Turns Out, We’re All Forgetting Our Grocery Bags

Last weekend, I opened the cabinet where my reusable grocery bags “live,” and by live, I mean multiply quietly until one day you wonder — when did I even get this many?
Canvas totes, nylon fold-ups, those cute market bags I swore I’d use every week… all staring back at me like they knew I’d been avoiding them.

Here’s the truth: I forget them. A lot. Sometimes I remember halfway through checkout, sometimes in the parking lot, and sometimes… not at all. And every time, I feel like I’m the only person failing at the easiest eco-friendly habit in the world. Who wants to live like this? Not me.

Then I stumbled on a Reddit thread asking if people actually use their reusable bags or just collect them — you know, exactly what I’m doing.

Some people are pros. They keep them in the trunk, hang them by the door, or stash tiny fold-up ones in every purse. A few have turned forgetting into a personal challenge: if they don’t have their bag, they carry everything in their arms just to “teach themselves a lesson.” One genius even uses a laundry basket in the car instead of bags at all.

But here’s the best part — a surprising number admitted they forget, too. They buy “just one more” every time. They end up with piles at home. They laugh about it. And suddenly, I didn’t feel so bad.

And it’s funny — while my cabinet is overflowing, there’s this cult status around certain bags. Trader Joe’s totes, for example, have become almost like collector’s items. My friend in the UK wanted one. My friend in Korea wanted one too. The exact design they asked for? Nearly impossible to find. Meanwhile, I’m here drowning in bags I forget to use. Which makes me wonder… if we’re piling up bags but never remembering them, is it really eco-friendly? Sometimes I think just taking the plastic bags and reusing them as trash can liners might be less wasteful in the end.

So instead of chasing perfection, I made a new rule: as soon as I unpack, the bags go straight by the door or back in the car. I’m not aiming for 100% success. If I remember more than I forget, that’s a win in my book.

Habits aren’t built by doing something flawlessly from day one — they’re built by messing up and still trying again. My reusable bags might not save the planet on their own, but they remind me that small progress matters.

Just remember — we’re all trying to be better. None of us are perfect. Even if you forget your bag sometimes, using it 70% of the time is still a whole lot better than never at all.

And if you ever see someone in the grocery parking lot loading groceries straight from the cart into the trunk, no bag in sight — it’s probably me, waving at you in solidarity.

PS: a few tricks I picked up from Reddit
One person keeps a tiny fold-up bag inside their wallet so they’re never caught without one.
Another swears by putting their purse in the car trunk so they have to open it when they park and see the bags waiting inside — though honestly, I’d probably forget to put my purse in there in the first place.
Someone else only shops at grocery stores that don’t offer any plastic bags at all, which is… bold.
And my personal favorite: the laundry basket trick. Roll the cart to your car, dump everything in, and carry it inside in one trip. No bag-washing required.

Not all of these will stick for me, but it’s nice to know the solutions can be just as playful as the problem. And that we’re all, in our own way, just trying to remember the bags.

From Penny
Founder of Tidalove 🌊