Are you buried in plastic grocery bags? Are the bags overflowing out of a container that is supposed to keep them organized? Or, do you stuff one thousand bags into another plastic Kroger bag until it bursts?

This was my life for a long time. Half of the area under our sink was full of plastic bags. When I opened the door, the bags would fall out. I did not know what to do with them! Throw them away? No, that is wasteful! Recycle them? I never remembered to take them to the Kroger recycle bins. The pile just kept growing!

I am sure that many of you have already made the switch to reusable grocery bags. There are so many cute reusable bags out there like ChicoBag and Ecozuri, among many others. I decided to try out reusable grocery bags not for green reasons, but to stop the insanity of the growing collection of plastic grocery bags that I couldn’t really use for anything else.

Since I started using cloth grocery bags, I have been much happier with less clutter and one more check mark for green living. My two biggest challenges with switching to reusable bags are: 1) forgetting the bags at home, and 2) employees continuing to give me plastic bags when I bring my own. My solution to the first challenge is to keep reusable bags in my car and in my husband’s car. Now that I have accumulated a good collection of reusable bags, this challenge has been successfully overcome. The second challenge is a little bit harder to deal with. Employees have been trained on putting everything in plastic bags. It is second nature to them. Often, I find myself telling the employee more than once that I have my own bag. They usually look at me like I have three heads. YOUR OWN BAG?!? WHAT?!? Why would you bring your own bag when we have this perfectly good plastic one that will clutter your cabinets and will take 1000 years to decompose in the landfill?!?

On a positive note, the best part of using reusable bags is the money-back savings and discounts that several stores offer. You can get a $0.05/reusable bag discount at stores like Whole Foods, Kroger, and Target. Use three bags and you get $0.15 off your purchase.  CVS has a green tag bag that earns you $1.00 off your purchase every four times the card is scanned. That’s $0.25/reusable bag!

If I am reusing bags 90% of the time, I am making a huge impact on the environment and freeing up space below the sink or wherever else I would store the bags. Furthermore, a little discount here and there does add up to some savings.  If you’re still not convinced, then check out 25 Reasons to use Reusable Bags at ReuseThisBag.com (http://www.reusethisbag.com/25-reasons-to-go-reusable.asp).