Day 65: Cleaning Reusable Shopping Bags (success, with advice).

Pinterest pin and website link.

If you're like me, you have a ton of reusable bags that you typically forget to use at the grocery store -- they're just taking up space in the trunk of my car, my pantry and my garage!  Our grocery stores no longer provide shopping bags, so I'm determined to get these out and use them consistently.

The problem is that even without much use, the inside of the bags look like this, as I've never cleaned them.  Gross. 

I followed the instructions in this pin, and machine washed and dried all the cloth bags (pictured below on the left).  

Then, I washed the plastic-lined bags (pictured above on the right) with hot water and dish soap, and hung them to dry above the kids' bathroom tub.

Finally, I mixed up the Reusable Shopping Bag Disinfectant (I chose 1 cup of vinegar + 8 drops of tea tree oil), sprayed it on the bags I took to the grocery store yesterday afternoon, and hung the bags over our kitchen chairs to dry.  I have to admit this made our house smell horribly, and the scent didn't dissipate until this morning.  Since I feel like this mixture is going to help keep the bags cleaner between washings, I've now set up a little station in the garage with a spray bottle of the mixture and a place to hang the bags until they dry.  I don't care if our garage is smelly!

Verdict: SUCCESS!