Tips for Using Reusable Shopping Bags
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This is part of the Going Green series. Join me as we explore ways to make green living more convenient.
Back in my youth, I worked at a grocery store. It was my very first “real” job. I bagged groceries for two years during high school. And since I was a perfectionist, I became “expert” at packing bags.
Woe to the box boy today who tries to pack my tomatoes with my canned goods!
And I’m soooooo old that I remember when the plastic grocery bags first came out. They said that they were going to revolutionize our world. Or something close. But in reality, they were cheaper than paper.
When I was new on the job I asked customers which they would prefer. It didn’t take long before my manager called me over and told me not to give them a choice. Plastic is cheaper, so bag in plastic unless they ask otherwise.
Today, nothing drives me up a wall more than those fifty-two million plastic bags that seem to reproduce overnight in the pantry. Thankfully, reusable shopping bags are on the scene.
I first started building my collection about three years ago and I haven’t looked back. I love it that my grocery bags won’t break on me, won’t clutter up my pantry and reproduce like bunny rabbits, that they get me cash credit at the store, and that they are being reused instead of going to waste.
Using reusable shopping bags has been the number one easiest means for me to reduce waste in our home. But, it did take some getting used to. And I’ve yet to perfect it. As always, still a work in progress.
Here are some tips to make it easier for you to use reusable shopping bags:
1. Find bags you love.
I have over 20 shopping bags, accumulated over a number of years. Some were given to me. Some I bought. Some I bought again because I forgot to bring some to the store.
I have some favorites, for different reason. I’ve got durable, heavy duty bags for canned goods. I’ve got thin, easily washable cloth bags for meats and produce. I’ve got some all-purpose bags just cause.
If you like the function and fashion of something, you’re more likely to use it.
2. Keep the bags in the car.
Probably the biggest downside to using reusable bags is forgetting to bring them with you when you shop. One solution is to keep them near the front door or even in the car. If you have your bags with you all the time, you are more likely to use them. There are even bags that roll up into tight little packages to pack in your purse.
Some objections have arisen to this over the last year due to the evidence that bacteria is present in the bags and can grow at a tremendous rate in a hot car.
One solution is to make sure that items like dairy, meat, poultry, and produce are packed in washable bags. That way you can make sure to wash the bags after shopping and then return them to the car in clean condition.
3. Wash the bags regularly.
For the reasons mentioned above, it’s important to wash the bags on a regular basis. I have a small laundry basket in my kitchen for corralling wash clothes and kitchen towels. After a shopping trip, I add to this any bags that might have been contaminated by meats or dairy. They wash up easily and can be returned to their posts.
4. Designate bags for other uses as well.
We use our reusable bags for a number of uses, including toting library books to and from home, carrying picnic lunches, packing beach supplies, and anything else where a tote bag is handy. Keeping them in the car makes it easy to carry stuff around town.
In fact, since I started collecting reusable shopping bags, transportation of stuff has been simplified manifold. Not only am I reducing clutter in my kitchen as well as in the local landfills, but my life is made a little bit easier.
Carrying groceries in from the car is made easier because I know the bag is not going to break. And I make fewer trips back and forth since more can fit in a reusable bag than it can in a plastic one.
How do reusable shopping bags help your life as MOM?
This is part of the Going Green series. Stay tuned all week for daily giveaways and ideas for small ways to go green.
My beef with the reusables is that the bagger seems to think they must fill it with as much as possible. I don’t have Arnold muscles. I can’t carry a bag with 2 gallons of ice cream and 2 gallons of milk stuffed in it!! I love my veggie bags…they are smaller for your individual veggies, so you don’t need the little plastic baggies in the produce section.
I have a lot of those paper-type reusable bags that I bought at the grocery store or gotten as goody bags (I’m not really sure what they’re made out of, but I’m sure they’d desolve in the wash). Do you have any suggestions for how to clean bags that aren’t cloth or wipeable surfaces? I’m afraid they’re full of bacteria after regular use over the years!
I am not an expert on this, but I’m going to say what about Lysol? I know that may not be “green” — I actually have no idea. But, it seems that that might work?
I love my new flip and tumble bags…found at http://www.flipandtumble.com THey fold up into the size of a peach and so you can throw all of them into a bag and go!
I love my reusable bags because they hold so much more than the plastic bags. And I’m not worried about the milk or oj tearing the side of the bag and dumping onto the ground!
I forgot them for about 6 months after I got my first one. After that, I finally started remembering, and now I usually do pretty well. Don’t give up if you don’t remember the first week or even month. 🙂
I purchased cheap placemats (Big Lots for $1 each) and cut them into stiffeners for the bottom of my cloth bags. I could get 2 out of each mat. Now if I could only get the baggers to turn the stiffener down to the bottom of the bag instead of keeping it upright along the side of the bag. Oh well, if that is my only complaint. lol
Another use for reusable grocery bags is using them for our toiletries while on vacation. We put our stuff in gallon ziploc bags to reduce leakage and then all our bags go into the reusable bag and off we go. This is great when we are in a hotel room or staying at family members houses, all our stuff is in one area and everyone knows where stuffis.
We also use reusable bags as an affordable alternative to organizing bins in the kids closets. I use them to organize barbies, polly pockets, and other little toys and than hang them by hanger on the girls upper closet rod. They also fit in the cubbies just right in the closet organizer. We have black & lime green store cloth bags & it works great to pick up the toys quickly too 🙂
@Crystal C, ohh, would love to see a pic of those closets!
I love the reusable bags that are shaped like brown paper bags. They keep my groceries from rolling around the trunk on the way home!
I worked as a supermarket cashier for almost 10 years after high school and I’m still a stickler about how my groceries are packed. One good reason to use the reusable bags (with the square bottoms!) is that they stay upright in the car. The plastic ones tip over and food is everywhere when I get home. 🙂
I got some really cute reusable bags free from Kelloggs a little over a year ago and several of them we have used to wrap gifts in because they were so cute. (They had Kelloggs characters on them) My 15 year old daughter gave one to a friend with the gift inside and then I gave 2 baby gifts.
@Becky, oh, i saw these a few days ago from kellogg’s: http://www2.kelloggs.com/earthday/
you do have to pay for shipping though.
@maggie, Mine were totally free, no shipping. ( this was over a year ago though) They were buy 2 boxes of Kelloggs get one bag free at the store!!