Spring is that time of year when we scrub winter slush from the windows, banish dust motes, and shine floors to a sunny sparkle. As we’ve discussed, the trick is finding natural, eco-friendly cleaners that can effectively scour and polish. If you’re into light, breezy scents and roll-up-your-sleeves practicality, Shaklee’s Get Clean Starter Kit is still the best bet. A favorite of Oprah, the kit includes a caddy filled with thirteen key products from convenient cleaning wipes to laundry and dish detergents, plus reusable bottles. While it requires a bit of mixing and measuring, the payback is your contribution to a greener planet.

My most “scentsible” housekeeping secret is Caldrea. This Minnesota-based business is the purveyor of Caldrea and Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day cleaning products, all infused with essential oils. Caldrea’s new limited-edition spring scent, Watercress Wild Lily, is a crisp floral bouquet for spritzing countertops and sudsing dishes. Caldrea also offers fragrant All-Purpose Cleansers and Window Sprays, plus chic old-school tools such as a French Street Broom and a fabulous rooster feather duster.

The latest offerings from Mrs. Meyer’s include the new, intoxicating Basil Collection laundry or cleaning packs and a limited-edition Rhubarb Spring Cleaning Kit. The rhubarb aroma is a dead ringer for my Grandma’s garden patch pies. (Note to self: do not drink the dish soap!)

By the way, we hear that new Shaklee products are launching this summer, so stay tuned to Shelterrific to get the dirt first! –Ingrid S.

We noticed this post by Jeff Bredenberg at iVillage last week: Ten Things You Can Stop Cleaning Now. We have no quarrel with some items (People clean soccer balls?) but even though we sense the article was a bit tongue in cheek, we can’t take all the advice to heart. Throw out the shower curtain liner every six months? Sounds wasteful. (Also, you can use old ones as dropcloths.) He also says to stop washing pillows as they take hours to dry — well, unless you put them in the dryer, of course (which, granted, may not work for high-end pillows). Again, throwing out pillows and buying new every six to eight months seems wasteful (and expensive). We were also a little surprised at the “Don’t make the bed” suggestion. Right when we were resolving to make it more regularly! Luckily, Apartment Therapy stepped in with suggestions on how to make making the bed as simple as possible — that’s a cleanup we can live with.

Now that Clorox has purchased Burt’s Bees, the bleach company claims it’s going green. (There is healthy skepticism about that, as you might imagine.) If you’ve been wary of green cleaning products that may not clean so well, the latest Good Housekeeping will help: they’ve reviewed cleaning products that are both green and effective. Have you made a switch to non-toxic, environmentally friendly cleaning products? Have any favorites? Let us know in comments.

Last week, the New York Times House & Home “currents” section wrote about the newest Dyson vacuum cleaner (above) coming out soon. The DC24 is a third the size of the normal Dyson, weighs 5 lbs less, and best of all, costs a hundred bucks less. Do any of you have a Dyson? Do you recommend them? We made the lazy and fatal mistake of buying a cheap Dirt Devil for our country place. It’s stopped working after just three months — of weekend use! It’s sucks — but not in the way it is suppose to! I know we must invest in a quality machine and am thinking this little guy will do the trick. But, I am a Miele devotee at heart. Thoughts? — Angela M.

I need advice on how to keep the air in my house fresh smelling. I do a lot of cooking and in winter when windows aren’t open as much as I”d like the air is kind of stuffy and sometimes worse! In addition, candles aren’t practical with kids around and running in and out I am always paranoid about making sure they are extinguished. With that said if there is a fabulous candle I would consider it. Does anyone use anything great that is non toxic? I liked Caldrea’s rose pomagranate but they don’t make it anymore. Any other suggestons? — Holly D.

One of our favorite household experiments is testing out homemade cleaners. So you can bet we’ll be giving this idea from Casa Sugar a try. They suggest a concoction of beeswax, carnauba wax, water, and oil (such as olive or coconut) to spiff up your wood surfaces. How could that be bad? We wonder if it leaves any kind of residue film. Have you ever made your own wood polish? Let us know the results! Click here to see post at Casa Sugar.

I live in a 100+ year old house. There are a ton of things that need fixing or updating. The bathrooms right now are the worst. Even though I don’t like the reality of having to keep a plunger next to the toilet, I do. I am wondering if you know of any stylish plungers that I wouldn’t be embarrassed to have sitting out. Preferably one that could somehow catch the drips after it was used. I know this is a yucky topic, but can this bathroom necessity be stylish as well? — Amy J., Madison, WI

Hi Amy! This may be a “yucky” topic, but it’s a common one we can all relate to. In fact, we answered a similar question last year in this post. At that time, we were pretty tickled by a spiffy fake plant plunger, called Toilet Trees, but that company seems to have disappeared. Luckily, there are still a few stylish options available, the chic-est of which is Johnny The Diver plunger by Alessiat unicahome, $40. The bright colors are certainly a switch to the traditional! OXO’s Good Grips model comes wtih a canister to catch those drips, at target.com, $20. And Simple Human version, bedbathandbeyond.com, $25, is certainly sleek. Does anyone else have plunger suggestions for Amy? Let us know!

I realize the new(ish) Dirt Devil Designer Series by Karim Rashid has been around for awhile, but they just recently caught my attention. (In a Good Housekeeping ad insert — again with the Good Housekeeping!) I knew I liked them, but I went certifiably nutty for them when I checked them out online and saw the KONE Hand Vacuum in white illuminated! It’s sculpture, it’s a nightlight, it’s a way to clean the cat litter off the bathroom floor. I can’t believe I’m about to ask for a vacuum for Christmas! - Mary T.

I’m terrible at folding. It’s true. And my standards are really low. Thank goodness no one in my family seems to care…. But I’ve always wondered how to properly fold a fitted sheet — mine always became big, lopsided masses. I stumbled across the answer online thanks to a lady named catiecake on flikr, and now it seems so simple! One modern home problem solved. Hooray! Click here to see the photo set. — Beth J.

I was digging into the new issue of Domino the other day — which by the way is chock-a-block with save-for-ever info — and stopped in my tracks on one factoid that popped out. It is in their cover story The Big Black Book, in which they asked 14 prominent interior designers to spill their secret tips, tricks and sources on everything from must-have books to new paint colors. On the page about linens in the Decorators Debate Box, it says that 85% of their experts iron their sheets. What?! Do people really do this — I mean with real jobs, families and busy lifestyles? I wish the follow up question had been “Do you iron your sheets yourself?” Granted, nothing is lovelier than sinking into a big bed of freshly laundered, perfectly pressed sheets. But isn’t that what vacations are for? Tell me: Do you iron your sheets? — Angela M.