If you've heard it once.....

.. you've heard it a million times.

Paper or Plastic? Neither?

Taking cloth bags to the store seems like an exhausting prospect. I started when my local grocer was selling them for 99 cents at the checkout. So I started by buying 2 of them. Well, you can imagine what happened from there. I would go to the store and forget the bags. That was the biggest obstacle to overcome. So, then I would buy a couple of more when I got there. After a while, if I left from the house to go to the store, it got easier to remember.

When they pack these bags, they seem to put more stuff in them. When they pack the plastic bags, they put 3-4 items in and then start a new bag. How obnoxious is that? So, because my groceries were neatly packed in the cloth bags, that motivated me to bring them to the store. If I stop unexpectedly on my way home from work... that is where I struggle, because I don't always have bags in the car with me. I'm trying to make sure I leave 2 in the car for the surprise trips.

It got me to thinking as I was shopping, how wasteful putting the produce in the plastic baggies is. But I wouldn't dare just put my naked produce on the checkout for any old germs to crawl all over it. I did some looking around online and was surprised that they make cloth bags exactly for this reason.

I got some nice ones from www.reusablebags.com -- http://tinyurl.com/2k8sml

They are decently priced too and made from organic cotton!! And I put them right in my cloth grocery bags. I've gotten pretty good at making sure I bring everything to the store. I've even gotten some nice comments inquiring about my produce bags.