I want to be greener.
I do.
Wait. Is ‘greener’ the proper term? More green? Less black? More eco-friendly? Less of a suffocating drain on the planet I live in and burden on my fellow man around me? Whatever. Greener.
I want to be greener.
And in some ways that comes very naturally for me. I am frugal by nature and nurture. The idea of waste kills me — whether it’s time, money, or an open slot on my shoe rack. I cannot stomach the idea of using more of anything than I have to. So when it comes to not wasting more resources than necessary, I am — or at least I should be — a pro.
So why, then, is it so hard for me to remember to bring my reusable grocery bags to the store with me?
I love using them. I love that I can fit an entire week’s worth of groceries into six reusable bags instead of twenty plastic bags. I love that this means less trips from the car to the house for my husband. I love that it is actually easier to carry heavy loads in a well constructed reusable bag than it is in those dang plastic bags that cut into your fingers if there is more than a bag of string cheese in them. I love that I no longer have an overflowing “plastic bag” bin in my laundry room — because there really are only so many things you can do with plastic Wal-Mart bags and my creativity cannot compete with my consumption. But mostly, I love how elitist and socially conscious I feel when the sixteen year old check out clerk comments on my pretty, pretty reusable bags.
Clearly, I care about the environment.
And impressing high school grocery clerks who refuse to ID me for wine.
And still, about 75% of the time I find myself standing in line at the grocery store with no bags.
I did great when I first bought them. I was excited to have found a small change I could make in my routine that could potentially make a dramatic impact on the environment. But after the first several weeks, my best intentions gave way to old habits and an embarrassingly short attention span.
I’ve tried keeping them in my trunk. Unfortunately, the checkout clerk does not appreciate my suggestions for her to go and retrieve them from my trunk once I’ve got $300 worth of groceries on the belt and twenty people behind me in line.
I’ve tried keeping them in my purse - which is obviously the most logical solution. And this works wonderfully — until I change purses in a frenzy as I’m running out the door and leave the reusable bags and my favorite lip gloss behind in the old purse.
Someone suggested to me that I punish myself by buying reusable bags from the store if I get into line and realize I’ve forgotten mine. I did that. Once. But then my willingness to save the world conflicts with my willingness to save a penny, and I wind up just promising myself to do better next time. Because — A DOLLAR! A WHOLE DOLLAR! And their bags are ugly.
Perhaps I need to suck it up and buy a few more sets of bags so that I can keep one in each purse and a spare in my car. Yes, it will cost me more initially. But you can get good bags for so little money lately that it might be worth making sure I actually use what I paid for in the first place.
And, you know, the environment and stuff.
Does anyone else have problems remembering to use their reusable bags? Or if you’re an old pro now, did you have difficulty forming the habit in the beginning? Any suggestions for how to make it second nature for someone like me?
TGMR columnist Britt Reints is desperately trying to reconcile being green with being pretty. You can find more of her soul stirring emotional depth at Miss Britt, her personal blog.
It really does become a habit if you keep them in the car. Sooner or later you’ll make it halfway to the store and remember the bags and the next time you might remember them before you lock the car door. Keep them in the car and keep at it.
We have a set of things we do before we go shopping:
1. The perusal (checking the fridge & cabinets to see if we forgot to add something to the list - usually we add notes when something is low or out at the time of discovery, but there’s always something you think of later)
2. The coupon sorting (he pulls down the tin where the coupons get stored during the week and goes through them to grab ones we’ll need or that are about to expire; also recycles expired unused ones) - this may inspire him to add things to the list
3. The bag grab (while he’s sorting coupons, I grab a bunch of our bags and stuff them into one bag; if I finish first, I hang the main bag on the doorknob)
4. The pen - crucial for checking stuff off the list
5. Once the coupon sorting is complete, the last job is mine - to grab the list from under its magnet on the fridge and put it in my pocket
We leave. The bags are either in my hand or on the doorknob.
The upshot is, have a system. Incorporate grabbing the reusable bags part into the set of things you do before you go shopping.
I also have three or four really small collapsible bags tucked into my various bigger bags & backpacks for spontaneous “pick something up” stops at the store. They are $5 each (or more, if you go fancy), but really handy.
My food coop doesn’t offer plastic or paper bags and I never forget the reusable ones I have at home. It only took one trip without them for me to learn this lesson. Try taking all your groceries home in your open arms, not fun, especially with a family of four.
Tell yourself disposable isn’t an option and you wont forget again.
I leave one of my reusable bags on the front passenger seat to remind me to get the rest of them from my trunk before going into the store. I usually use the reusable bags even when I go to the mall, so having the one on the front seat is a good reminder.
When I read your column, I could totally relate because I really love using reusable grocery bags, but always have a hard time remembering them. My solution was to keep the bags in my car so that I always have them, especially when I do a last minute trip to the store. On planned shopping days, I stick my purse with one of the bags so that when I get out of the car and grab my purse, it reminds me to take the bags into the store.
Heh. I will one-up on you leaving them in the trunk. I keep mine in the backseat, next to the baby’s carseat (because I have to get the baby out and take her with me). Somewhere between remembering my list and wallet, wrangling the carseat and getting a buggy (that I need to put $1 into to rent - I’m Canadian, we have dollar coins), I forget the bags that are right in front of me.
Maybe I should just tie them to the carseat?
I’m in the habit of visiting the trunk before I head in to the store. It took me a while to get into the habit, but it will come.
Like the idea of throwing one or all on your front seat with your purse to make it hard to forget.
Congrats on the new gig!
I can’t even begin to tell you the number of reusable bags we have, all hailing from a variety of stores: WalMart, Publix, TJ Maxx (these are apparently standard there!), Jo-Ann’s, and even the county library. They range in sizes and are quite convenient — when we actually remember them, which is almost never.
Sigh. We try to round them up at home and put them in the trunks of our car but this has yet to be a consistent thing; we either get too busy in the evenings or are rushing out the door in the mornings.
I’m still trying to figure it all out but when I do, I’ll have plenty of bags to carry any and everything I need!
I always forget mine. I need to find a way to hang them off my keychain.
Yep. I have the HARDEST time remembering to use them! And we have so many!
This is me, too. I am always forgetting them in my car. It’s a banner day when I do actually remember them. *sigh*
My main grocery store actually has signs on the lightposts in the parking lot and on the entrance door asking if you remembered your bags? This does help once you remember to keep them in the car!
People would totally remember their reusable bags if they had to pay for plastic or paper bags. If you hit people in their pocketbooks, they tend to sit up and pay attention.
We have probably the town’s largest reusable bag collection at home: where we live, all supermarkets no sell at the counter reusable bags for about a dollar each. I very often forget mine home, get to the counter, feel bad about plastic bags, and buy three more reusable ones… Yes, we have a great collection…
You know, when I go to Kroger for my “official” grocery shopping I have no problem with it, but every time I go to stinking Wal-Mart I forget them (and kick myself.. or send hubby or son back to the car to get them). I really need a couple of those handy purse totable types.
I’ve had clerks actually get snotty with me about using them! And I get weird looks when I forget them and only have a few items and tell them I don’t need a bag. People, honestly…