Category: Home & Garden

While we can’t quite get the hang of remembering to bring along our tote bags to the supermarket, we are learning the scan and bag method of shopping at Stop & Shop.

Except we seem to underestimate the number of bags needed.

And, it appears that in the last few weeks, the size and sturdiness of the paper bags has changed.  We use the paper bags to neatly consolidate our paper to be recycled and they just don’t hold as much and rip more easily.

Trader Joe’s bags are still reliable for the job.  Probably because in part they don’t want your bottles of “Cheap Chuck” wine falling through the bottom on the way to the car.

In order to save money on kitchen wastebasket liners, we buy wastebaskets that work well with the size of the plastic grocery bags that we always have an abundance of.  We fit several at a time, so that as a filled bag is removed, there is another one right underneath it, ready to go.  This also helps if one bag is a “leaker.”  The multiple bags catch the leaks.

Although we may have to take out the trash a little more often that having a large trash barrel, our barrel fits conveniently under the sink, and we have never, ever bought bags for it.

Tote bags are in.  The LL Bean durable canvas ones have been around for ages, but in the last few years, totes have popped up for sale in a variety of stores and offered as popular premiums and giveaways.

But now, more than ever, you see them in use in the grocery stores.  It seems to be a combination of the “green” environmental movement and the 5 cent per bag savings  that the stores give you that is motivating the rise in usage.  Reducing the stash of plastic bags in the house is a blessing too.

Some closet “tree-huggers” who previously felt self-conscious about using tote bags  when grocery shopping can now be part of the tote bag brigade.  And shoppers mix and match, as you will see Whole Foods  and Stop and Shop and Wildlife Conservacy totes in use at Trader Joes.

One of our favorite totes is the roomy $ 1 bag available at the Framingham Library.   It holds several plastic bags worth of groceries as it promotes the library.

It comes with a rigid bottom stiffener and is large enough to replace 2 paper bags or up to 4 plastic bags each time it is used. According to its environmentally conscious manufacturer, it’s designed to be used weekly for two years or more and to replace up to 416 plastic bags over its entire lifetime.

The bags are also washable and stand up straight on their own for loading and the handles are a convenient length.

Four or five will handle a cart full of groceries, support the library, and save hundreds of plastic and paper bags over the course of a year.  Not to mention the 5 cents per bag savings.