This is Day 242 of the Green in 365 series!
Hello there friends! As I mentioned last week, I’m a wee bit busy working on a big project right now, and so my time is being devoted to that, and not so much to writing long and amazing posts for this blog. It’s not that I don’t want to post here more often, I absolutely do. But let’s just call it like it is – I’m no superwoman!
But today, as I was loading my plastic bags full of groceries into my cart and then into my van and then into my home, and I was possibly saying some unmentionable words under my breath, (because I really and truly HATE plastic bags from the grocery store!), I had a thought. Dangerous, I know!
While I’m busy writing and editing and finishing up this book all about green and natural living, maybe I should just share with you all what that looks like, or doesn’t look like, in my day to day life. Confession time: to be honest, that’s one of the things that wore me out with this Green in 365 series, I had such high hopes and expectations when I was starting out, but I was writing about all of these great green living tips and ideas, and spending so much time doing that, that I wasn’t actually DOING some of them in my own life.
Case in point.
I wrote a really nice article about Green Easter Baskets. Then when we were visiting my mom for Easter and she saw what we had bought to put in our kids baskets, she gave me that look (you know the Mom look!) and commented something to the effect of, “So you don’t actually practice the things that you write about on your blog?”
Busted! Hanging head in shame.
Being the excuse maker that I am, I blamed it on things like the one-year anniversary of my dad’s death, and thinking for a moment about running away from my family. Not like those were a big deal or anything.
That was a really rough time in my life, and I think in a lot of ways I was trying to “fake it ’til you make it” on the blog. Except I got really tired of faking it, and I had to step away so I could actually make it again in my own life.
And I’m doing much better at “making it” now, because I’m making it a priority again in our home and lives, but I’m still not perfect at it in any way.
So over the next few weeks as I’m working on finishing up this ebook, I’m thinking I’ll do some “Day in the Life” type posts where I’ll give you some glimpses into my own successes and failures at the whole green living thing. My hope is that you’ll see that you also don’t have to be perfect at this eco-friendly, save the planet, crunchy living thing all the time either.
But, it’s about a commitment to stick to it, even when it’s sometimes hard. Even when you fall of the wagon. You can get back up and keep on going, because I really do believe that the choices and changes that we make do make a difference, do have an impact. And if you stick with it, then I can too. And if you share your stories with us we’ll all be able to help each other feel like we’re not alone. That it’s okay to not be perfect.
That sometimes we forget to take our reusable grocery bags to the store with us. That my green fail of the day was deciding at the last minute to go to the store while I was already out and didn’t have any with me. I seriously considered not going to the store, even though I really needed to because I didn’t have my reusable bags with me.
I should have followed my gut instinct. You guys, it was so unbelievably super annoying because instead of 4 or 5 reusable bags to carry, I instead had like 15 bags, plus extra stuff to load into my car and carry into my house, while also carrying a baby on my hip. (She’s my favorite accessory!)
(And I just want to note that the paper towels in the pic are eco-friendly, made from recycled paper, paper towels. Otherwise you might be able to take away my crunchy mama card today.)
Is there some kind of law that cashiers can only place 3 or 4 items into each plastic bag? Seriously people, I HATE forgetting to bring my reusable bags to the store and I vow to never do so again in a long, long, really long time!
Tip for remembering reusable bags
What about you? I’d love to hear your Green in the Life story from today or the past few days in the comments!
Find all the Green in 365 posts.
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Me too! I do re-use the plastic bags for trash and diaper stuff, so I like having a few around. But I HATE how many more bags there are when I use plastic. Reusable bags are not just better for the planet, they are SO much easier to use! (I know cashiers probably hate them because they don’t fit on those rack things, so I almost always use self checkout. Ha ha 🙂 )
Yes, I reuse them around the house too, but my hubs usually brings enough home when he runs to the store for something that we really don’t need any more than that!! I usually use self-checkout too – my littles like to “help”! 😉
Girl I feel your pain. I HATE it when I forget my bags. I’ve been known to turn around and go home or most recently I went in and only grabbed what I absolutely needed and as much as I could carry and refused bags. I think the cashier thought I was a nut as I balanced my way out the door. Oh and she had to put paid stickers on everything :/ Do they have the option of paper bags at your store? You could always request those. They are great for kids to draw on or make things with. They are also much easier to recycle.
I totally should have asked for paper! I think they do keep them hiding underneath, and ya know – this was one of those grocery runs where I was just going to pick up a few things too! Ha! Love your story about refusing bags and balancing your stuff in your arms! I’ll have to remember that if I’m at the store without my bags again – heaven forbid!
I use them for lining our trash cans instead of buying garbage bags, but otherwise don’t like them at all. Usually have the reusable cloth ones in the car, but sometimes I forget too 🙁
I agree with all these ladies!!!
And I feel your pain. On my journey to greenliness I’ve kinda made a personal discovery that it doesn’t always have to be the picture perfect model of green. Sometimes you just have to take what life throws at you and do the best from there! So you get a billion plastic bags – reuse! Or you forget your reusable ones – ask for paper or get only the essentials so you can go bagless! I love your blog and how genius you are at green knowledge, but I still love your blog when your honest about scandalously needing plastic bags. Life is messy. If we’re not perfect in any other area of life, we sure won’t be perfectly green either!
Thanks so much for your encouragement and support Devan! It really means so much to me! 🙂
Been there! Baby and all. And then groceries roll out of the bags and around the car! I just remind myself that hubby has been complaining he has no bags for emptying the cat boxes.
Good luck on your project!
Emily,
I watched an Oprah show several years back–plastic bags were part of the topic! From that point on I vowed not to use plastic bags–it was amazingly freeing!
It was the first step on the “green road” for our family.
Be Blessed.
I had the exact same rant going through my head yesterday, baby crying and all. One bag just for bananas! No other fruit in it. Come on, I thought.
I also enjoyed your confession bc as a reader that has tried unsuccessfully to even blog, I’m amazed at all that you do do. I think we may not all be Super Mom but we’re still super moms and that’s most important.
I use my Large Utility Tote and Fresh Market Thermal from Thirty-One! I’m a director with the company and love these two products!! The Fresh Market Thermal is perfect to put my cold stuff in and then all my other things go in my Large Utility Tote and it just takes one trip in! Join my Facebook group Jamie’s Corner for Purses,Totes&More!
Gaaahh, I know what you mean about plastic bags!! In my city, curbside recycling has to be in blue bags, so every once in a while we do a grocery run to the store that has blue bags and purposely don’t bring our cloth bags, in order to restock on blue bags. Even though I have a use for them, I am appalled by how many of the things they use! If I buy something that’s already IN a bag, like 3 pounds of oranges, they’ll put that in a plastic bag!
I also relate to your feeling of “faking it” on the blog. I have never attempted a daily series (and I’m so impressed that you did, with an infant and so many other things going on!) but I’ve had a number of times since I started blogging when my life has been one of overlapping crises for months at a stretch, and I feel like whatever I’m writing about is the ONE thing I’ve been doing competently or maybe even just know HOW to do but haven’t actually done in weeks! I feel guilty that my readers probably see me as more competent than I really am. That’s why I wrote this post last year:
http://articles.earthlingshandbook.org/2012/05/03/thrifty-green-lifestyle-slack/
My aunt cuts her plastic bags into strips and crochets them into mats for the homeless. I thought that was an ingenious way to use them.
I used to be a cashier at a Meijer and would make sure to pack bags well, holding as many items as safely possible. I found that men generally were the ones to request that I bag EVERYTHING into the one bag or as into as few bags as possible. As a customer myself, I bring and pack my own bags, or if I don’t have my bags, Irefuse bagging at all, taking whole carts of grocery items out to the car to be bagged there with my reusable bags or simply put into the car so I can bag them once I got home where my reusable bags were at. I go to thrift stores and buy reusable bags and have about 50, so that I share them with family, use them for EVERYTHING, and stash them in my trunk, my back seat, by my front door and even some in my purse. This so I make sure to have them with me because I find so many uses for them. I also make sure to empty my bags and put them by my front door so that when I next head out, they will be there, beckoning me to take them with me for a ride along in my car to be reused again.
It isn’t easy when one embarks on this living green, eco friendly, bagless way of shopping and living, but, when it really becomes personally important, it becomes second nature and you will find that you most always have your bags handy. You will also find it no inconvenience to place items bagless in your car and/car until you can find your reusable bags. And for those door greeters who insist on seeing your receipt because you don’t have your items bagged as you leave, you learn not to be impatient or angry with them, for they are only doing their job. Once they get to know you, they will know you are a person who is helping our planet be healthy.
Ha! I’m not alone. I admit I’ve been known to stop before leaving the store, combine the bags with lonely items, and stick the not really used back on a bag rack in another line. Or, if it’s really bad, I’ll just take out the bunch of bananas from the otherwise empty bag spun to my side of the carousel and stick it in a less empty bag already on my cart. And I usually try to get paper – they’re much more useful as temporary trash or recycling cans anyway as they stand up on their own.
But, I think there may almost be a rule to put three items in one bag – I’ve seen many people in front of me complain about bags being too heavy or too full, and I think a lot of stores feel obliged to replace things if a flimsy plastic bag breaks and a jar gets broken or something. Even with reusables, I have to work to convince the baggers that yes, please, fill it up! It’s easier that way, I promise. Yes, I know it will be heavy, but it fits on my shoulder perfectly. =)
Thats why I love stores like Aldi’s! The cashier drops your groceries directly into another cart & when you’re finished checking out you go over to the side & bag all your stuff yourself. I never realized how bad the baggers were until I started doing it myself. And yes, I put it up on the conveyor belt in the order I wanted it bagged!