What to do with old plastic baggies

I don’t buy plastic bags. To me they’re a total waste of energy and plastic, when frankly, containers work just as well, but can be reused for years.

You do hear stories of thrifty folks using their baggies for years and years, but seriously, some get tossed, and they do develop holes. A better plan is to own a decent amount of containers with lids. That said, if you currently haven’t made that leap, and you do own some plastic bags, do try to wash and reuse them. If you feel odd about washing and reusing them for food items, there’s still much you can do with them, like…

• Keep wet paint brushes in a baggie to keep them moist (use this during long painting projects).
• Use to store loose change – the benefit here is that a baggie will lay flat in a drawer – a jar won’t.
• Store small silver items in baggies to avoid tarnish.
• Use to hold household receipts.
• Use for paint drop pictures with the kids – fill with paint, close, and snip the smallest end off a corner. Your kids can dot paint cool pictures. A variation on this is a frosting squeeze (but of course that does involve food).
• Put instructions for appliances in baggies and tape them to the appliance – out of sight.
• If you fill the small ones with soil, and place them altogether in a box lid, they’ll stand up, and you can actually start seeds in them. Pop small holes in the bottom for watering.
• Use to gather up all your daughter’s hair accessories.
• Use to sort Lego colors for a special Lego project – my son is organized enough to do something nuts like this – but maybe your kid isn’t.

You can do a lot with plastic baggies, and if you’re gonna buy them, you should use them to death; at least until you phase them out.

What else do you do with old plastic baggies? 

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