies for my pots and pans. They get the job done, they don't rust, they don't scratch my nonstick... Sadly they are getting hard to find around here, and I don't know why.
I also love having nice big absorbent towels. And those little dishwasher soap tablets! And my bleach-free cleaning spray!

dish rags and towels! ( i don't use paper towels )

also white vinegar and baking soda.

If I had to choose one: I'd be unoriginal and say the scrub brush. Almost no water needed, just elbow grease and it uses no hot water, energy and almost no resources. Second: baking soda and vinegar. Third: Bronner's dish soap. Fourth: cotton dish cloths.

Bleach and White vinegar for most jobs. I only use Dawn dish washing detergent. I don't have a dishwasher and as much as I would love to use a more "green" dish liquid, Dawn is the best for cutting grease.

Mr Clean magic eraser!!

Our rental apartment has flat paint behind the stove (yuck!), and this little bugger is the best at getting the splatters off without taking off the paint, and without smearing the grime around...

My parents used to use Bartender's Best Friend all the time, and I had no idea why until I started using it. I moved into a new house with a paint-splattered porcelain sink, and it cleaned it right up! I've also used it in gentle applications on my stove, and more heavily on tough-to-clean pans. This old-fashion scrub is awesome, but you do have to be careful not to use it on certain surfaces because it is abrasive. Always test a new product in a small inconspicuous area!!

Love the dog comment. SO TRUE!

I have a neat gadget called a ceramic plane - looks like a smallish ice-scraper and it scrapes up tons of gunk without damaging surfaces. Mine's made by Kyocera and I know I bought it off Amazon but they don't seem to have it anymore.

My mom is a crazy knitter and she makes me washed cloth-sized knit rags which are completely amazing in the kitchen. They scrub stuck on stuff, wipe down anything and the best part: they never stink because they can go right in the laundry. If you have even rudimentary knitting skills, knit yourself up some kitchen rags. I'm obsessed.

Baking soda. Nothing else picks up all the grime off my stovetop, stainless tea kettle, or bathtub!

baking soda. shit is magical.

Lemons from my backyard tree. I had a deep stain, that I tried every commercial product on, before I realized that lemon and salt might do the trick. Cut a lemon in half, sprinkled salt on the stain, the stain came out in seconds. Silly me forgetting I had the magic all along!

Runner up are the little plastic scrapers, often used for getting gunk out of cooking pots, I keep a set of all sizes in my cleaning kit and can scrape anything off without damaging the surface. They're like 50 cents apiece and invaluable.

Baking soda. I keep it by the sink in a sugar shaker I got from the Dollar Store.

@jesser, are you referring to this Kyocera Cera Planer http://www.amazon.com/Kyocera-Ceraplaner-Utility-Scraper-Black/dp/B00012F0X4/ref=sr_1_62?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1311019485&sr=1-62 ?

Dish brush. I can't stand touching the dirty dishes with my hands

My children are my best cleaning tool. They do a great job on the dishes and cleaning up the kitchen after dinner.

Baking soda: baked-on food comes clean so much faster when baking soda is added to the soak! Especially helpful for hard water in the kitchen & laundry. Cleans the whole kitchen as well as tiny produce (rinse berries, cherries, grapes, radishes in a collander, sprinkle baking soda on them, gently rub/toss them with hands & rinse).

Peppermint Liquid Castille Soap: diluted in foaming hand soap dispenser - great for cleaning hands of onion, garlic, fish, etc.

Vinegar: cleaning produce, counters, floors, air (wonderful in a mug on stove while cooking fish).

Dilute all 3 to clean floors & cabinets.

I bought a bag of 75 shop cloths for cleaning and mopping up. This was about 20 years ago. The cloths are badly stained now, but rather than use bleach, we keep them out of sight, under the bath and kitchen counters.
Even though a few have been relegated to the garage for car or paint work, and face cloths and dishtowels replenish the pile from time to time, we're still using most of the original shop cloths.

We haven't bought paper towels in many years....hmmm, I wonder how much paper and how much money we've saved?

Bartender's friend. And the dogs. Not at the same time.

Bon Ami!

Mrs. Meyer's Lavender countertop spray. LOVE the scent!!!!!

Those casabella gloves that stop water from going in. They work!!

True Blues dish gloves. I've had a pair for years. You can clean with the hottest water and they don't get slippy with soap like some brands. Throw them in the washer when they get yucky.

I recently discovered borax for scrubbing the bathtub and bathroom sink. It's just the right amount of abrasiveness and leaves them gleaming.

Grapefruit Seed Extract & Vinegar diluted in water for counter top cleaner, steam cleaner for floors. Our household is now almost completely chemical free and ha never been cleaner!

Microfibre cloths, bleach and citric acid powder.

I use glass window cleaner/wiper to wipe dry counter tops. Only hitch is that I need to soak any hardened food like batter for a min with either water or even some soap if necessary. One long squeezy motion to sink, counter top is clean and dry.

Water, because I'm lazy and spray down the counter and stove top and let them sog until the crud's dissolved enough to wipe up, and I steam the microwave to clean it.