WFMW: Grocery Bag Holder

I am a huge fan of re-purposing everyday items! The idea I would like to share with you is one I just learned about recently, but I can't remember where I got it from. (I'm thinking it's from Woman's Day, but I'm not positive about that.)

When I go grocery shopping, I like to keep the plastic bags that they come in. I mostly use them as trash bags in our kitchen, but I also like to stuff them in packages to provide extra cushion and also to share vegetables with our neighbors during our growing season. For the last 3 years, I've designated a drawer in the kitchen to store my neatly-folded grocery bags, but no matter how neat and orderly I stacked them, that drawer was always in a state of disarray! The very second I would pull out a bag, the whole stack would become unfolded.

The idea that I just learned is that you can take an empty kleenex box (I use the cube-shaped ones and they work really well) and stuff them with grocery bags. I admit, I was a little skeptical at first. I didn't think this would be the solution I was hoping for, but you'd be surprised how many grocery bags will fit in one of those boxes. I fold each bag as flat as it will go and shove it inside the box and I was able to fit probably close to 100 or more bags in easily! And when I want to pull one out, I'm able to get just the one instead of a whole bunch of followers!

So that's my tip. And the best part is that I got a kitchen drawer back in the process - YAY! More storage space in the kitchen is what works for me!

Fall Clean-Up...Continued

OK - I think Jason and I have finally finished getting our gardens and yards cleaned up in preparation of the winter season. Here are the final things we have crossed off our list:

Spring Bulbs We finally planted our spring bulbs! Experts say you should do this prior to the first severe freeze. We actually didn't get around to planting them until after our first hard freeze. But since then, the weather has warmed up tremendously (we went from 40s to 80s) so I think we should be okay. I guess we'll find out in March/April. We definitely don't recommend waiting so long to get your bulbs planted - I just hate pulling out perfectly good marigolds, when I can wait another week or two for them to stop blooming.

Mulch We added a generous layer of mulch around all of our trees (especially the young ones) and also to my butterfly garden, where I have a lot of perennials planted. This is definitely something you want to do if you live in a region where there is harsh winter weather. One thing I've learned, is when mulching trees, be sure to leave a small ring around the base of the trunk to prevent mold and other diseases.

Vegetable Garden Jason finally put his vegetable garden to bed, yesterday! The hard freeze killed his tomato and pepper plants (thankfully he pulled all of the fruit off the day before) and he's removed all plants and covered the garden with fallen leaves.

Yard Art We pulled out all of our yard art, hosed them off and have stored them away until spring. Also, we put a polycrylic coating over our garden center, which we were told would weatherproof it during the winter. (We also sprayed a polycrylic coating on all of our yard art earlier in the year, and they still look as good as the day we bought them!)

Anyway, those are just a few things that we've done to help prepare for the fast-approaching winter season. What tasks do you hope to accomplish to keep your yards ready for the cold weather? Leave a comment!