Wednesday, June 4, 2008

What's in your tote?

Have you been to Ikea lately? If you have you will know that not only are the chicken fingers in the restaurant delicious, but also that they are now charging 5 cents per plastic bag at checkout.
Or maybe you live in San Francisco and have to pay
17 cents per bag at your grocery store.
One by one, individual stores and whole cities are taking action on the bag dispute. That's why it's more important than ever for us crafty people to come up with cool reusable alternatives!
If you type "grocery bag" into Etsy at any given time, you are going to find about 2000 or so matches. How do you find the best reusable bag for you??? Not everyone is looking for the same things, but these are some of the features I look for:
1. The bag is durable/washable
This Etsy seller, cipolla, has made a tote with one of my favorite features, it is LINED. This means it's really strong and you can haul around your heavy groceries in it!
2. The bag is large
This amazing Etsy seller, QwertyO, makes a tote with a very important feature...it's LARGE. It's wonderful to have a reusable bag but if you are stuck at the checkout and realize that only a few things fit into it, and the rest are shoved into paper/plastic, then why the bother? This one is awesome
and huge, AND this seller makes a smaller for for the kids to like to emulate mom and dad. (p.s. her daughter also makes these sweet little bags for produce - replace those ziplocks!)
3. The bag is easily portable
Are you the type of person who already has a bunch of reusable totes but always forgets them at home? Me too! No one wants to have to remember to put a bunch of bags in our bag! That's why this tote is so awesome. This Etsy seller
, Made By Molly, did something simple and brilliant, she made her tote COMPACT. Plus, it's adorable. Look at the little button!
4. The bag is itself made form recycled/upcycled materials
I love two birds with one stone! This Etsy seller, zJayne, made a tote that is clever and simple. They are totally functional AND they are made out of old shirts. Brilliant! Score BIG TIME for the upcyclers!!!!

5. The bag is attractive
To me, this is a big one. If you don't like the way that the bag looks, you will be less likely to use it! Who says that functional things can't also look cool? This Etsy seller, effie handmade, makes a BEAUTIFUL tote. The colors are beautiful and the pattern is simple. And there are BAZILLIONS of totes out there, so you are sure to find one that suits you (I like anything orange!). Or better yet, make one yourself :o)

3 comments:

Molly Wiecks said...

I agree on all points! Thanks for featuring me. :)

Jane Pierce aka zJayne said...

What a blog! Clean, crisp, a pleasure! These are all so SUPER!

With a billion plastic bags+ a day made, there's so much room for so many alternative choices, these are wonderful!

Thanks for including me!~
~zJayne
www.zJayne.etsy.com

SToNZ said...

Awesome post!!!

I can vouch for zjayne's t-shirt bags. They are so great-everyone asks me where I got mine!!

Gorgeous blog too-

SToNZ
www.stonz.etsy.com