I Wash Out Baggies

by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger

Oh the stigma. I am a baggie washer. It is tough to admit this, as it plays into the whole stereotypical cheapskate persona. Only really cheap people wash out baggies, right? I mean how much can a baggie cost?

A friend of mine confessed that she would never stoop to washing baggies. "I tried once, and my mother-in-law was so shocked that she offered to buy me a year's supply of baggies so I wouldn't do it any more." I asked for her mother-in-law's number. I would gleefully welcome a year's supply of baggies.

With that, I do have to say that I don't wash out all baggies. I do have my standards after all. I don't wash out any that have been exposed to raw meat, for example, because it just isn't worth the health risk. I also don't wash out cheap inferior baggies or baggies that didn't originally come in a box of baggies that I purchased. For example, I don't wash out non-zippered bagggies, I don't wash out zippered baggies that were included in the packaging from something I purchased, and I don't wash out miscellaneous don't know where they came from baggies.

My ideal baggie for washing out is the heavy name brand freezer baggie. These are the most expensive to purchase, so they are like gold in my baggie world. To keep them from getting really messy, I'll often package freezer meals into cheaper baggies and then put the cheap baggies into the more expensive freezer bags. This keeps the food from getting freezer burned and allows me to easily reuse the freezer bags with a simple rinse.

I've discovered that one excuse that seems more politically correct, or at least makes you seem more normal when you are caught washing out baggies. It is the old green movement. You can mention the fact that, "Washing out baggies does save the environment you know."

Which side of the baggie controversy are you?

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Learn more about Mary Ann Romans

Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, online content manager, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania in the middle of the woods but close enough to Target and Home Depot.

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