A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I canned 50 jars of peach preserves. Yes, you might think we’re crazy, but we were celebrating the best Central Texas peach crop on 10 years, and wanted to be sure we were covered in the event of another peach drought. Plus, they make great Christmas gifts.
The downside to all that productivity was finding a place to store all the jars. We have a closet under our stairs, conveniently located in the laundry room where I can just “open and toss” when I’m in a hurry. Well, that small area had filled up with bags–shopping bags of all sizes from all kinds of stores, some from over 10 years ago, all in disarray. After two weeks of looking at the 50 jars on the countertop, the time arrived today to clean out the bags to make room for the preserves.
Sounds like drudgery, but it turned out to be quite a time for nostalgia and self-evaluation. What I found was
- a huge collection of White House Black Market bags, followed by Victoria’s Secret and Banana Republic (my style statements?)
- bags from a weekend trip with my daughters to Fredericksburg
- two Bloomingdale’s bags from a trip to New York City seven years ago
- one from The Broadmoor, where we spent Christmas in 1998
- a bag from Cozumel
- one from Hawaii
- a couple from Italy
- miscellaneous home decor store bags
- and even a few from the Harley Davidson store
My shopping bags reveal a very blessed life, and I am filled once again with memories of fun family trips to interesting places (that have great shopping opportunities, also!)
So I have neatly stacked most of the bags and put them back in the storage closet for now. I’m guessing that, if we ever move, those bags will go along with me, hopefully with those I collect over the next few years. Is there world record for shopping bags found in one woman’s closet?
What do your shopping bags reveal about your life?
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i use a combo of shea butter and aloe vera moisturizer. Works great. I use shea butter on my lips, around my eyes and nose (dry areas), My father swears by vasoline.
p.s. I dropped your name on Gina's post, Barb. ;)
Hi Susan,
I actually use reusable shopping bags. Most I got for free or a few I bought for my groceries. I don’t do much shopping in boutiques and have just recently started to travel. Except for the Shoppers’ Drug Mart reusable bag I bought on my first ever trip, as an ex-wife, to Vancouver in 2008, which I will probably never part with, I don’t collect shopping bags.
So why am I commenting on your post if I really don’t have anything interesting in the bag department? Well, your post did get me thinking of my kind of life. It is simple. I do have a few plastic bags which I use to clean out the cat litter box, to hold my refundable empty bottles once the recycling bag is full and I need to return them, and the garbage bags, which are bags from different local low cost stores.
A lot of the simple things in life let people have a view of who we are. I guess the way we see bags is one of them. We are so much alike, yet so different.
Maybe you can take a picture of your bags and save the momories that way. Because that is what your bags seem to symbolise for you. I can only imagine the souvenirs they brought back when you sorted them. All happy I hope.
anir