Reusable grocery bags are stylish and prevent plastic waste

If you are anything like my family grocery shopping tends to be a large chore. When shopping for a big family these grocery trips tend to lead to a large collection of plastic grocery bags. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of guilt looking at the piles of plastic strewn about my kitchen after a large haul. I had always thought bringing reusable grocery bags as something that was good in theory but challenging in practice. How could I remember to bring them? Wouldn’t they get dirty? How would I find bags durable enough to survive the amount of groceries my family needed?

Once I realized the amount of plastic bags was taking up a large amount of needed pantry space I began to put some research into reusable grocery bags. I found some cute grocery bags that were compact, durable, easy to wash and held up to 50 pounds of weight. I was able to store them in the arm rest compartment of my car so I never had to worry about packing them before a trip. Especially when I make a random stop at a roadside fruit stand or the farmers market. They are also washable so throwing them in with the wash was an easy way to ensure they stayed clean before my next shop.

I also found some great reusable mesh produce bags for storing my produce. They are so much easier to open than the ones at the store and you can wash the produce while it is still in the bag. They are also super easy to store and wash in your washing machine.

I don’t know about you, but I tend to challenge myself when carrying in groceries from the car and prefer no bag to be left behind. If unpacking groceries was an Olympic sport, I would be competing for gold. Reusable bags took all the competition out of the game. I found I always had enough hands to carry in my groceries as everything fit into far fewer bags! After making the permanent switch to reusable bags, the only problem was dealing with the reminisce of my plastic wasting days. I found that most grocery stores offered recycling bins for my accumulated bags at the front of the store! Problem solved.