When is the best time to give the bathroom a good cleaning? Right after you shower. Surfaces in the bathroom -- like mirrors, faucets and countertops -- will likely have a fine layer of steam on top of them. With just a microfiber towel, you can wipe down all the surfaces quickly. And the grout in the shower? All the grime and dirt is considerably looser after a hot shower; just scrub and rinse in minutes.

Here's a simple way to clean up a dirty secret in the shower: Choose bar soap over body wash. Liquid body washes are packaged in plastic bottles that, even if they are recycled, are still made from petroleum sources. Also, the No. 1 ingredient in body wash is water, which adds significant weight to the package, requiring more fuel to ship it from the factory to the store shelves. Even if the body wash is an all-natural or organic brand, bar soap has it beat as the greenest choice.

Many people know that if you use plastic shopping bags at the grocery store, it's easy to bring them back to the supermarket and deposit them in recycling bins. But did you know you can also recycle other types of plastic bags and film in those same bins? The large plastic wraps on new mattresses and furniture can be recycled, as can dry cleaning bags and the plastic wrap on items like toilet paper rolls and napkins. And here's the best part: Even bubble wrap can be placed in those recycling bins. Just pop the bubbles so it doesn't fill up the bin prematurely.