My son Alex put the
bag of leftovers from the restaurant on the counter. “Do you want
me to put these in the fridge?”
“You can put mine
in, thanks.” I tossed my jacket on the chair.
My husband Steven
took his container out of the bag. “I think I'm going to finish
mine now.” he opened the silverware drawer and pulled out a fork.
Alex took the other
two containers out of the bag and put them in the fridge. Then
grabbed the bag they'd come in and was about to ball it up when I
cried out. “Don't throw that away! It's a perfectly good bag. I can
use that!”
Alex looked over at
Steven and just shook his head as he handed me the bag. I very gently
folded it up and placed it on the counter. “I'll put that with the
other ones when I go to the laundry room.
Steven looked over
at me. “Okay, I get reusing the gift bags but come on.” he looked
over at the plain white bag I'd just put on the counter. “What are
you going to use that for?”
“For the same
thing we just used it for!” I picked it up afraid that one of them
was going to toss it when I wasn't looking. “What if we have guests
over for dinner and we want to send home some leftovers?” I held up
the bag. “This is perfect!” I tucked it under my arm. “It's
certainly better than a plastic grocery bag.”
Steven looked over
at Alex who shrugged his shoulders. “Hey, it's a bag. If it makes
her happy.”
I smiled at him.
“It does make me happy.”
Alex leaned against
the counter. “Okay, I get the gift bags and the plain bags but what
do you do with the store bags you're always saving? I never see you
using them.”
“Are you
kidding?” I shook my head in disbelief. “I'm never using them
again. I'm just keeping them.”
Alex looked
confused. “What?”
“Look, I'm not
saving just any store bags.” I sighed. “That would be silly. But
when you get a bag from Tiffany's or say Louis Vuitton, the shopping
bag is just as important as what you purchased!”
Steven eyes
widened. “You bought a Louis Vuitton bag?”
I sighed again.
“No, I'm still hoping to get one of those. I was just giving you an
example.”
I watched as Steven
sighed with relief. He got up from the table and put his fork in the
dishwasher.
“When I travel
and buy something from a cute little shop and they have a really nice
shopping bag I keep those too because...” I shrugged my shoulders.
“I don't know, I just like them!”
“So you just keep
them?” Alex still looked confused.
“It's called
collecting.” I explained to him.
“Some people call
it hoarding.” Steven said in a low tone as he passed Alex to throw
the plastic container in the trash.
“Wait!” I
cried as he opened the trash bin. “We can reuse that!”
Steven looked down
at the plastic container he held in his hand. “Are you serious?”
“Very.” I took
it out of his hand and put it in the top rack of the dishwasher.
“It's the perfect size to freeze extra sauce in!” I looked over
at Alex. “When you're finished with your leftovers don't forget to
put your container in the dishwasher too.”
Alex just nodded
and looked over at Steven.
“Hey, you two
should appreciate my recycling skills.” I leaned back against the
counter and crossed my arms. “With all the money I'm saving on gift
bags and containers maybe some day I'll get that Louis Vuitton!”
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