This feels so silly to blog about, but seriously it has changed my life and I think about it with satisfaction multiple times a week, so I’m just going to go with it.
Nearly a year ago, I mentioned that I was finally using reusable bags at Target as well as at the grocery store, but that I didn’t then know what to use for scooping the cat box. Rhia wrote: “We use bread bags for litter box scooping! Just the right size!” NonSoccerMom said she did the same. And MY LIFE WAS TRANSFORMED.
It’s a little embarrassing, but it had seriously and literally never occurred to me to reuse the bags our food comes in. I was BUYING PLASTIC BAGS. AT THE STORE. WITH MONEY. And I still DO buy bags, because there are some things I still want them for. But when Paul makes a double batch of muffins every week, and we divide them into one bag for now and two bags for the freezer for later in the week, I used to use gallon-sized Ziploc bags. (We did reuse them, but still.) Now we use empty bread bags, or empty soft-taco-shell bags, or empty hamburger-bun bags. They’re durable (they have to be, to survive shipping and stocking and shopping), they’re fine to put food in because THEY DID HAVE FOOD IN THEM, and we have a generous supply: we go through about five loaves of bread, two bags of soft taco shells, and one to two packs of hot dog or hamburger buns per week.
Now when I finish a bag of bread, or buns, or soft taco shells, or English muffins, or WHATEVER, I roll it up and put it in the freezer door. If it came with a twisty-tie, I twist that around the rolled-up bag so I’ll have it when I reuse the bag. (If it doesn’t have a twisty-tie, we have a supply of clothespins already on hand, for chip-bags and the like.) When we have leftover pizza, and I want a bag to put it in, I take one out of the freezer door—and then feel perfectly comfortable throwing the greasy thing away after we eat the pizza, because the bag was trash-bound ANYWAY when I saved it.
Pizza is a particularly good example, in fact, because a lot of other leftovers can skip the bag situation entirely by going in a reusable container. But I don’t have (and don’t want to acquire/store) a container big enough for leftover pizza, or for a dozen muffins.
The only downside is that the exterior of the bag is then misleading. I don’t know how many times I’ve been rummaging with frustration through the freezer, thinking, “WHERE are those MUFFINS??”—only to realize I’ve been overlooking them because I thought they were a bag of bread.
I keep a roll of masking tape and a sharpie in the kitchen and I label everything I make that goes into the freezer with item name and date. Totally cuts down on “what is this?” and “how long has it been in the freezer?”.
I use masking tape, too! Also good for labeling tupperware containers of leftovers so you can pull out chili instead of spaghetti sauce when you want CHILI, not spaghetti sauce.
I love using bread bags for the litter box! They’re so sturdy and less prone to having a hole than regular store bags.
Use a small bag clip over the twist tie to designate the leftover. Put a tape strip on them and write your item, and store the bagged stuff in the freezer so that the clips are visible when you look inside. My only other suggestion is to keep a list on the outside of the freezer where you can write down any leftovers when you add them, so you’ll know at a glance what is available. Cross it off when you take it out.
Revolutionary! Thanks for this tip– you may have changed how I scoop litter (and store food!) forever!
Yay! Isn’t it great how something so small and easy can make such a big difference?
Wait but, surely you are using hot dog bun bags for cat litter? Not a skinny bread loaf bag which I would surely make a mess trying to put litter in?
I just recently starting putting bread bags in the plastic bag recycling and thought THAT was revolutionary. I had been clogging up the landfill this whole time.
Also, how do I get my husband to make muffins.
What I have gathered from this post & the comments is that I appear to buy FAR less bread than the average American.
We go through…perhaps…one bag of bread every two weeks? Maybe? And it still goes moldy a lot of times?
Also, I admire previous commenter’s dedication to labeling and organization. I don’t think I have the level of give-a-crap and I wish I did.
I would like to edit my previous reply with the appropriate apostrophe placement. If you could so kindly correct that in your brain for me? THX.
Not having a growing boy at home anymore, we eat next to no bread. We buy a loaf and turn around and throw basically the whole loaf out because it’s moldy. As for milk? We’ve just given it up completely.
Almost all our household bread consumption is child-related. Six 2-slice sandwiches x 5 days/week = 60 slices of bread per school week. They also usually eat sandwiches on the weekends, and it’s common for the two teenagers to make themselves a snack of 1-2 sandwiches in the evening.
My kids make faces when I do sandwiches for lunch with bread. They’re fine with wraps, sandwiches on croissants or buns, and “deconstructed sandwiches” – i.e. cheese cubes, baby tomatoes, cucumber slices, and roll-ups of sandwich meat or meat sticks with a side of mini-croissant or crackers or whatever – but put some meat, cheese and lettuce between two slices of bread? The horror!
Although we don’t have pets or eat enough bread to save the bags; this is actually genius.
My husband makes all our bread (I know, right, it’s just his thing, like sports would be for someone else) and he uses those thin plastic bags you put the vegetables in at the produce section. He has a big plastic tub full of them, and he puts the loaves in them to keep fresh, and reuses them until they get a hole, then discards them.
I really like the tip of using food bags instead of ziploc bags. I’m so tired of how many bags we go through. What do you put your kids’ lunch sandwiches in for school?
For sandwiches I use plastic sandwich boxes. We have some Crayola ones I got on clearance one year, and also less babyish ones I found at Wallllmart (I think they were kept with other plastic food-storage containers rather than with school supplies): three-packs of clear boxes with translucent blue lids.
Honestly I don’t know why I never thought of this. I have probably been through six billion sandwich/snack bags. I’m going to Target tomorrow for these. Thank you!