Waste Less Wednesday: Plastic Bags

Plastic bags from the grocery store and other places seem to bread in my house. Although I now use reusable bags for most of my grocery shopping (except the times I forget and leave them at home), I still seem to have an abundance of bags. Some grocery stores (I know Wal-Mart and Dillon's do) now have a place to recycle them just as you enter the door. In case you are like me and forget to take them when shopping, here are some other great ways to reuse those plastic bags.

* Donate to a flea market or food pantry. Every few months, my family and I load up and spend a day hitting the flea markets. Several along our path accept used bags and are grateful when they see us coming through with the bags. This saves them the expense of buying bags.

* Use as trash can liners.

* Use to line the tray when painting. It saves a ton of time and frustration to do this because then you can just throw away the bag and the paint tray is still clean.

* Save several for your next garage sale. Customers will be happy to have a bag to carry all of their goodies home in.

* Take a few on vacation to store dirty clothes or dirty shoes in so the rest of you items stay clean.