The Brown Paper Bag Crisis

As a family, we are devoted to bringing reusable bags to the grocery store -- every time. It's a practice we started WAYYYY back when we were living in New Jersey, continued in France (where a plastic bag is not free) and we've gotten pretty good about remembering each time we go. (Checklist: grocery list, phone, sunglasses, bags). 

And yes, I look down my nose at people walking out of the grocery store with a cart full of plastic bags. It's so wasteful, horrible for the Earth and bringing your own is stupid SIMPLE, people. 

BUT, with this pandemic, grocery stores are not allowing use of reusable bags for fear of spreading germs from home. I'm fine with that. But I'm NOT OK with using plastic bags. 

We get by with refusing a bag, when it's just a few items. Or requesting paper bags, which are a far more sustainable choice. Most are made of recycled paper, are easily recycled or reused around the house. 

But let's discuss the reality of the situation. It's been seven months! And a weekly grocery shop for our family means A LOT of brown paper bags stored up. 

While, yes, I can absolutely recycle them. I'm kinda stuck on the idea of repurposing the WHOLE PILE. 

I know, it's madness. That's a lot of bags. And more coming, too. 

So I've gotten creative. I've used them in painting projects, to protect the carpet under the paint can. I've used them to bag recycling from all over the house. And trash, too. 

They are providing all the inspiration I need to continue to declutter, as I fill them up with Good Will donations in them; books, clothes, toys and shoes. And they work under messy art projects my girls get in to, too. 

Brown paper bags are great for landscaping, so I had this idea of using them to line the bottom of the area under the play structure in the back yard to kill off the weeds. And in the raised bed gardens, at the end of the growing season, when a few layers of brown paper bag will slowly chock all the weeds while decomposing over our long winter -- under a mountain of snow -- and by spring will be ready for fresh soil and plants. 

If I needed anymore incentive to keep decluttering and doing messy home projects, these bags are it. I have a stash that will last me years. Or not, if I get really creative. 

Either way, they are a FAR BETTER choice than the plastic bags I'm now forced into at Target and Home Depot, etc. Long live the paper bag! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Behold! Everard Blue!

Image
Here's the After picture of our master bedroom now that the walls are a dark and moody blue. Maybe the best part is I was at work while the painters were here, so I walked in and found -- as if by magic -- the room no longer minty green but a bold blue. That's pretty awesome. They also painted the trim an eye-popping white, which I just love against this blue. And the angle is a dark beige-y, tan color that I hope goes with the headboard. I spent the evening cleaning and re-hanging the drapes, and moving the furniture back into position. It will be a while before I dare hang anything in here. I'm too in love with the walls to put too many holes in them right now. So, just in case I'm looking for this information later: The walls are "Everard Blue" by Benjamin Moore . And the tray is "Curly Willow" by Behr . Now, does that furniture look too dark against the walls or is it just me? And wouldn't a lighter wood or white look fabulous agains
Keep reading »

Family Calendar Improvement

Image
 Made a quick improvement at the start of the school year that I'm pretty excited about.  And yes, I'm probably the only one excited about it, but here goes ...  Here's our "command central" in our kitchen. This is a good landing spot, and a central place to all look at the family calendar ... it's that huge wipe board in the middle of the photo. All our activities are supposed to be written on here and our electronic family calendar on Google.  (Brief aside: my family is the WORST at writing their plans down in either calendar and Dave still doesn't share his events on our Google Shared Family Calendar consistently, which makes me nuts. And they all ask me "what are we doing today?" instead of looking at the calendar, usually directly behind me. But, that's another post.) I went to so much trouble putting this little area together and that huge calendar with wobbly writing was really killing the sophisticated look of that space. PLUS, we don
Keep reading »

Basement Shiplap Project

Image
The guys left me all the unused shiplap from the bathroom and I've been trying to think about where to use it. I had so many ideas but not a lot of shiplap, so I eventually settled on this corner of our basement. It's where the exercise mats and treadmill live, right behind the sofa. And also where the Marvel-themed bathroom with shiplap is located. So it made sense. It took much of a rainy Sunday to cut and nail up the new boards ...    I even had enough to do on the "backsplash" of our little kitchenette in the basement I've been slowly building out.  Next up will be to patch all the nail holes and calk around the edges for a clean look. And then the best part ... picking out paint color. Since this is a "free" project, I'm hoping I can find a color in my paint cabinet.  I'll keep you posted. 
Keep reading »