Tausi Insider

Photo : daizuoxin ( Shutterstock ) Black Friday is coming and with it, you may end up with more shopping bags than usual . And d epending on where you live, where you shop, and how prepared you are in advance, there’s possibly to be some plastic among them. If you find yourself with an abundant supply, h ere are some easy ways to reuse them— besides just lining your small trash cans or picking up the dog’s poop (although those are fine, too). Put some in your suitcase for traveling Plastic bags come in handy on trips. In a pinch, you can use them instead of cling wrap to seal your bottles before a flight, for instance. You should also always have a few in your suitcase to help you separate shoes from your clothes and dirty clothes from clean ones throughout your trip and especially to keep wet stuff, like swimsuits, away from your other goods. To that end, toss a few in the beach bag you use for quick summer outings, too. Put some in your car for road emergencies If a kid ha...

Photo : namaki ( Shutterstock ) Single-use plastic is a plague upon the Earth that the more environmentally conscious among us try in vain to avoid. No matter how careful you are to bring your re useable tote and buy stuff in recyclable and compostable packaging, eventually y ou’ll need to go to the grocery store for produce, which means you’ll become responsible for at least one more single-use plastic bag. There are plenty of ways to reuse plastic bags outside the kitchen , but plastic is annoyingly useful for certain kinds of food storage, and that’s mostly what I keep mine around for. Usually, reusing a bag is as simple as shaking it out and stuffing it in the “extra bags” drawer with its siblings, but every now and then, I run into a situation that requires actual cleaning. Washing and drying plastic bags might sound like a hassle, but with the right technique, it’s pretty simple—and an excellent way to get as much use out of them as possible. Here’s how to do it. How to cl...