apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

keep the totes next to the grocery list. I keep a grocery list on the fridge and rip it off when I go shopping, so having the totes there would make the one step a double whammy: rip off list and grab totes.

Granted, we're going for reducing waste, so keep list on chalkboard or something and then put it into your phone/pda, erase board and grab bags.

I keep all my bags on a carabiner--easier to hang on hooks and to keep the bags together, and the night before I hit the farmers' market, I hook my keys' carabiner onto the bag carabiner ... I guess carabiners are like the recyclers' duct tape!

i keep mine in the car. once i empty the bag i put it right back in the car :) it helps me remember it.

I keep a couple in the car, one in my school backpack and a mess of 'em hanging in the pantry. The ones in the pantry are for grocery shopping and I keep my coupons in them--I never forgot my coupons so it works well.

A silly idea that's slowly working for me: learning the words to Tim Minchin's song "Take your canvas bags to the store" (on YouTube). It gets stuck in my head so that I sing it over and over, and it helps remind me of what I'm trying to achieve :)

I end up keeping two totes always tucked into my grocery cart (which hangs in my closet), and a tiny one rolled up in my laptop bag or purse for when I just need something quick on the way home from work.

I have a million of those green Whole Foods bags and keep them everywhere! In the car, on the hook by the door, in my office...For a while I told myself that every time I forgot my bag I'd have to buy a new one instead of using paper at the store. That kind of worked too. If they charged me $5 for paper bags I'm sure I'd never forget the reusable ones!

stringy -- very funny!

Last year I bought a set of five Envirosax, one for each of my then-housemates to keep in our bags. They're great because they roll up so tiny you barely even notice them in your purse. I keep one in my bag at all times. For grocery shopping trips, I keep my bags in the kitchen so that when I do my inventory to make my list, I remember to grab the bags, too.

I'm a big advocate of leaving one in a drawer at work. Then I can grab it if I decide to hit the farmers' market or the wine store on my lunch hour.

I always put mine back in the trunk after I unpack groceries, but since I shop at Wegmans, if I did forget them, I could buy some new ones at the register. Wegmans reusable shopping bags are only .99!

I use a backpack instead of a purse and keep a small reusable bag in one of the pockets. It's large enough to hold a paper bag full of produce and the rest can fit into my backpack.

When I forget my tote bag, I just put whatever I've bought into my purse and carry the bigger items by hand. It's not like a flimsy plastic bag can really insulate your gallon of milk anyway.

I went for a combination of the "if you forget it you have to buy a new one" rule, and the "put a few in everything" idea, and if those both fail me, I subscribe strongly to the "carry a really big purse and put it all in there" school of thought.
I especially enjoy watching the face of the clerk while I fill my giant purse with groceries.

I absolutely refuse to accept any plastic bags, therefore if I forget my reusable bag, I have to carry my items out without any bag at all. Once you've done this once or twice, you won't forget your reusable bags!