T-shirt bags and more

We have lots of t-shirts around here. This last summer I donated a large stack to Salvation Army and still our closets seem to be overflowing with T-shirts. Weeks after I donated many of my T-shirts I ran across this website.

Now maybe you have seen this idea before. But to me the idea of turning my old t-shirts into shopping bags was genius. I was wanting a cheap way to have more cloth bags. And this was it. Luckily for me we still had tons of t-shirts around to try it out. It was so easy. I made a bunch for my brother for Christmas. My mom was so impressed she has been asking me to make her some. Unfortunately I have been working on other things.

The one thing about making these bags is that I had a ton of sleeves left over. I didn't just want to toss them out. So my original thought was to sew them together into squares to use for family cloth. If you haven't heard of this idea it is when you use cloth wipes rather than toilet paper. Well I decided it would take too much energy to actually sew them. Instead I cut of any seams and just used them as is. No sewing. They work great. I keep a basket beside my toilet for the clean wipes and an old ice cream bucket with water and BacOut on the floor with the lid on. I then throw them in the diaper wash every two days. Now I understand that for many family cloth sounds extreme. When I first heard of it I thought it was alittle crazy. But I cloth diaper my children. Why won't I consider using cloth wipes myself? And by using my t-shirt sleeves it didn't cost my anything to make myself wipes.

The other thing I am doing with the t-shirt sleeves is separate them into colored and white. The color I am using for family cloth wipes. The white I'm going to use for handkerchiefs. I haven't bought tissues for months. But that doesn't mean we don't use tissues. Rather we have just used toilet paper for tissues. As the cold season hit us I started realizing how wasteful this was. Luckily we did have a handful of large handkerchiefs that my husband used a bandannas for tennis. Now he has two or three he really like and let me have the rest to use for the kids noses. Unfortunately when both boys and myself where fighting head colds the few handkerchiefs we had just didn't seem enough. So my idea is that the white sleeves will be perfect once (or twice) use handkerchiefs and there are enough of them that even if I wash every other day I should have enough. Of course we haven't really had runny noses to test this. So we'll see.

I'm sure there are lots of other ideas for old t-shirts. These are just what I'm doing right now.

Societies need of bags

So twice in the last 24 hours I've ran into issues concerning plastic bags at supermarkets. Both happened at Walmart, and yes I'm almost ashamed to say I did shop at Walmart. I'll continue to claim that in our little town it is sometimes the only option without driving 30 mins to the nearest big city. Or at least the only option my budget can afford. I do try to avoid shopping there. Anyway, last night I took my own bags with me. I get up to the cashier, pull out my bags and say that she doesn't need to bother with a plastic bag because I brought my own. The cashier takes my bag and begins fumbling with it. I thought she was trying to open it to be ready for my items. But she was looking for a tag!! Here is the thing. These bags are made out of a t-shirt. Furthermore they do not look like something you would find at Walmart! When she finally looks at me and states, "They don't have a tag?" I annoyingly respond, "Their my bags. I brought them. This is my stuff for checkout." I wanted to say "If I was buying bags from you they would have Walmart on them." So I go home thinking that was the end of it. Well the sock I bought had a hole, so I needed to return them. Today I took them in for exchange. As the woman at customer service started to pull out a bag for the new pair I tell politely tell her I don't need a bag. Her response was "Well I have to bag it, the employees at the door look for bags. If you don't have one you have to show them a receipt." I was furious. I took the bag and quickly deposited it in the recycling bin for plastic bags and walked out. I didn't even get stopped to check for a receipt. What made me mad was that she gave me a receipt. I don't care if I have to show it on the way out. I don't want the bag. One item I can carry in my hand. Even with two kids in tow. I keep thinking with the popularity of cloth bags employees will be more receptive to people opting out of plastic bags. But so far all I get is annoyance on their part. I feel that I'm actually doing the company a favor. The more people use cloth the less the company has to pay for plastic bags. It's good for everyone. Society need to kick this habit of plastic bags. While most of us who use cloth bags will continue to use cloth even if it's inconvenient and met with resistance, other will never us cloth because of societies resistance to the change. Personally, I feel that companies should start charging a small fee for bags. Dillons (know as Kroger in other states) give you 5 cents for every bag you bring. What if they just start charging 5 cents for every bag you use of theirs. Maybe then we could stop using and thus stop producing so many darn plastic (and paper for that matter) bags. My own two cents. :)