crunch confession #01

i am reusing ziplocks.

i thought this was something only little ol' grannies did. i should preface by saying that over the last few months, jer and i have seriously cut down on the number of baggies we use. most everything goes into a container of some sort... glass or the last few plastic tupperware-type things that we still have around. but here and there, i find that some things do warrant the use of a ziplock. for convenience, of course. i'm sure we could go totally without. but i bought in bulk at costco about 6 months ago and we've still got some laying around... what can i say? tossing them would be silly, right? right.

so when we have, say, a huge loaf of fresh bread that comes in a paper sack, i put it in the ziplock labeled "bread." then, when the bread is gone, i rinse, dry, and put the baggie back into the drawer. next time we have bread, i pull out the same baggie. and really, bread is all we're using ziplocks for at the moment. i guess they'd come in handy for the big, costco-sized blocks of cheese, too.

what else will i be using these final ziplocks for? well, they're great for keeping stuff dry in the cooler when we go camping. i also use them to hold dry dog food on camping trips, but i've been planning to make a "feed bag" sometime soon. they come in handy on airplane flights, but we don't fly much... and you could certainly reuse a toiletries bag, since the worst that could happen would be for it to get a little soap spilled in it. when i pack lunches, i tend to put everything into tupperware storage... a little bulky, yes, but easy enough. i've also seen these reusable sandwich bags... http://tinyurl.com/4k3ht3 and reusable snack bags are easy enough to make even for a non-sewer like myself. i've already made lucy one (complete with paci pocket) and she's a long way off from needing any kind of snack that doesn't come from my boobie.

so the real question is this: with all the simple & eco-friendly alternatives out there, what the hell are we using all these ziplocks for, anyway?