When cleaning mirrors or windows, just spray on some glass cleaner and then wipe it down with wadded-up newspaper. It won’t leave any streaks or lint, and you won’t have to scrub so hard or for so long.

Plastic Grocery Bags

It no longer seems you have a choice between paper or plastic at the grocery store, but don’t fret. If you use paper bags for things, you can always still buy them, and meanwhile there are plenty of things to do with your plastic ones that keep them out of landfills for a little longer. I will attempt to list their uses (or at least the ones I have for them) but this will, of course, be a Herculean task.

1. Garbage bags. They make wonderful liners for bedroom and bathroom trash cans, with the added bonuses of, to wit: they are free; they have handles; said handles can be used to tie said bag up once it’s full. My mother even used them for our kitchen garbage, but you needn’t go that far; aside from making you have to take the trash out every few hours, they do tend to rip, and kitchen garbage is usually a lot drippier than the other kind. Also great for camping and having in the car.

2. Swimsuit holders. Actually, they’re great for when you need to carry anything wet. You could conceivably wet a washcloth, wring it out a bit, and put it in a plastic bag in your car, instead of buying wet wipes, but frankly I recommend the wet wipes.

3. You can use one to hold all the others.

4. Lunch bag, especially if you plan on carrying anything with the potential to spill. Also good for wrapping up individual components of lunch (such as leftovers in untrustworthy Tupperware) and then putting in the normal lunch bag.

5. Freezing things. Bread is surprisingly resistant to freezer burn, as long as you wrap it up in another few layers on top of the bag it comes in. (Come to that, bread bags are great for a lot of the same things grocery bags are.) Actually, I think freezer burn can be avoided in most cases if you wrap things in enough layers.

6. Give me your suggestions. This is all I can think of at the moment, but I know there are more. Just leave a comment with your witty use of grocery bags, and at some point I'll compile them into another post for all to see and enjoy.