lots and lots of tote/shopping/carrier bags

[dink]

I'm in the middle of Operation De-clutter 2008 and was horrified to discover a couple of hundred plastic bags stashed away in a cupboard.  We've been using the same two cardboard boxes for our regular supermarket shop for the last five years.  And I never accept plastic bags from shops if I already have one.  But still -- 250 plastic bags pointlessly stashed away.  And I calculate we've probably thrown away a further 600, because we use them to line the little waste-paper baskets around the house.  So that's nearly 1000 plastic bags in five years.

I was so ashamed of this that I decided to once-and-for-all stop using plastic bags.  And I decided to try and get my friends and family to do it too.

So here's some of what I made in the last few weeks:



There were others -- I made 30 altogether -- but I'd already given them away when I took that picture.

It was a great project!  I got to use up the last of my ratty old charity shop duvet covers:



and use up some of my most unusable fabrics:



and cut down some of my stash (which tied in nicely with Operation De-clutter 2008):





And it was fun, too.  I followed the morsbag pattern, which has lots of nifty little details.

Another photo of the bags en masse:



Finally, a less attractive photo, so you can see what 250 plastic bags look like when they're emptied out all over the floor:



Looking at that, I can't understand how I could ever have accepted a plastic bag.  They're so ugly, compared with fabric ones.

EDITED TO ADD:  I forgot to say, but I spent a whole morning sorting those plastic bags out.  I set aside all the ones that were torn (and later on threw them away, since the inefficient little rock that I call home has no facility for recycling plastic).  I removed all the receipts.  I divided them by size into small, medium and large.  I folded them up and squished them together with elastic bands.  And yesterday I took them all down to the local charity shop (where I bought the ratty duvet covers, actually) where the lady behind the counter seemed very pleased to receive them.  The End!

[craftylittlemonkey]

my 6 y/old says "cool!" and so do i! this totally rocks and thanks for the inspiration and the links. i have so much fabric downstairs, and so much of it is unusable for really anything, but bags would work so well and make terrific gifts too!

*pst, the library and thrift shop will take those plastic bags from you  *

[RosiePosie]

Good for you! I'm ashamed to say I still use plastic bags.  I do make it a point to return most of them to the store, which has a bin to drop them off for recycling. One day I'll have to find some time to make some bags as cool as yours!

[pinkanddinky]

Way to go! I have switched to fabric bags too and it just breaks my heart whenever I forget them at home and end up accepting a plastic bag or two. The little boxes at the bases of the handles looks so neat...Mine don't ever look that good!

[bronzfrog]

Your shopping bags look great!  
I usually manage to send one out with each of my swaps but have yet to make myself any.  I know I'm bad but I either take the plastic bags to walmart for recycling or to the thrift shop or use them for trash bags.

[dink]

Thanks for the nice comments!

The little boxes at the bases of the handles looks so neat...Mine don't ever look that good!

Some of them were really wonky, actually.  But I cleverly hid those behind the better ones.

One day I'll have to find some time to make some bags as cool as yours!

They don't take that long, honestly.  I estimate that it probably took me about 20 hours to make all 30 bags.  So, you know, less than an hour per bag.

I usually manage to send one out with each of my swaps but have yet to make myself any.  I know I'm bad but I either take the plastic bags to walmart for recycling or to the thrift shop or use them for trash bags.

I'm going to fix the bin-lining problem by making some elastic-topped fabric liners for all the little bins in the house.  And after that the only plastic bags we'll be using are the big black ones for lining the dustbin -- but we only use 20 of those every year so it's not too bad.

*pst, the library and thrift shop will take those plastic bags from you  *

Oops!  I forgot to mention that part of the story, didn't I?    I'll edit it into the first post now.

[Littleclouds]

I feel the same, theres a huge sense of guilt when you see them in a huge stash then I start imagining it in landfills etc

Although I've really cut down now we still use them for rubbish bags & kitty poop but reading your post I guess theres no real reason why you can't also substitute these with fabric ones too it just means you need to wash them once in a while! However I think I will draw the line at using them for our kitchen bin as the thought is abit gross!

But the recycling bin! That I can do!

[Astica]

I'm thinking along the same lines as Littleclouds. I could for sure use these in a few places in my home. But I sadly can't see plastic bags *completely* leaving my house. Using the example of the kitchen trash 
Does anyone know of something that would be better to use than plastic bags for the kitchen - but that could take the disgusting masses of what ends up in the garbage?

But these are really awesome My favourites are the red ones and the one with the shoes ^^

[Linnyhb]

Those bags look great.  I'm a morsbagger too.  I love their pattern.  It's so easy for a beginner like me and it's really fun going to the thrift shop and hunting for fabric to reuse.

[acajjou]

Does anyone know of something that would be better to use than plastic bags for the kitchen - but that could take the disgusting masses of what ends up in the garbage?

I've been wondering the same thing as Astica.  I live in an apartment and we don't have anywhere to have a compost pile, and our recycling program only takes cans, glass, and plastic - no cardboard or anything else.  Well, maybe newspaper, but we don't get the newspaper.  It seems like anytime you try to improve one thing, you turn around and see three other things that are just as bad or worse!

Anyway, great post, and it's another motivation to make some of my own!