I don’t exactly hoard them but I reuse them as others here do as small wastebasket liners and for cat box emptying. If they start exploding out of the cupboard then I’ll bag some up and drop them off in the bag recycling bin at the store. I have a few eco-bags, but I also forget to take them to the store with me.
I have purposely been collecting the plain yellow, red and blue bags I get with small items in them in the supply orders I receive at work. I am using these to make into plastic yarn with which I will knit my own eco-bags … someday.
I am a huge sucker for the “pretty bags” that some stores sell–when I was out East a highlight of my trip was going to the Sobey’s and picking up bags with oranges and blueberries and kiwis on them. And my Bulk Barn bag with all the pretty candies on it.
As for plastic bags, my roommate works in a grocery store, and our cupboard is constantly packed full of plastic bags. We can’t possibly use them all, so I take them back to the store and recycle them when I do my grocery shopping. I carry them there in my Pretty Bags.
I save every plastic grocery bag for cat litter. I mostly use canvas bags for grocery shopping, if I can remember to put them in the car. If I only had one car I’d just put them back in the car when I’ve unloaded the groceries (did that when I was single) but with two cars and not always knowing which one I’ll be in it gets tricky… Hanging them on the coat rack helps in the winter - they’re in my face that way - not so much in the summer. But if I leave them in the car at the store somehow, I’ll go out to the car and get them! Do you guys really not remember until you’re halfway through the checkout line or something? I notice as soon as I put the first item in the cart (“hey, why isn’t there a pile of bags in my cart’s kiddie-seat? oh, I left them in the car”) and then I go back out and get them.
This seems to be the biggest problem. Once when we shopped at Aldi, my husband just pushed the cart with all the paid-for stuff out to the parking lot and loaded our reusable bags in the back of the truck (where we usually leave them).
And then forgot to put them back in the truck for our next trip to the store!!
Publix put up signs reminding people to bring their bags in. They’re big enough you see them probably half-way between car and door. So it’s no big deal to go back and get them.
Coincidentally, at the grocery store this afternoon, they had a big sign up alerting customers that of the 22nd they’re going to start charging a nickel for each plastic bag. Can’t say I’m surprised.
keep the plastic for trash bags and cat waste removal. empty square tissue boxes work really well for storing them. they just “pop” right out. i have a box in the kitchen, basement, and bathroom. bag at the ready!
if i get too many bags, i give them to a corner “mom and pop” store. they use used bags instead of buying them, everyone in the neighbourhood knows and brings bunches by. they love that i bring them in the tissue box.
i don’t hoard paper ones as our city has gone to mixed recycling and we don’t have to separate paper, plastic, and metal. just dump everything into the recycle bin.
i did the bring my own bag thing before it became fashionable 'cause i don’t drive. it is much easier to have everything in a backpack or big shoulder bag when walking or riding a bus. multiple plastic bags just go all over the place.
i do collect many of the eco bags that are coming out now. they are
so very pretty.
I now have the bags in a place I actually use them: near the kitchen door, so I can grab one on my way to the store. That is important; if you don’t store the bags where you are reminded to take them with you, you end up getting a new bag at the store anyway.
If I have more bags then can fit in my Ikea bag storage thingie, I put the bags in a bag (ha!) and deliver it to the nearest Goodwill. They use them to bag stuff for their customers.
I have 10 canvas bags I use for grocery shopping. On the back of one of the under sink cabinet doors is a cylinder for storing plastic bags, and it’s usually full. We use them for wastebasket liners, lunch bags and for walking the dogs.
When the cylinder starts getting low I’ll forgo the canvas bags for one grocery run in order to re-stock.
Before I bought and started using the canvas bags, it was another story. We were overrun with plastic bags, to the point that I’d try (and usually fail) to remember to dump them off in one of the grocery stores’ plastic bag recycling bins every month.
my twin I used to use a canvas bag to take stuff to work but there ended up so much cat hair clinging to it it was just nasty, even after washing it, plastic store bags work just fine.
afterthought: if the bags start to overflow their designated area I will throw the surplus away, ditto any damaged, torn bags, I’m not compulsive.
I’ve got an old Quaker oats cylinder that I shove them in - I make flower pots with folded newspaper Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos then line them on the inside with the bags. I sellotape a few together to get the larger size I want. I use my own bag for small grocery purchases but once every couple of weeks I do a big shop and harvest the thin plastic ones.
Cool! You should put that manual on http://www.instructables.com/ . That is a website full of such nifty stuff. I would have posted this comment in your guestbook, but it is full.
The idea of “hoarding” suggests that you keep bags beyond any rational use. Most of the responders are saying they keep bags to use for some purpose. That’s not hoarding.
I keep most plastic bags and only use a few, but my intention is to take them in to recycle them, which I do occasionally. I also never throw out paper bags because I use them eventually for recycling paper.
My sister has a hoarding OCD. It started with bags, boxes and similar “I-might-need-that” items back when she was in her 20s and got out of control over the years. She is now unable to throw out any non-perishable items she brings into the house and has 20 years of paper and plastic bags as well as old newspapers, empty boxes, etc. I used to help her clear stuff out every few years and frequently offer to help again, but she doesn’t let anyone in the house anymore.
I use plastic grocery bags to line bathroom trashcans, and I always keep a few in the trunk of the car so they can be used for various purposes (lately, when I’ve been working rehabbing a bathroom we stuff them in open pipe ends and drains to keep crap out of the plumbing) and that bit up-thread about turning them into totes will likely be added to my list of options for them.
I save paper grocery bags from the store that still provides them. I can take them back to that store for a nickel for each I re-use for groceries, and I also use them for my shopping at Aldi’s. The ones too raggedy for that become birdcage liners, after which the next stop is the compost heap. I also use them for storing and transporting smooshed aluminum cans and steel cans to the local recycling center. I don’t know what the recycler does with the bags, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they’re recycled there. I also keep a stash of paper bags in the car.
I don’t buy the canvas bags sold by stores because I already have a heap of totes, bags, and the like accumulated over the years. The most ragged of those are used for hauling my work tools. Others are used for overnight bags, library books, and all sorts of things.
The only problem bags are the plastic - at times I do have too many and they require culling, but yeah, I “hoard” them but I also use them all the time for stuff.
I used to use a canvas bag to take stuff to work but there ended up so much cat hair clinging to it it was just nasty, even after washing it, plastic store bags work just fine.