Plastic bags . .what do you do?

[deakce]

All of you are so creative! I have so many great ideas from this post. I love this site

I love the old tank top idea for produce. I think I will use my daughters undershirts when she out grows them.

I use cloth for any large loads. I get plastic or paper bags as I need them. We have to put our paper/cardboard recycling in paper bags. As with RW, plastic bags in our house lead many lives.

 

[Marianne]

First of all, welcome! Don't forget to introduce yourself over at the 'where am I, where are you' thread.

I'm glad you brought up this old thread. I have a drawer full of plastic zipper bags and bread wrappers that I just learned I can stuff into a kleenix box!

I usually hang mine on an indoor line to dry, but sometimes I'll stand them up over the prongs of my dishwasher rack and leave the door cracked. Other times I'll pull them apart in the middle and just leave them on the counter to dry. It kind of looks like I'm trying to make a balloon out of them and there will be all these weird looking shapes all over the table or counter.

I had a neighbor that always hung hers on the window curtain above her sink with clothespins.

I asked my friends if they'd save bread wrappers for me. I wash 'em, use them for freezing hamburger, etc. After I wrap in the bread wrapper, I put several into a freezer zipper bag then into the freezer. That way, I can throw the bread wrapper away later and use the freezer bag again.

 

[ORChick]

I prop them up on the dishrack - over a bottle or chopstick if necessary - if I only have a few; if there are too many for that I hang them on the clothesline (not visible to anyone but us). I hate the things, and would work harder to do without them, but DH seems to think they are necessary, so I just make sure to re-use them until they fall apart. I also only buy freezer bags, never storage bags, as they are stronger and last longer. They are more expensive, but I buy fewer of them. For shopping I have made some lightweight cloth bags as well as some bags made of netting.
I store them jumbled in a drawer. Neither neat nor practical, but it works, sort of. Kleenex boxes sound like a good idea.
I was out walking with my brother once, and picked up a bag that was littering the ground, to throw away at the next trashcan. DB said that he knew I reused my own bags, was I starting to reuse others now too?

 

[valmom]

LOL- my SO doesn't even acknowledge that I wash and re-use the ones *I* use. She always grabs a new one out of the box. Since I use many fewer plastic bags than she does, my washing and drying and re-using doesn't make the kind of impact I would like I do at least not buy them new in any kind of timely fashion, so when her new bags are out they stay out for awhile!

I dry them inside out over a chopstick stuck in an old mustard crock that I use to store my dish/veggie scrubbing brushes. I store them by using one of the bags to stuff others into and put them back in the cabinet I keep the boxes of new bags in.

 

[dragonlaurel]

Here's a way to dry baggies and save counter space.
http://www.shabbychicbuffet.co.cc/Decko_38190_Swing_Arm_Kitchen_Towel_Rack_Chrome-B0014XTJ2W.html

 

[KelpticFest]

In my kitchen window I have a rambling philodendron instead of a curtain. There's a spring-loaded curtain rod across the window to help support the plant. On the curtain rod I've put some cafe-curtain rings that have little clips for holding fabric. I use these clips to hang plastic bags (after washing them inside out), the screen squares for the sprouting containers, and the plastic rings that hold the screens in place on the sprouters. All relatively neat and up off the counter and out of the way.