guest post: alternative uses for cloth shopping bags

We are an eco-conscious family, and use cloth shopping bags for each trip to the store. At times, I’ve purchased new bags or been given a bag as a gift with purchase. How many bags do I really need?

Today, Teressa from Window on the World is going to share a few alternative uses for the bags!

We are in the process of packing our house for a move and I have been amazed by some of the things I have found. I found half a drawer full of buttons that had fallen off various pieces of clothing. I guess it was a good idea to save them, but I don’t remember what clothes they went to, or even if we still own those clothes. So, goodbye buttons!!

Another surprise was the number of cloth (reusable) shopping bags we have collected over the years. I keep 10 or so in the trunk of my car so I don’t forget them at the grocery store, but how many does one family really need? I found another 10 or so in various hidey-holes throughout our house:

Now, these are perfectly good bags. I don’t want to throw them away – that would defeat the purpose – but I also know they won’t sell at a yard sale. So I started looking for alternative uses for the shopping bags. Here are some of the idea I came up with:

• If you’re going on a trip or you regularly use a laundromat, you can use a cloth bag as a dirty laundry sack. This is an especially good gift to stuff in a care package for a college student or child at summer camp. The bags take up almost no space when they are empty, but you can easily stuff them full of dirty clothes!!
• Take a bag of DVDs, coloring books, crayons, activity books, etc. in the car for the kids to use on long trips.
• Potatoes can be bought singly but they are often cheaper if you buy them in big 5 pound, 10 pound or 20 pound plastic bags. When you get them home, dump the potatoes out of the plastic bag and put them in cloth bags in the deepest, darkest part of your pantry or cupboard. Plastic bags trap moisture and help your potatoes to rot faster. Cloth bags absorb the moisture and keep your potatoes dry and fresh for weeks longer.
• Use a cloth shopping bag to keep track of all your kids’ library books so on the due date you’re not all scouring the house trying to find missing books.
• Make a “quiet” bag for your small children for those times they need to be still (church is a good example). Here is an example of some of the things we put in bags that our church keeps available for little ones who need to keep their hands busy:

Can you think of any other uses for cloth shopping bags?

Teressa Morris is a part-time blogger, part-time bookkeeper, and full-time wife and mom. She blogs about life as she sees it, from a Christian perspective. Her blog, Window on the World, covers everything from bullying and unemployment, to recipes and giveaways.