You just brought your groceries in and there on the floor is stack of those "nasty plasties". Do you just stuff them into your plastic lined kitchen trash or do you get creative--save the environment--make the world better for your children and your children's' children. O.K., O.K., a little heavy on the guilt here, but there are better things to do with plastic grocery sacks then add them to the landfill. Here are a few suggestions to get more use out of them.

Pooper Scoopers
· Take a bag on your dog's walk.
· Pick up whatever your dog left in your own yard.
· Use a sack for the scooped out remains of the litter box.
· Pull the birdcage liner out and curl directly into a grocery sack.
· Individually sack soiled diapers in your diaper pail. This cuts down significantly on odor.

Instant Portable Trashcans
· Take a few sacks in the diaper bag for soiled or wet diapers on the road. (Don't you just love changing a baby in the backseat of a car? You may want to split a grocery sack down the middle to lay the baby's bottom under it for a temporary disposable changing pad. Never get a plastic sack around the baby's head.)
· As you vacuum a room, tie a grocery sack to your belt loop. As you run around picking up those things that would clog your vacuum stick them in the sack.
· Keep a supply in the garage for messes.
· Keep a supply in your glove compartment or under the passenger seat of your car to quickly dump out trash that you or your kids carry into the car.

Collectors
· Take a sack to the library to help carry books in and out.
· Use a sack to harvest your garden vegetables.
· Take a sack to carnivals and use it to collect all of the prizes your kids win.
· Send it in your child's bag to school or preschool to collect your child's soiled clothes.
· Put sacks on hangars and use as organizers for things like greeting cards, sewing supplies, toys, or anything else underfoot!
( Children don't count in this instance)

Household Uses
· Use them to line small trashcans.
· I hang a sack from a clothespin in the laundry for dryer lint and the trash I find in pockets. This keeps this stuff up and out of little hands.
· Split the bags and cover the table for your kid's arts and crafts projects.
· Use them as packing supplies when shipping breakables.
· Put them around your windows to cut the drafts in winter. (Don't do this if you have small children who would remove and play with the sacks.)
· I always leave my holiday turkey in the sack and then put it in the refrigerator to thaw. The sack collects the mess, not the refrigerator.
· Use the sacks to stuff balloon curtains.
· Put a sack around a drippy casserole you are transporting in the car

. Last but not least...take it back to the store and reuse it on your next grocery order.

©Teresa Higginbotham 2000

Teresa Higginbotham is a freelance writer and homeschooling mom from Texas. She writes articles about frugal living, parenting, organization and family humor/inspiration. Her site "Tightwad Tess" is at http://www.geocities.com/heartland/creek/6123.