“Paper or plastic?”

“DANGIT, I left my reusable bags in the car. Plastic is fine.”

Sound familiar? It’s hard enough to remember to take your reusable grocery bags to the store with you, but then getting them INTO the store is a whole other issue for me. Oddly enough, the reusable bags don’t do much to help the planet when they are jammed in a kitchen cabinet or sitting in the back seat of the car.

I have finally found a solution to this “reusable grocery bag amnesia” that I suffer from, and since I know I can’t be the only one, I thought I would share my trick! All you have to do is keep your bags in your car, and your iPhone will do the rest. Here’s how:

1. On your iPhone go to “contacts” and enter your most frequented grocery store as a new contact. The phone number is not necessary, just make sure you have the address right.

2. Once that is saved, click on the “reminders” icon. 

3. Click the plus sign in the top right hand corner to create a new reminder. Type “bring in grocery bags” or “stop killing sea turtles” or “don’t forget your grocery bags you idiot.” Your choice. Hit “return” and your reminder will be saved. 

4. Click on the reminder you just made and you will see a button that says “remind me.” Click it. 

5. Change the “at location” option to “on.”  When a new menu pulls up, click “current location.” You want to change that to your grocery store’s address from your contact list. You can do this by clicking “choose address” after clicking “current location.” 

6. Once you have selected your grocery store’s address, click “remind me” in the top left hand corner to go back to the previous screen. Now click “when I arrive” from the menu.

7. Click “done” in the top right hand corner, and viola! You are finished. 

Now every time you pull into your grocery store’s parking lot your phone alarm will sound, reminding you to bring your reusable bags INTO the store with you. Since programming this into my phone I have gone to the grocery store twice and my phone alarm has gone off as soon as I pulled into my parking spot. Amazing. 

As long as you don’t delete the reminder, it will always be active and will help you finally get some use out of your reusable grocery bags. It’s great for both the planet and your conscience.