Shopping Bags Revisited

Well, here I am, again. I'm just totally fascinated by cloth shopping bags right now so don't mind me too much. Anyway, when I went shopping today, I took our 3 book bags with us. They're wonderfully sturdy, as many trips to the library have shown me. I will admit that I felt odd walking into the store with them and then handing them over to the checker when it came time to check out. She also commented on the fact that they were more narrow than the ones they sold. I did tell her that I had made them to be book bags, not shopping bags. I was just trying out using cloth bags for the first time after all. She was impressed that we needed such large bags for the library (we go about every other week), and that I had made all of them myself. These are pretty snazzy bags. They're fully lined and everything. One of them is even reversible. *grin* Anyway, I noticed that she preferred putting all of our canned goods and frozen foods into these bags. When I picked them up, they seemed lighter than the plastic bags even though they were holding more. Maybe it was because of the longer handles. I don't know. Maybe it's because I'm used to them holding several pounds of books. LOL Of course, my 3 bags didn't hold everything we bought. She did have to start loading up plastic bags.

When we got home, it was sort of weird. I started looking at the groceries I bought and what I unloaded from the book bags. I believe I kept at least 6-9 plastic bags from walking into my house. That meant that I saved some oil for something else, saved the land fill from getting anymore plastic bags in it, and it felt really good to hang up those bags when I was finished with them. They're definitely going with me every time I go shopping. Too bad I didn't realize I was going shopping this evening... I could have used one then instead of the paper bag the checker gave me. There is one pattern out there that talks about how to make a little pouch to fold your bag into that you can then carry around with you in your purse. My purse is really small. I'd have to just attach it to the strap. I think I'll have to start making a few bags and at least one needs its own pouch so I can take it with me everywhere. *smile*

So. I am now officially a shopping bag convert. I'm going to start making my own bags and taking them with me. One day, I will only use cloth bags. That makes me feel pretty good. *smile* I think, when I'm done with my bags, that I'll start making a few for friends. A lot of my friends are environmentally conscious so I think they'd really like them.