Last month I took part in the February Photo Challenge and one day the topic was "closet". Being true to the challenge, I took this photo:
It's the shelf that I want to focus on so here is the just the shelf:
The shelf was just covered with stuff and I really didn't like the looks of it so I went to work cleaning it out. I took out my 3 big bags and set them on the floor. The bags are marked "TOSS", "KEEP" and "GIVE". Within a few minutes all 3 bags were filled. The TOSS bag gets emptied right away in the out going trash and the bag itself goes back in storage. The GIVE gets emptied into my car and when I head out it gets dropped off at Family Outfitters where it will once again finds a good home and gets used for its purpose. The KEEP goes back on the shelf but I just didn't want to re-stack the shelf so here is what I did.
I went into the bag of bags and dug out those bags that came from stores where the store name and logo are on them. There is something about giving a gift in a Sears bag that takes away from the gift, but the bag I still have (I am Scottish remember). I pulled out a Sears bag, 2 Verizon bags, a Hallmark bag and a few others. Took the items that I wanted to keep and put them in the bags.
Inside them are my visors, purses and other items that that I will use this summer and the shelf is clean, neat and better yet, no cost to me.
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| Just some of my visors inside the bag |
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| Another bag holds purses |
The end result is a clean shelf in the now clean closet. Just wait till all those sweaters and sweatshirts get put away!!!Oh Yeah!
How about you, do you find a new use for those store bags?
What a great idea! I love frugal organization.
ReplyDeleteI love those bags ... I save them all, thinking that they're going to be good for something. But they get tucked away and forgotten. You've given me food for thought ... time to get them out and put them to good use. ;-)
ReplyDeleteGreat idea! Most of my bags are used to hold bits and pieces for paper recycle. When you live with a crafty child you have plenty of paper bits to recycle.
ReplyDeleteI save the prettiest big bags with handles for packing up Christmas gifts to bring to my sister's house for our family shindig. But I now have a great use for them during the rest of the year.
ReplyDeleteWe recently got curbside recycling in town, so no more schlepping miles to the transfer station with our recyclables - whoo hoo!
I use big paper shopping bags in our pantry to contain our recycling in the kitchen until I go out to the garage to put it all in our huge roll-out bin. I have to cut off any plastic handles because we don't recycle those or plastic bags.
This system keeps any wet soda cans and bottles from leaking inside the big curbside bin. That in turn would attract dirt and bugs.
And if I have to clean the bin (which I won't have to do often with this shopping bag method), I'd have to tip it over onto its side and crawl inside to scrub it out.That's not a job I want to do on a regular basis, especially if it can easily be avoided.
The top shelf looks so organized now. Way to go!
ReplyDeleteI love saving store shopping bags.