Do you throw away cereal bags, a.k.a dry food inner liners, the bags inside boxes in which foods such as breakfast cereals and crackers are packaged? Those are high-quality bags. No reason to throw them away after just one use. When the cereal is gone, rinse the bag and place it somewhere to dry, making sure it’s wide open. Next time you need a bag for food storage, you’ve got one. I use them for storing bakery goods that come packed in flimsy cellophane. (I’m looking at you, Costco muffins.)
If you want to re-use a cereal bag you need to do some work the first time you open the bag, which is this: You need to open it carefully, just breaking the seal at the top. I do this by grasping the bag on each side in the middle between the ends of the bag just below the seal and then I gently pull the seal apart from inside. This is a technique that needs to be taught to younger members of your household. In my house, if I don’t open them before my kids do, cereal bags usually look like they’ve been opened by bears during a campground raid.
If you try, you can find lots of ways to re-use plastic bags and other packaging, thus cutting down on the number of store-bought bags you use. Of course, grocery-store bags make good liners for small bathroom trash cans. The plastic that wraps a large pack of paper towels or toilet paper can also be fashioned into a liner for a small trash can.
