Photo via flip & tumble

Back in the olden days, before everybody knew about saving the earth and reducing, reusing and recycling, my mom used to bring old grocery bags to the store, to load up her groceries, and her kids would whine. Why do we have to have used bags? No one else is doing anything weird like that! We're not hobos, mom, this is embarrassing. And she serenely ignored us as she unfolded the bags and opened them up and started packing. My mother was a recycling dynamo, ahead of her time, a pioneer and maybe a little bit of a hippie.

I like to think that I follow in her footsteps in all the important ways, including this one, but to be honest, I'd still be embarrassed to unfold old grocery bags at the register. Which is why those ugly reusable ones they sell at stores have been a godsend I've latched on to, but these reusable bags from flip & tumble are way better. They come in a stack of cute colors and contrasting straps, can carry 25 pounds and have got padded straps so those pounds don't kill you. Even nicer, they fold into a teeny tiny little ball when you're not using them. So you can cram it at the bottom of your purse or into your pocket, and look nothing at all like a hobo when you take them out.