Plastic shopping bags have many uses

Reusable shopping bags are a good idea. It helps cut down on the amount of plastic that makes it to the landfill. But plastic bags still have a way of multiplying in the closet. There are a number of ways that they can be reused.

1. Buy trash cans that are the same size as the bags. Use the bags for liners instead of buying them.
2. If you are doing after school care or youth groups, keep a supply on hand for art projects. Items that have too much glue or wet paint can be put in a bag and transported home without creating a mess in the car.
3. Donate bags to a charity thrift store. Take them with you as you enter the front door, and hand them to the cashier. It’s polite to fold them neatly, and put them in another bag instead of giving them a bunch of wadded up ones. Some thrift stores, like Vincent De Paul, don’t always have bags for their customers.
4. If your church is having a fish fry, bake sale or some other fund raiser that involves takeout food, donate a supply of neatly folded bags to them. They can be used to transport food items without getting baked beans all over the car.
5. Thick plastic bags, like the ones you get at a shoe store, can be cut into squares and used for modeling clay and play dough. It protects the table from getting oil and residue stuck in the cracks.
6. Keep large bags hanging in the garage. Every time you find something you don’t need any more, put it in the bag. When the bag is full, donate it to a charity or thrift store. If you sort out unwanted items as you see them, it eliminates the need to clean the closets. Make your decisions one at a time, and it saves time and frustration, too.
7. Collect bags that are the same color and type of plastic. Cut off the handles. Cut the rest of the bag into a spiral, making a strip that is about two inches wide. Use the strips to crochet a door mat. Use an extra-large hook and work an oval in single crochet. When you get to the end of one strip, overlap the next strip by about three inches, and fold the edges in. The stitching will keep the strips together. These doormats are great to take along camping so you can brush the sand off your shoes before you enter the tent. They are also good for situations like dorm rooms, schools and apartments, where personal belongings can disappear.
8. Make pompoms for a football game, pep rally, or for pretend play with children. Cut off the handles. Cut the bag into strips, starting at the open end, and ending about three inches from the bottom of the bag. Roll the bottom up, and tape it together with masking tape. Use the rolled part for a handle.
9. Use bags for a small drop cloth when painting craft items. Cut the bags open and use them to protect the table.
10. Pack shoes in bags when you pack a suitcase. It keeps the dirt on the sole from getting onto your clothes.
11. Take a sack of neatly folded bags to Save-A-Lot and other stores that make customers buy bags. Use what you need for your own purchase, and leave a few behind for the next customer.
12. There are recycling bins for bags only at Winn Dixie and other grocery stores.
13. Keep a few nice bags folded up in your purse so that you can get a five cent credit on your purchase at Target. If you have a bag in your purse, you won’t have to run back to the car to get the reusable ones that you forgot to bring with you the first time.
14. Put a grocery bag in the bottom of your paper shredder. When it’s full, tie the handles. The paper won’t blow down the street when the trash man comes on a windy day.