Well, Happy New Year, everyone. It’s that time again. 2016. Over three hundred glorious (right?) days ahead of us. I’m sure there will be some amazing, and some terrifying, things lurking, ahemm, waiting for us this year, but I know that it’s all going to be okay in the end. Anyway, before I get too sappy, let me get into talking about all those custom shipping bags you got over the holiday season, and how you can wind up using them for everyday projects, problems, and everything in between.

Consider all of those bags from the grocery store that you’ve been stashing to the side. How many trips did you take because you forgot one stinking thing for the recipe and twenty plus ticking time bombs are counting on you to feed them before they explode? All over each other, and your house… So, in your haste, you tossed all those grocery bags, plastic and paper alike, onto the back porch. Well, now I will tell you a use for them. A friend of mine keeps a little bin on her kitchen counter, and she lines it with one of those plastic grocery bags, and she puts her compostable stuff in there: egg shells, chicken pieces, leftovers… She takes it out every day so that the big garbage can doesn’t start stinking before it’s even halfway full.

Remember how you were trying to light the annual, celebratory bonfire, and you were having a really hard time doing it? All of those nieces and nephews staring at you, their roasting sticks at the ready, silent looks of passive aggressive embarrassment and condemnation on their faces. You tried to tell them that it had just rained, but the snicker triggered something in your brain and you spent the next hour rubbing two sticks together until you finally got a blaze.

Well, remember the paper grocery bags (which also count as custom shipping bags)? If you had stuffed them with leaves you could have used them as a giant sack of tinder and put all those crazy kids to shame. The awe that would have been shining in their eyes, with the reflection of a massive blaze that roasted many, many marshmallows that night…

There’s more to say about custom shipping bags, and how they can be used for the everyday. Join me in part two to pick up some other great ideas!