Carrying My Own Bags

I know that there are more people out there who keep buying reusable grocery bags and leaving them at home! It drives me nuts.  The reusable bags are great especially when carrying heavy cans. You can also carry a lot more stuff in fewer bags which means less trips to and from the car once you get home! Whoo Hooo!  I have started storing the bags in my car which has helped immensely unfortunately I sometimes forget to put them back in the car. I will use my reusable bags every time if I have to write it on a sticky note and place it on my steering wheel.  I seem to remember to take a reusable bag if I am walking to the store or riding my bike.  I guess it is a necessity then because a plastic bag wouldn't make the walk home and if I am riding my bike I have to use my backpack.  If I try to use any other bag on my bike it swings around to the front of my body and almost topples me over.  It has been a good thirty two years since I fell of my bike and scrapped my knees (I am knocking on wood) and I would like to keep it that way.

We all know that making plastic bags uses huge amounts of oil and that they kill marine animals who mistake them for food but there are many more reasons not to use them.  One of the things that irritates me most about plastic bags is that they are everywhere they are not meant to be. There are two high up in the tree tops outside my front door.  I saw one today on my walk home from the auto shop that was hanging in a bush.  I noticed it because it looked just like a longhorn skull.


I am even worse when it comes to the produce bags!  I have bought lingerie bags to use for produce but I am embarrassed to say that I haven't actually used them yet. I do however try to use less of those plastic produce bags.  For example, I have put two kinds of peppers in one bag or cilantro and parsley in the same bag. I make sure to tell the person checking me out that there is a variety in there and that I am not trying to rip them off just save the world one less bag at a time.  I am not sure if they are recyclable like the plastic grocery bags but do admit to shoving the plastic produce bags into the middle of the plastic grocery bags that I recycle.  With my luck doing this ruins the whole batch and I am someone speeding up global warming.

One day I proudly toted my recycled grocery bag into the store (I was cheering to myself  "I remembered I remembered!") but my self promotion soon fizzled when I realized I forgot my lingerie err "produce" bags. It wasn't until I was home and unpacked my groceries when I realized the "produce" bags were in the recycled grocery bag the whole time. One day I WILL get it right!!!