Going green: the reusable shopping bag
March 19, 2009 
I've been trying to figure out how to blog about this stuff here. I mean, this is a blog about writing right? Well, not really. It's more a blog about my life, and all the things I do (and don't do). Anyway, so I've wanted to write about a few green topics now and again.
So about that reusable shopping bag: My husband and I do this. We are big, reusable bag people in a sort of gung ho, are-they-nuts sort of way. We have our cloth bags. We have net bags for the produce. Then we have our nylon bags for the flour and bulk bins. (No one seems to have nylon bags. A clerk at Whole Foods actually offered me a $5 off coupon when she saw me using them for the "great idea.") And all of these bags are attached to the shopping cart by one of those mountaineering clips because cloth bags take up way too much room in the actual cart. Yes, sometimes I even walk to the grocery store wearing my pack basket. Call me Mountain Woman in the City.
I know you know the reasons for the reusable shopping bag. Who doesn't?
But what do I want to say is this: It took YEARS for us to remember the reusable bags when we thought about grocery shopping. We started doing this in 2000 and now it is habit, but I am telling you, this was one dang hard habit. So IF this is something you're trying to incorporate into your life and IF it's taking you awhile to get the hang of it, don't worry -- it took us forever too. Eventually it all works out. Just keep trying.
An easy green habit? Handkerchiefs. That took no time at all. The hurdle was the gross factor. But now, I have no problem blowing and re-blowing. Don't know why. My inner cave woman? Well, here's a reason: They are so much more HANDY than those pocket packs of kleenex. It's stuffed in my pocket. It never falls apart. It's always there. I actually love my hankies now. If you're looking for hankies, try the Vermont Country Store.
What's something I haven't done? I haven't switched completely to CFL light bulbs. I admit it. I hate the light, though the technology is greatly improved. I have installed them in some places in our living space, and I'm determined not to buy another incandescent, but if you saw the stock pile I have of those energy-hungry bulbs you'd know I could go quite awhile without buying a CFL.
(If interested: You can get the nylon bulk bin bags here. Buy the big size and forget the rest. We never use the other sizes. OR make your own. It doesn't look that hard.)
Reader Comments (3)
Great post. I love to read about others on their journey to a greener life. We are working on the CFL's too. They seem really dim when I first flip the switch, I guess it just takes a bit for them to warm up.
Yeah, what is it with the dimness of CFLs? The place where they work best is in my office where I have two small table lamps. I use CFLs up there and no problem. But a floor lamp? So far, it's not been good. Now I'm thinking that I actually need more table lamps instead of floor lamps . . . Also I had a weird "all spectrum" CFL and put that in our entry way and I swear it glowed this eerie blue-green, and it looked for all the world like someone was watching TV in the entryway. Uck!
But I will admit that CFLs seem to be changing quickly and the latest ones I've gotten seem to be much better...
Ooh, you have a pack basket? I love those and hope to add one to my repertoire of grocery conveyance devices soon. There's one at Duluth Pack I've been drooling over for a year now.