Oooooohhhhh, yeeeeeahhh! KY warming gel. Mmmmmm.
Can you tell my husband’s been out of town all week? He’s due back tonight. 
Not really a household product, but…speaking as someone who lives in an apartment…quarters. Worth waaaay more than their actual value. To the point that I offered to pay a friend in quarters for my share of pizza some time ago and he gave each one more scrutiny than a jeweler would to a spare Hope diamond…seriously, I think he even did the bite test. 
Dr. Bronner’s Crazy Person Soap. I mop my floors with it, clean my counters, everything. Also it provides hours of entertainment just reading the bottle. You can use it as body soap (it’s too drying for me personally, but whatever) and according to the bottle you can even use it as mouthwash. (I told my boyfriend that and he disappeared into the kitchen. “AARGH! This stuff is nasty! It tastes just like I thought it would!”) Dr. Bronner’s is all you need.
Microfiber cloths - you can clean glass without anything except water! They do a great job and no chemicals.
Enough dish towels to always have a clean one. That’s one thing I’m only now getting, since I moved into my house in August. I had no idea how I took dish towels for granted.
They make for your bathtub/shower clips for the shower curtain and a little plastic triangle piece that goes at the front of the tub. Between these two things I no longer step out of the shower into a cold nasty puddle of water. Total cost, under $5.
Sock rings. Little rings with teeth on them that keep socks from wandering off in the dryer, never to be seen again. Saves you from wandering around all day with mismatched socks that * looked * like they matched in the grey light of dawn.
My solid gold toiletry kit.
Come on, people: toilet paper.
I don’t want no bidet. I don’t want goose necks. I love that I live in a part of the world where I can use something soft and relatively clean to clean my nether bits. And life without it would be bad.
Very bad.
Cross the lines bad.
Almost forgot one - Spot Shot. Around $5.00 a can, but I’ve seen nothing else that could get animal stains, red dye, blood, and coffee (and all the smells associated) out of carpet in mere seconds. Worth every penny to me!
Yet another vote for the Magic Eraser.
Over the years, I have found my cordless Bissell SpotLifter to be absolutely worth its weight in gold. I’m a renter, and my former cat used to throw up a lot: the SpotLifter has saved me hundreds of dollars in carpet-cleaning costs, not to mention that it has kept all of my “renter’s biege” carpets from looking like crap. I’ve been cat-free for just over a year, but I still keep it charged up in the basement for the occasional spill. I’m amazed at the things it can get out carpet – even tomato sauce, and old stains! It cost less than $50, and when my old one broke (after many years of use; no quality complaints here) I didn’t hesitate to replace it. I think that I’ll always have one in my home, just in case.
I love the Dawn dish brush. It’s battery operated and spins around. It’s really good for cups and glasses and bowls.
Robin
Thanks for the heads up! I’ve got the same cat problem and the same beige carpets. I never knew there was a solution other than waiting for the cat to die and recarpeting. I’m buying one tonight!
Slight hijack: since we’re talking laundry stuff, anybody know how to keep drawstrings from shorts/sweats getting wrapped around the center post in the washing machine?
Oh, I was just thinking yesterday about how it must have sucked for my foremothers to not yet have invented the little sponge-on-a-soap-filled-handle thing. That thing is awesome!
They were probably wishing they were inventing indoor hot running water first, but once they got that I bet they went to work on the soap-in-the-handle deal.
Folex Carpet Spot Remover. It ain’t cheap but I absolutely swear by it. There was a big red stain on the carpet in one of the bedrooms of the house we rented before we bought our current house. Apparently the previous renter’s daughter had puked Cherry Koolaid in there and they couldn’t get the stain out. The rental agency had the stain marked down on their rental agreement, so we wouldn’t be blamed for it, and she mentioned that the previous renters had lost part of their deposit over the stain. Too bad they didn’t have any Folex – I whipped out my trusty bottle and it lifted that red stain right out! Never came back, either. Excellent stuff.
You Dawn lovers may carry on to your heart’s content. Lemon Octagon rocks, and it’s one of the cheapest liquid dish soaps out there. GooGone and GoofOff are my favorites for removing awshits.
I’ve been warned off that stuff by some friends of mine. Not that there was any need, because I was a bit baffled by the concept. I don’t remember ever once thinking “You know, my vagina is okay and all, but it could be warmer.”
I do love those grown-up wet wipes they make now. Sure you can get by without them, but why would you?
All Free & Clear laundry detergent gets my vote. After a bad experience with an allergic reaction from undies washed in another detergent, I gave up anything with perfume in it. All not only smells just like water, it cleans beautifully.
I also keep a tub of OxyClean around for stains. I have a spray bottle of it that gets used on laundry, but also on carpets, furniture, and any other fabric.
I’m also a big fan of microcloths for cleaning anything. They’re good for dusting when dry, and will clean almost anything when wet.
However, my favorite household product is baking soda. I buy the economy bags at Sam’s when I can, but even the little boxes at the grocery store are more economical than the stuff it replaces. It goes into the litter boxes, and I use it as scouring powder in all of the sinks and on the counters. I also use it to clean the coffee carafe–sprinkle in a little baking soda, add a little hot water, and swish. It also dissolves burnt-on coffee like magic.
It’s good all over the body; even on places that are not naturally warm. Very nice.
Why thank you; I had promised myself not to carry on about Dawn anymore until I got your express permission! 
I don’t believe I’ve ever encountered this. Is it a PA thing?
Add me in with the Magic Eraser fans. That thing is just amazing.
I love that new Spray & Wash Dual Power pre-wash stuff. It’s pink and white and comes in the two-chambered bottle. It gets grime and oil and grass stains out of my husband’s jeans like nothing else.
I also love the Swiffer duster. I have the handheld one and the long extending one. My only complaint is not being able to buy just the refills. I hate buying a new handle each time.
I may have to try Dawn, or look for Lemon Octagon (I’ve never heard of that one). I’ve been using Joy for years and it works fine, but after all these rave reviews, I might try something new.
Zestra worth its price tag of $23-25 for 9 applications.
Windex and its generic equivalent. Goes from windows to counter tops. That is all I ask for.
Mr. coffee coffee pot gives me the black heroin faithfully and perfectly every morning.
Imitrex for migraines. This stuff has rescued me from migraine pain on countless occasions.
Dirt Devil Bag Less Vaccuum it is disgustingly efficent in the way it sucks and shows me the freakin’ dog hair x2 billion. (All contents are dumped into compost pile.)
Why, you ask? Just ask the plumber that charged me $360 to snake my drains. He pulled out TONS of those wipes (I had a potty-trainer) and told me that while they claim they’re biodegradable, I saw evidence quite to the contrary.
Biodegradable is not the same as ‘flushable’. I’ve noticed most of the wipes say they are NOT flushable in the small print. You wouldn’t expect that, but read the labels. There are a few adult wipes that do specifically say they are flushable, but you have to search for them.