Pervasive Plastic Pouches AKA plastic grocery bags

Well hello there!




It's been a while since I last posted a blog, but with good reason! I was on vacation......kind of. The first part of my vacation consisted of attending the 20th Annual National Association of Professional Organizers Conference in Sparks, NV (right next to Reno, NV). More on that exciting adventure later. Today I want to parlay per pesky, pervasive, almost parasitic plastic bags.



The second leg of my vacation took me and my mother to visit old family friends who had recently moved to Seattle. On the afternoon of our arrival, we were treated to a picnic where everything was transported via plastic grocery bags. They came in especially handy at clean-up time. After lunch, and a 2.5 mile walk around Seward's Park (phew!), we returned home. After all of the dishware and food stuffs were put away, I asked where the plastic bags were kept.

My friend opened one of the cabinet doors in the kitchen and was almost lost in an avalanche of plastic bags! After she stuffed them all back in and had a good laugh about it, I told her that I'd seen the same thing in almost every home I worked in. She asked, "What do I do with all these bags?!" Below are some of the ideas I shared with her beyond their use for easy picnicing:

1. Use them as many times again as possible: take your lunch to work in them, reuse them on another shopping trip, use them to carry your wet bathing suit or swim towel (thanks mom!), etc. Just make sure they don't have holes in them before you use them!



2. Some people like to use them as trash bags for smaller trashcans in the office or bathroom.



3. Keep one in your car so you aren't tempted, or less likely, to litter. It's mandatory in the State of Washington!



4. They make great protective gear when laid atop the clothes in your luggage if your going somewhere wet and your bags might end up sitting out in the elements. When you get to your destination, the bags will keep your dirties apart from the rest of your clothes while you're traveling.



5. Dog owners may find them useful as a pooper-picker-upper.

Great ideas you say, but where will they live in the meantime? I myself have a small collection of plastic bags that I keep in a container designed for such a purpose mounted to the cabinet door beneath my kitchen sink.



There are many different products out there that can help keep your plastic bags corralled and manageable all the while sitting, or mounted, pretty in your space. Below are three examples that exude form AND function, all of which can be found at the Discover Organizing Store and Productivity Center and coming soon to the online-store:

• This sleek, brushed stainless steel bag holder saves space allowing for placement in a cabinet or on the counter. Features a non-skid base and a wide dispensing area specially designed for easy access to bags (holds 50 plastic bags):

• This next model is not as big as it's standing cousin, but it is mountable to the inside of a cabinet door, a shelf or even to a wall (holds 30 plastic bags):
  

• If you prefer to use the grocery bags as your main kitchen trash bags, I would definitely suggest this model which offers the best of both worlds (holds 50 plastic bags):
  
  

When it comes to managing my own herd of plastic bags, I follow a general principle of organizing stating that you can only keep as many things as will fit in it's container. In this case, my plastic bag holder only holds 30, so that's as many as I can fit. If I find that I am accumulating more, I take ALL of them to Giant Eagle and put them in the container dedicated to collecting plastic bags. I know that eventually I will get more from another store somewhere!

Here's to putting those pernicious, pompous, plastic bags in their place...at home,

P.S. Did you know that the average family accumulates 60 plastic bags in only four trips to the grocery store? Check out more facts about plastic bags here.